THS Articles

The Importance of Uptime

By Tania Henvey

All Web hosting providers brag about their uptime. They have to. The importance of a Web site to companies of all sizes is increasing by the minute, and when a Web site goes down, it can mean big losses. No excuse is acceptable. In a market that made about US$5.5 billion in 2002, and was expected to grow by another $1 billion in 2003, the competition can be fierce.

But what happens to a company that experiences frequent downtime, after relying on their hosting provider to keep the site up and running? With e-business becoming one of the fastest growing markets in the industry, a Web hosting provider that cannot live up to its promises can spell trouble for businesses of all sizes.

The Web Site
When companies are looking for a hosting supplier, it is important that needs and requirements are closely matched. Although one provider may be costing more money, if it has more of the functionality that a site requires then it is clearly the better choice.

"If the site is down, even for a few moments, our phone begins to ring. The client-services department is over-run with people trying to log on to access our daily content updates, join our Web meetings and get information on the program we run. For every moment our site is down, we are losing some of the respect and loyalty from our clients."

Jody A., who works for an event-management company, knows what downtime can mean. Although a 99.5 per cent uptime guarantee represents about 7.2 minutes per day (or 3.6 hours per month) of "acceptable" downtime, this can even mean the difference between signing a big deal, or looking like a company that is just getting off the ground.

"Our Web site is the key to our business model," explains Jody, who doesn't want her last name used in case her current hosting provider is exposed. "It's not just a place to post our contact information. Clients log on to our site every day. If the site is down, even for a few moments, our phone begins to ring. The client-services department is over-run with people trying to log on to access our daily content updates, join our Web meetings and get information on the program we run. For every moment our site is down, we are losing some of the respect and loyalty from our clients."

From January to April, the company's Web site was down five times. The shortest instance lasted 10 minutes, while the longest lasted five hours. Three of these times, the site was completely offline, and no one had access. The other instances meant that the content database was disconnected from the main site.

"The site's page design was online, but none of the content would load. Our content-rich site was nothing more than pretty pages without the databases," she explained. Each time the site went down, there had been no warning that it was to take place. And each and every time, it was nearly impossible to get in touch with someone at the Web hosting service provider. Well, almost.

"At first we tried calling customer service, but we were always forwarded to voice mail. The only way to get an actual person on the phone was to call sales and have them find a customer service person for them," said Jody. "Someone always answered the sales phone... It is very obvious to us that once a client signs up for service, that is where the pleasantries in their service ends."