• 0

How can i choose a good web hosting company ?


Question

Hi all,

I believe this should place at Internet/Network... section, but i would appreciate if anyone here can really help on this case too, thanks a lot.

My team is going to transfer our company web server service from Malaysia to Singapore soon. And i'm going to select from a list of local web hosting companies in Singapore. But i would like to hear from all of your great suggestion and comment on how can i actually select a good web hosting company ? I would appreciate if you can help to provide the following suggestion in order to help me to choose a better web hosting company.

Background :

Some web based reporting tools with MS SQL 2003 Std Edition running on Windows 2003 server. Current web hosting company has 24/7 support with 99.95% network uptime. And they also provide a backup every 2days for the DB.

Concern :

1.) I would like to upgrade to Windows to 2008 server R2 and MS SQL 2008 R2 Std Edition.

1.1) Choosing MS SQL 2008 R2 Std Edition in the plan cost very high (if talking about per processor license), so i decided to go for a purchase a real MS SQL 2008 R2 Std Edition, any comment ?

1.2) I read about the pricing and license types via Microsoft for MS SQL 2008 R2 Std Edition but still don't really understand, would someone please help to explain which license type suite my case here ?

2.) Because our service connected globally and at least 5K users may be connecting to this web server to create, modify or delete records in the MS SQL DB, would the connection speed of 2Mp (dedicated) enough on this case ?

2.1) And can anyone suggest the most suitable CPU/RAM in order to manage these users request/action ?

3.) May i know what is the different between network uptime and server uptime ? Are the different thing ?

4.) I was told that for a web hosting network architecture should better be "Ring" topology, and that the hops between internet ISP/internet exchange should be keep as small as possible, someone please help to explain this ? How about the distance of the between the internet exchange/internet ISP hops ?

* As for number 4 above, i'm not sure if i have put them correctly, please correct me if i'm wrong, thanks a lot

** i tried www.robtex.com to get the hops betweeen internet ISP to the web hosting company

5.) Any other useful web base tools/resources that can help me to test on the web hosting company's speed and stability and performance ?

Summary :

In summary, please help to suggest what is/are the basic component(s)/feature(s) that i should consider in order to select a good web hosting company and what is/are the important thing(s) that i need to take into consideration to choose a good web hosting company, thank you.

Thanks and regards,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

  • 0

sounds like you need some dedicated servers rather than a web host. i believe you are in search of a good data center to lease hardware from or colocate your own hardware at.

lets start out with the difference between network and server uptime. obviously, network uptime will describe the "uptime" or access to their carriers whereas server uptime would be the uptime of the actual server itself. in most cases, they usually go hand in hand. more importantly, power redundancy and uptime is far more important than network uptime primarily because most data centers have bgp bandwidth and in the event of a carrier "going down" your traffic will be routed through another carrier of theirs.

when choosing a data center, make sure they are impervious to natural disasters and have all the redundancy measures taken care of. usually any SAS 70 certified data center will fall under this category. remember, when it comes to networks and anything web related, downtime is inexcusable.

last, but not least, 24/7 remote hands is very important. if your dedicated server or colocated hardware fails, you need to makes sure someone is at the facility who can restart or repair a network or server at any hour of the day.

oh yeah, by the way, only gaming servers need to have the shortest routing to its customers. if your customers are mainly viewing a website, they arent going to notice a difference of 30-50ms in ping.

edit: if im wrong and you do in fact just need a web hosting company, there's a stickied thread that you should look at.

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/59352-neowins-top-hosts/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

sounds like you need some dedicated servers rather than a web host. i believe you are in search of a good data center to lease hardware from or colocate your own hardware at.

lets start out with the difference between network and server uptime. obviously, network uptime will describe the "uptime" or access to their carriers whereas server uptime would be the uptime of the actual server itself. in most cases, they usually go hand in hand. more importantly, power redundancy and uptime is far more important than network uptime primarily because most data centers have bgp bandwidth and in the event of a carrier "going down" your traffic will be routed through another carrier of theirs.

when choosing a data center, make sure they are impervious to natural disasters and have all the redundancy measures taken care of. usually any SAS 70 certified data center will fall under this category. remember, when it comes to networks and anything web related, downtime is inexcusable.

last, but not least, 24/7 remote hands is very important. if your dedicated server or colocated hardware fails, you need to makes sure someone is at the facility who can restart or repair a network or server at any hour of the day.

oh yeah, by the way, only gaming servers need to have the shortest routing to its customers. if your customers are mainly viewing a website, they arent going to notice a difference of 30-50ms in ping.

edit: if im wrong and you do in fact just need a web hosting company, there's a stickied thread that you should look at.

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/59352-neowins-top-hosts/

Thanks Matt :)

Thats help a lot to me. May i know where can i get those web hosting companies certification information ? Any importany certificate that these web hosting companies need to comply with ? Any web tool to test their performance and stability ?

Regards,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.