We have all been hearing the hype about online business--proponents
declare that it's the way of the future; detractors
claim that it will never replace brick-and-mortar
business...which is reality?
The truth falls somewhere in the middle: Online business
will never replace brick-and-mortar, but an online
presence will be integral to the business model of
any successful business. Already, e-commerce revenues
are in the billions, and experiencing exponential
growth. Any business that wishes to be competitive
in this new marketplace--including your business--cannot
ignore the power of e-commerce.
Many of you have taken that first step in putting
your business online: You have done your research,
identified your brand, and chosen and registered a
domain name that speaks to your brand. That was the
easy part. If you haven't yet registered your domain
name, don't fret! You can easily do it at:
http://www.virtualis.com/vr/lschmeck/domain.html
After domain registration, what follows next may
be one of the most important decisions you make for
your e-business...finding the right hosting company.
This is as important to the quality of your business
as finding the right partner, and many people--even
experienced webmasters-- find the experience daunting.
I would like to share my hosting experience with you-perhaps
it will make your decision-making process a little
easier.
RELIABILITY
Reliability. Hosting isn't glamorous, but as you
know, it is the backbone of your web-based business.
That is why I refer to it as the "silent partner."
A good hosting company is dependable, with a steady
"up-time" track record. After all, what
good is a web site if it's down? A good hosting company
should operate like the electric company--every day
you wake up, it's there, working. However, even the
most reliable companies need to periodically take
the system down for maintenance. Your hosting company
should inform its customers in advance, and perform
that maintenance at off-peak hours--so as not to unduly
burden your web business.
The next things to look for I call the "Four
S's:" Service, Software, Support, and Space.
SERVICE
An extremely important (and often overlooked) factor
is Service. Unfortunately, many hosting companies
end their relationship with you the moment the server
sale is made. This leaves unanswered the crucial question,
"Okay, I've got a server--now what?" This
is critical when you consider that some companies
are so controlling that web masters are discouraged
from customizing and/or managing sites for their clients!
Other hosting companies give you space on a server,
but nothing more--you have to configure the server
and set up all the back-end functionality manually!
As you have probably done this before, I don't need
to tell you what a time-consuming and laborious task
this is. My best service experience has been with
Virtualis. So much so that I've spent the last 2 years
with them! If you have questions, they are on-call
24/7 to answer them--they even have discussion boards
where fellow customers can offer advice and helpful
tips. Good service means providing a community of
resources throughout the life of your e-business.
SOFTWARE
In addition to Service, the ideal hosting solution
also provides easy-to-use web management tools. This
is the third "S:" Software. Although many
companies offer some of these features, my choice
for the hosting company with the best overall tool
suite is Virtualis. They offer tools that are easy
enough for a novice to quickly understand, and customizable
enough for a web master to optimize. In my experience,
one of the incredibly useful tools is the Virtualis
Email Manager.
The email manager has saved me a lot of time from
manual configuration. You can quickly and easily set
up email accounts, set up and remove POPs, create
auto-responders, create aliases, and more. Virtualis
has 21 tools in all--certainly more than I can cover
in this article! One of the best features of the Virtualis
hosting software suite is that it is totally web-based.
This allows for instant accessibility, no matter where
you are--certainly helpful if you travel frequently
or have customers covering a wide geographical area.
SUPPORT
Even for experienced web developers, a primary consideration
is Support. Questions always arise as you develop
sites and add features and/or functionality. The ideal
hosting company will be there to assist you along
the way, as well as talk you through any rough spots.
Since support issues are rarely constrained to regular
business hours, make sure that your chosen hosting
company offers support 24/7 (just in case), and offers
a variety of means to contact support, such as telephone,
email, and web-based access.
SPACE
Finally, "Space," refers to how much server
room you will need to store/manage your digital data.
How much space you need can be determined by how much
content you will post, how much data you will store,
and how much traffic you are expecting. Ideally, you
should find a company like Virtualis that offers both
shared and dedicated servers--that way, you can start
small, and expand as your online business grows.
Shared servers are simply servers that are shared
with other businesses. Most small to medium-sized
businesses prefer shared hosting because it is cost-effective
and can be scaled to the amount of space that your
business needs. Virtualis offers shared "Virtual"
servers that range from the VS Mini, at 30 MB of space,
all the way up to the VS Meta, which has 300MB of
disk space. Of course, if you require more space,
a dedicated server option is likely best for you.
Virtualis offers five different dedicated servers
that range in size from 4.2 gigs (the DEDA1) to the
huge DEDA5, which has 18 gigs of space.
I hope my experiences will aid you in your
hosting selection
process. You need to look at reliability, service,
software, support, and space. That way, you can wisely
choose the "silent partner," who will deliver
steady uptime, sophisticated time-saving tools, and
supreme customer support. After much personal research,
and after consulting my good friend, Jim Daniels,
I chose Virtualis. From getting my domain name to
finding the right hosting package for my needs, my
silent partner-Virtualis-made getting my business
online impossibly easy.
