Avoid barking up the wrong Cloud! Discover4 crucial features you need to look for in your cloud provider for future-proof, hassle free hosting.
Why choosing a Good Cloud Hosting Plan is Vital for your Business
Choosing the right cloud hosting plan could be one of the most important decisions you make for your business and its online presence, but many companies don’t spend enough time weighing up the pros and cons of each package.
It’s easy to base your final decision on obvious criteria, but if you fall into this common trap and don’t consider a wider range of factors, you could live to regret it later. If you’re not getting what you need from your hosting package, you may even need to move hosts further down the line, which is a nightmare in itself!
Read on to discover how you canlook beyond the surface of a hosting package and pick the right cloud hosting provider for your website and your business – first time!
4 factors YOU MUST consider for affordable, future-proof hosting
1. Specialisms and Experience
Web hosting companies do not offer a ‘one size fits all’ model for all of its customers. Many providersfocus on servicing a particular niche to provide a better service to a certain segment of the market. This is an important concept to take on board, as a hosting company can be limited by its resources and knowledge if it’s geared up to service a specialist type of customer. Have an ecommerce store? Try find a hosting company that can cater for the demands of the ecommerce technologies you use (like Shopify or Magento). Starting a blog? Find hosting providers that other bloggers are using and recommending. Don’t be afraid of doing a little research and be fussy – you’re sure to find a good specialist provider pretty quickly.
2. Technical Abilities and Limitations
If you have a website that’s rich in multi-media or like to host a lot of content online, do you know if your host is up for the job? The packages at the cheaper end of the hosting spectrum won’t offer theprocessing power, storage facilities and/or scalability to handle the demands of a larger, more complex website.
Speed and efficiency are important for your customer’s browsing experience and overall satisfaction with the website, as well as ticking the boxes when it comes to on-site search engine optimisation. To ensure your site won’t be lagging behind the competition, find out as much as you can about a host’s technical capabilities. Ask about storage space, bandwidth allowances, scalability and support for different types of media. Many hosting sites offer packages that can give you more of what you need in terms of hardware, so be sure to check the details before you commit to anything.
3. Emergency Procedures and Backup Services
When disaster strikes, it could either be an easy road to recovery or a debilitating roadblock for your company. Don’t make it the latter. Ensure your hosting company has a plan in place for various different scenarios. For example, if a server fails, how will the provider keep your data safe? How long will it take to recover your website? How often is your data backed up? If a hosting company is light on the details about this particular aspect of their service on their website, phone up and ask a representative directly. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
4. Security
The internet is full of malice, and there are plenty of people out there who are ready and waiting to exploit your website and services. It’ll be a great relief if you know that your hosting company is doing everything it can to protect you from them. Make sure your hosting company implements good practices for web security – at the very least, the provider needs to encourage the use of strong passwords, do its best to block suspicious users, and enablesecure methods of logging into your account.
If you don’t take the time to find out as much as you can about a potential cloud hosting provider, you may realise all too late that you’ve committed to a package that doesn’t suit your company or your needs. By following the guidelines above, researching your provider thoroughly, and eventually choosing the right cloud host for your needs, you’ll save yourself time, money and a headache or two in the long run!
