Chapter 3: Comparing the Vendor Categories

• If you don’t already know the volume of traffic your web site generates (or will generate), develop a traffic model using an Excel spreadsheet as covered in Chapter 11, Traffic Models.
• If you already know the category of service vendor you’ll need, use the chart to get some idea of the range of prices you’ll pay and how those prices compare to what others already spend. If you have a fixed budget, use the chart to more accurately refine your choice of hosting solutions.

Chapter 4: Shared and Dedicated Servers

• Make sure that your shared-server hosting service provides room to grow by offering higher-level packages. i.e., Be sure you aren’t starting with its largest and most expensive package. You should also have the option of upgrading to a dedicated server should you require it.
• Find a vendor that offers a package (based on an upgrade or otherwise) that meets your specific balance of capabilities and capacities in order to avoid paying for services you don’t need.
• Ask prospective shared-server vendors what they do to ensure that all sites on a shared server get their fair share of system resources, and that no single web site can monopolize a server.
• If you store confidential data about your customers, your suppliers, or your own business, don’t use a shared server.
• Ask prospective shared-server vendors to explain how they handle upgrades and the migration of web sites from one server to another.
• Ask vendors not just if they monitor shared-server CPU load, network throughput, and server response-time, but how they do so. Also ask them what limits they have established for these values which, if exceeded, will cause them to off-load sites to other servers in order to guarantee a level of service to your site.
• If you expect your web site to receive more than 1,000-2,500 visitors per day (depending on the number of page-views per visit and average page size), you shouldn’t be considering a shared server. Step up to a dedicated or collocated solution.
• Have a plan for the additional professional services you’ll need. Discuss options for professional services with the vendor before you sign a contract. If the vendor is in any way hesitant to provide the services you need (even for an additional charge) consider using another vendor or perhaps going through a reseller.
• Avoid free hosting for any web sites other than those that truly have no budget and that can afford the risks of being shut down and effectively lost on the Internet.
• If a shared-server vendor claims to own and/or operate its own data center, make sure that it really does, and the facility is truly first-class.
• It’s better to use a tenant vendor or a reseller that in turn uses the facilities of a first-class colocation facility (so long as it’s up-front and honest about this relationship) than it is to use an owned-facility vendor whose data center is sub-standard.
• If the only reason you need a dedicated server is because a shared server won’t meet your traffic requirements, start your search by looking for a shared/dedicated vendor. But if one of the reasons for selecting dedicated-server web hosting over shared-server hosting is to obtain a higher level of service, start your search by looking for a dedicated-only vendor.
• If your configuration is in any way complex (e.g., you have both NT and Unix/Linux servers, you’re running any significant software beyond what’'s provided by the hosting service), you’re technically sophisticated, or you’ll need a moderate level of service, begin your search with the dedicated-only vendors.

Chapter 5: Colocation

• Be careful not to be overly impressed by the gee-whiz aspects of an Internet data center. A beautiful facility doesn’t guarantee that it’s staffed by qualified personnel, for example, or that the vendor can provide any of the other services you need.
• Ask prospective vendors (a) if they have multiple points of entry (POEs) for all services, (b) whether they connect externally to separate facilities, and (c) whether your web site would be reachable from all locations on the Internet if the connections through a single POE were cut.
• Ask prospective vendors if they have at least n+2 redundancy for air conditioners.
• When evaluating a vendor’s backup generator provisions, look for at least an n+1 configuration, adequate electrical capacity to power lighting and air conditioning in addition to the servers, and 48 hours worth of diesel fuel storage capacity.
• Use open racks only if you need less than three feet of rack space and can tolerate the potential risks of sharing space with other web-site owners.
• Use locked cabinets unless you can’t afford one or need more than five or six.
• Use cages if you need more than six cabinets or if you want to be as isolated as possible from the colocation vendor and other customers.
• If you want pure colocation, find a vendor that has a long-term commitment to support that model and that isn’t likely to want to replace you with a customer to which it can sell more services.
• Unless you intend to supply and manage your own connectivity, avoid hosting services that focus on wholesale pure colocation.
• If you’re using pure colocation, select a facility that’s close to your staff, and plan to have your staff install, configure, manage, and maintain the servers. Don’t depend on the colocation vendor’s staff for any hands-on services.
• Investigate carefully the relationship between the colo and the MSP, as it’s very possible that those who are partners today will become competitors tomorrow. You‘re going to be stuck with the MSP, and if their new customers are at a different facility than their old ones (including you), you’ll become a second-class customer, or be forced to move your site.

Chapter 6: Managed Services

• Favor flexible MSPs to the extent that you believe you’re an early adopter of technology and that there’s a chance you’ll want to utilize leading-edge web-site components in the future.
• Favor rigid MSPs that have track records with the products on which your web site is based. Leverage the experience an MSP gains from supporting identical components for multiple customers.
• Ask MSPs in advance how exceptions will be handled, even if you don’t anticipate having any. Get sample pricing for the support of non-standard products.
• Use your current staff as an indicator of whether you’ll end up co-managing your web site with an MSP. Either you’ll co-manage or you won’t. There’s no gray area.
• If you expect to be an early adopter or want to mix and match revisions, use an MSP that’s more flexible and that supports more than rev-locked combinations of products.
• If an MSP doesn’t have on-site staff, it should at least have technicians that are very close by (less than 30 minutes away) and on call on a true 24x7 basis.
• Don’t accept a colocation vendor’s remote hands service in lieu of having an MSP employee on site or nearby at all times.
• Up front, make sure you understand who controls the bandwidth and connectivity. Don’t accept an SLA for connectivity from an MSP that has no control over it.
• If you choose a facility-neutral MSP, buy your colocation and connectivity services through that vendor in order to minimize finger pointing between the MSP and the colocation vendor.
• Make sure the agreement between your MSP and the colocation vendor permits the MSP to bring in third-party connectivity. Ask your MSP if it has ever had to buy connectivity directly from ISPs to work around poor connectivity from the colocation vendor.
• Ask your MSP if it has implemented a formal knowledge management system to avoid the private knowledge syndrome. Ideally, it should include a web-based customer gateway.
• Avoid MSPs that use a fully distributed staffing model. It’s only appropriate for shared and dedicated web-hosting services.
• Avoid MSPs that use the TAM staffing model. It’s only a stop-gap solution to the problems of the fully distributed model. The team model (described next) is almost always superior.
• Look for MSPs that use a team-staffing model. It’s a better model for managing most web sites than the dedicated, fully-distributed, or TAM models.
• Make sure the TAM or the team you meet during an MSP’s sales process is the one that will stay with you through implementation, launch, and beyond.
• Avoid MSPs that switch from implementation staff to maintenance-mode TAMs or teams. It’s better to have the continuity of people that stay with you all the way.
• If you need only monitoring, use a dedicated monitoring service vendor. An MSP would be overkill.
• In general, you’ll pay more with a pure time-and-materials pricing model than with the others. Accept this model only if it’s not possible to predict or standardize the services you require.
• Avoid the retainer pricing model unless it’s used only for ad hoc tasks and is combined with component pricing for standardized services.
• Component-based pricing models help you cap costs, but they’re complex and require that you study them in detail.
• If you plan to manage some aspects of your web-site operations, look for MSPs that specialize in the areas in which your own staff is weak.
• Don’t ask for root access unless you need it; but if you do, make sure it doesn’t reduce your service level or the responsibility of your vendor.
• Ask prospective MSPs to let you see copies of run books (perhaps ones that have been sanitized or anonymized) for existing customers’ web sites that most closely resemble yours.
• Use an MSP’s staging services instead of purchasing or leasing your own staging hardware and software.
• Utilize your MSP’s procurement services.
• If an MSP offers quick-start server provisioning, ask whether that process is also used (and tested) for replacement of existing servers, including the restoration of your customized content, data, and code from backup media.
• Determine your requirements for applications before you begin searching for an MSP. For that matter, do this before you decide whether MSPs in general are required for hosting your web site.
• If you plan to use a facility-neutral MSP, select it before you select the colocation service. Give the MSP latitude to recommend the colocation service(s) it works with best.
• Use Netcraft (see Chapter 20, The Net Detective Toolkit) and other tools to track down additional customers of your prospective MSPs, and contact them directly.
• Use the backgrounds of current and founding senior management as indicators of what to expect from an MSP.
• Have a face-to-face meeting with the individuals who will be managing your web site.
• Pretending to be one of their existing customers, call each prospective MSP to see how quickly you can reach those customers’ support teams.
• Find out how an MSP’s staff is compensated. This should include incentives for customer satisfaction and fulfillment of SLAs.
• Read managed-service contracts carefully, and don’t be afraid to negotiate. Better now than after the fact.

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