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uptime guarantees with teeth
| Posted by Ron Harvey, 03-19-2002, 07:43 AM |
| Well, I just suffered through the second major outage with VO in 30 days!
...just a small web design shop with 15 client-sites but geez...all my 'good-will' is down the drain with my clients.
VO has had some bad luck with Eclipse but it really illustrates the problem with virtual hosting or single-box hosting for that matter. ...and yes...I know I could be using dedicated but I really don't want the sysadmin hassle...I like having someone else handle the box...just want RELIABILITY and PRIVATE LABEL and FLEXIBLE PLANS. Sorry to shout but ...
I'm in a situation where I use low-cost web hosting as a 'loss-leader'. It has worked very well to attract web design customers. ...trouble is that these outages are killing my 'good will' and that prices me big time.
I'm looking for advice here... I've tried lots of solutions over the years...Rapidsite, AIT, VO...you name it...been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
I'm not quite big enough for Hostopia...the people at VO are good but their reliability has now come into serious question...
...any ideas?
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| Posted by Jedito, 03-19-2002, 08:12 AM |
| Why don't you request to be moved to another server?
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| Posted by Ron Harvey, 03-19-2002, 08:22 AM |
| That's an idea...but I'm starting to doubt the whole 'single-box', virtual hosting model...at this level. ...too easy for neighboring sites to introduce mischief and bring the box down...or some such.
I can't believe that some enterprising outfit hasn't put together a reliable, cost-effective linux-cluster for the little guys.
Gotta go...be back in a couple hours. Thanks.
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| Posted by Hostbust, 03-19-2002, 09:32 AM |
| RS6000, 126,000 instances of linux on one 8 foot tall box
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| Posted by Ron Harvey, 03-19-2002, 11:19 AM |
| So, there's a private-label reseller program using RS6000. I'm interested...who?
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| Posted by Host Visions, 03-19-2002, 11:20 AM |
| Ron, I understand your frustration. We still have some accounts on Eclipse and have had the same issues as you. As frustrating as it is, you've picked one of the best around for starting your business. VO is excellent, great support, and if you email them your concerns I'm sure they'll address them. Just about anywhere you go, you're going to have issues from time to time. If a customer wants to pack up and move shop because you've hit a rough stretch of road, well, that's okay. Email VO, they'll take care of the situation monetarily, which you can then extend to your customers. If that doesn't do it, there isn't a whole lot you can do.
I do think you've chosen a good company to partner with.
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| Posted by Paul L., 03-19-2002, 12:37 PM |
| I understand your frustrations but I am not sure what we could have done to keep it from happening the sever was a brand new Dell. We went with Dell for its reliability but it just shows I don't care what you spend or how great a server you have anything can happen.
The power supply went out no big deal, that can happen we have backups just incase, but when the power supply went out it corrupted the file system and this is not a few min fix. To top it off yes it was on a server that had just went thru some downtime not long ago for hardware issues before moving all the customers to the new Dell for reliability.
We did learn a lesson and all new V servers will have dual power supply's but as said above anything can still happen and if you in this biz long enough your sure to see it happen.
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| Posted by Ron Harvey, 03-19-2002, 12:42 PM |
| Yes, thanks for the comment. You're right...there isn't a whole lot I can do. But I truly believe there is a whole lot more that VO could do.
What's needed here is FAULT TOLERANCE, REDUNDANCY & FAIL-OVER technology.
VO is an incubator for new businesses. The businesses start out in the virtual environment and graduate to dedicated or co-location. If VO were my business, I would make absolutely particular that the incubator stays plugged in 24/7/365 without fail!
I'm actually not in the web hosting business. The lifetime value of each of my clients is substantially greater then for a typical web hosting shop. The stakes are much higher for a design shop then for a hosting shop.
I'd love to stay with VO and probably will but refunds to my customers are not cutting it any more. They've got businesses to run and email to respond to, etc.
Reseller's are 'out there' doing the marketing and handling technical support. That is by far the most challenging part of this business and where the greatest amount of risk is.
Hosting providers are going to have to 'step up' and get the technology right or lose business. Simple.
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| Posted by Paul L., 03-19-2002, 01:14 PM |
| This all comes with a price and nothing and I mean nothing is fail proof. Yes we could do something like this but its not in our price model. If you want to pay $100 to $200 for a 100 meg virtual account then yes you may find the solution, but I dont know many people willing to pay the price to have that type of solution and the demand for it is very slim to say the least.
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| Posted by TopDog07, 03-19-2002, 01:35 PM |
| Well I have been with VO since the first of last year and yes there has been some outages and things, but they have always been quick to notify me of them and to resolve them quickly as possible. I have no bad things at all to say about them
I have already setup my reseller account with them, just finishing up some things before I start fully.
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| Posted by 4solutions, 03-19-2002, 02:08 PM |
| Ron,
I think you need to explain to your customers that they get what they pay for. It sounds like you are providing them hosting services at your cost or less in order to get your foot in the door so you can do their website design. That is a great marketing idea.
But the customer has to understand that, like all business decisions, web hosting is a cost/benefit decision.
I simply ask my customers if their ISP works for them 100% of the time. (I've never had anyone answer yes.) Then I tell them that they could probably have 100% uptime access to the internet if they had two separate DSL lines coming in to two different computers - one with an AOL account and one with an Earthlink account. They answer that it would be too expensive and that they would rather wait the usually few minutes or hours until their ISP is back online.
Then I explain that the same is true for web servers. If they want their website to be have a 100% uptime, then they are going to have to pay the probably $500 to $1,000 a month for two separate dedicated servers colocated in two different datacenters. And that's not even a guarantee.
I know customers like to complain. But most customers are also cheap. You need to emphasize to them that you are giving them the monthly hosting at basically a loss as a reward for using your expert design services.
Just my $0.02,
Keith
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