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Hosting Industry's Dirty SecretsThe web hosting industry has a several dirty little secrets that we think you should be aware of. We feel you deserve to be able to make an educated choice among hosting companies. Most often, the average shopper will compare the features of one hosting company against another. And the winner is often the company with the biggest numbers at the lowest price. The loser in this situation is most often the customer. Mistake #1: Buying by the numbersThe most common mistake people make when selecting a hosting company is that they don't go any further than to compare the features offered by the prospective hosting services. Bigger is most definately not always better and neither is cheaper. We're going to show you the right way to compare hosts, the secret gambles hosts make, the mistakes people make when buying hosting services, and some of the marketing tricks hosts use to attract clients. The Right Way To Shop For A Hosting Company Industry Secret #1: Overselling The ServerHere's some of the secrets that you probably wouldn't know unless you owned a hosting company. Most clients don't use anywhere close to the amount of disk space and bandwidth allocated to their account. Most of the clients on our servers use less than 5 Megabytes of disk space. To capitalize on this fact, hosting companies offer packages with 50, 100, or 500 megabytes of disk space in spite of the fact that if they ever sold the amount of space they're offering they'd need so many servers that they'd never make a profit. This seldom happens and is a good gamble. If you've ever been bumped from an airline flight or a hotel room you've come to realize that they make a calculated risk and oversell their reservations. Some web hosting companies do the same thing. Overselling their server in hopes that they'll never have to account for this strategy. The sizes of our hosting packages are gauged in accordance with realistic standards that allow us to make a profit and secure the future of being able to serve your hosting needs for many years to come. We’re proud of the fact that we use relatively small hard drives on our servers (9 - 18 Gigs.). This self-imposed limit is part of our business strategy. It forces us to limit the amount of clients on a given server and thus optimizes the service provided to each client. Although servers with similar processors and memory could manage a lot more clients than our limit, this limit makes sure that the server is working at optimal speed to provide the best service for each client. When one server has reached the limit, we begin adding new clients to an entirely new server. Wouldn’t you rather have your site on a server that spends a lot of the day waiting to serve up web pages than one that is overburdened with requests? Please indulge me as I tell you another metaphorical story. Think of the data lines coming out of a server as a highway of data and the amount of traffic lanes being the bandwidth capacity to carry your data to the Internet. With that in mind, ask yourself if you want to share the highway with a convoy of trucks during rush our. Or worse, what if the highway for all the traffic coming and going from Los Angeles had only two lanes? Bandwidth is the amount of data on the network coming in and going out of a server. Many hosting companies tell you that you can have unlimited bandwidth knowing full well that they have a very limited amount of bandwidth to offer. Frankly, nothing is unlimited. We have an extremely fast and broad connection to the internet backbone using three large communications providers. Our hosting packages offer generous, yet realistic amount of bandwidth for our clients. For clients who need more than their allotted share of bandwidth we provide it on an as needed basis. Unlike many hosts who have one contact with the Internet backbone, we have three redundant connections using three different communications providers. Many hosts rely on only one connection. If that one should fail, you’re down until it’s repaired. It should be pointed out that hosting companies rely on phone companies to provide the backbone connection. How long did it take the last time you wanted your phone company to repair anything? With redundancy to fall back on, we’re up and running all the time even if one or two of connections should go down. Knowing the above information, where do you want your web site? There's another gamble played by many hosting companies that if odds weren't in their favor they would be out of business. That gamble is that when people are reviewing their services they never bother to check into and test the support department. All too often it is after they sign up when they send in their first support email or first call to tech support that they realize what they’ve bought into. How to test the service before you buy It's really not possible for any company to answer the phone with a live person every time you call, but you should never get a busy signal or no answer. Leave a message and wait. You should expect an answer within a reasonable amount of time. Depending on the time of the call you should get a reply within hours if not minutes. The same applies to email requests for support. How long does it take to get a reply? Even if the answer is that the tech has to do a little research to find the answer. Just so you're not left hanging. Before you sign on the dotted line, test the services they claim to offer. Contact their support tech(s), not the sales department. These are the people you'll be hoping to get a hold of after you open an account. The sales rep isn't going to be much help when you have technical questions. Try playing “Test the tech.” You might ask a question that leaves an open end for them to expound on. Something a little out of the realm of a tech support persons job. The question, "Can you tell me about your least expensive hosting package?" would be fine for a sales person but not a tech, which is exactly why you should ask. If the reply comes with a short reply or a link to a page on their site this might be a red flag. It is indicative of busy techs, not concerned about actually helping, only getting out quick replies. They should take the initiative to take advantage of this request as a marketing opportunity. You've giving them a golden opportunity to try to close a sale. You're a fish nibbling the hook; do they try to reel you in? Do the techs care? If they don't take the initiative now, what will it be like when you call for support? We offer our clients a toll free phone number and 24 hour support. Industry Secret #4: The NOCServers are fancy computers that are left on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They don't often get rebooted (unlike my home computer). They are only part of the infrastructure that serves up data to those who wish to view your web site. Hopefully, they're kept safe in and industrial strength and secure Network Operations Center (NOC). The environment for the server on which your web site resides plays a key roll in the reliability and security of your data. Many cheap hosts see nothing wrong with renting office space, or worse, their basement, to house their servers. They are getting by on a shoestring and your data is as vulnerable as the next lightning bolt, power outage, burglar, angry competitor, or curious child. You never really know who's manning the server. AceOfSpace.com has two autonomous locations linked together by an encrypted digital connection. One for the office and technical support staff and the other houses the servers and staff of network experts who man the NOC (Network Operations Center). The infrastructure of the multi-million dollar NOC includes the building security, uninterruptible power back up and generators, network, communications lines, routers, air conditioning, spare servers and other supporting equipment. The NOC is alive with activity 24 hours a day operating and maintaining the integrity of your web site as well as thousands of other clients. The NOC is not open to the public. Admittance requires an ID or an escort. Other hosting companies would be challenged to boast of such a facility. Industry Secret #5: Telling the TruthAceOfSpace.com makes every effort to be honest and forthright with our clients. We want you to make educated decisions based on your needs, not our marketing. We’re here to help you find the best solution for your needs. We find that honesty and integrity is our best marketing tool. You can contact us at 866-855-5445 or contact use via email
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