• by Raj Dutt , March 12, 2008

Managed hosting is loosely defined as a service where a customer's Internet infrastructure is maintained and cared for by a Web hosting company. It can also be the ultimate smokescreen. Who knows what really goes on in the world of dark fiber and datacenters? The confusion surrounding the inner workings of this industry gives hosting companies the opportunity to dupe customers with fake promises. Unfortunately, this is common within the industry.

In today's digital era, every company needs managed hosting, but figuring out which offerings are realistic and critically important for optimum service is difficult. Here are the top five lies in the industry:

(1) "Our datacenter does not experience downtime ever. Everything is redundant"

It's an eventuality, not a possibility. Every datacenter can and will experience downtime. There are numerous examples every year of the best, most redundantly designed, no-expenses-spared facilities going completely dark, unexpectedly. Whether it's human error, a cascading failure of redundancy, or a natural disaster, the reasons are many but the conclusion is always the same. If you have critical uptime needs, you need to work with your service provider to implement a geographically redundant solution in at least two locations. Any hosting provider that claims they can provide continuous uptime year after year out of a single building is being disingenuous or is in denial!

(2)"We have unlimited bandwidth capacity, you don't have any limits"

Some hosting providers have a lot of capacity; all providers have limits. All capacity needs to be allocated between their clients. It is a common practice to "oversell" capacity and hosting providers count on the law of averages, figuring that no two clients will need the same capacity at the same time. What happens when they do, when you need it most? Are you getting guaranteed capacity and resources? Be sure that your hosting provider is upfront with you about their overall capacity and how much of it you can really use.

(3)"More hardware will solve your problem"

The mantra for a lot of hosting providers is that "more servers" will solve all performance and reliability issues. Of course, every provider is motivated to sell more servers, but the reality is that more hardware is not a panacea. It's like treating a symptom while ignoring the underlying cause. Many hosting providers are unwilling or unable to optimize and tune the software in a way that makes the most sense for the customer. Such providers are trying to put lipstick on a pig by calling the service managed hosting.

(4)"Everything is covered in your managed service"

Many hosting providers will offer to "make everything work," and make such promises to close the deal. Managed hosting is largely about preventative care and maintenance, and trying to avoid problems before they happen. This requires both a detailed needs analysis and a deep understanding of your setup. Unfortunately, it is common for hosting providers to completely sidestep this effort, and simply offer "best effort" reactive service that is often too little too late.

(5)"We are a Tier-1 bandwidth provider (or only use Tier-1 bandwidth), and that's better"

The "Tier" ranking system is commonly used in marketing and sales material, and just about every provider tries to exploit and misuse the term to their advantage. There are just nine true "Tier-1" providers in the world. They are effectively a cartel, and they connect only with each other. Being a "Tier-1" has nothing to do with performance or reliability, and everything to do with politics and economics. In fact, a well-connected "Tier-2" network will always have better performance than a given "Tier-1". Don't let the marketing speak fool you!