In today’s highly competitive landscape, it is important that buying decisions are made after astute analysis of each factor that constitutes in business sustenance. An incompetent solution can take a toll on your business nerves, leading loss of productivity, credibility and revenue cycle. The environmental conditions and the hardware supplies that you have chosen to host your critical business websites have the potential to transform the way you do business.
In this article, you will be acquainted with some of the key factors that every business should consider prior to selecting a hosting service provider:
According to a study conducted by a known research firm, approximately 60% of businesses fail due to incompetent IT infrastructure. Be it manufacturing, automation, accounting, or distribution, one wrong decision affects overall business functionality. It would be no exaggeration to state that business automation is an immensely complex yet a demanding process. In order to accelerate the business’s productivity, a well-equipped solution provider can help you multiply the profit dividends. However, for that, you need to accept the fact that one size never fits for all. Making a right decision makes the difference between success and failure.
Common Mistakes that You All Should Eliminate for Healthy Business Performance
It is no secret that automating a business is an intricate task and it has the potential to impact various correlated operations of a business for about 4 to 6 years. Roughly, if all expenses are to be calculated, including the cost of the time your employees spend during a period of time, the cost will be around $30,000 to $400,000 or even more. Considering the mentioned figure, it is really baffling how some organizations do not focus on critical aspects when making a decision for their respective businesses. Below are a few steps that will help you know the common mistakes followed by its remedies:
Every Managed Service Provider is Different: One of the misconceptions that exist in the mind of most of the end-users is that the tool or technology they have purchased from a recommended hosting benefactor is absolute and that is why they cannot go wrong at any time. This is something like assuming that a bullock cart and a car are same. Only if their purpose is to use for carrying goods from one place to another, both of them can perform a similar function. However, if they are looking out for speed and agility, only the latter proves a befitting solution. The same goes with a business automation solution. There is a big difference between two solutions. Here is the catch; you need to first understand the company’s goals and priorities. Chart down all the requirements, applications, and processes that are required to fit your carved IT setup.
Cheapest Solution is the Best: Selecting a service provider just because it offers the desired services at relatively low costs is not at all a witty idea. Remember, lack of advanced technology, expert assistance, and service availability can have a potential and direct impact on company’s bottom line. Managed service provider is a viable alternative as it helps in bolstering productivity and ensures efficacy in ongoing business operations.
Outsourcing Managed Hosting Service is not a viable option: A few of the organizations are reluctant to outsource their critical IT operations to third-party vendors as they assume that they can manage operations on their own. If you have experts, resources and talents to manage your IT ecosystem, go ahead. If not, rethink on your decision. Professional-managed hosting benefactors have expertise that can help you deliver business value. They have the right performance monitoring techniques and managed hosting professionals to keep your business always moving.
Forced Selection of Vendor: If you decide to establish an association with a host without conducting proper investigations about the same, trust me, the chance to fall prey to bogus benefactor is no less. Recommendations from friends and colleagues will certainly be an icing on the top, however, you should not rely upon them completely until and unless you yourself have not evaluated it.
Now let’s move to the other important factors that you should consider when making a decision:
Portfolio of Services: It is essential to ensure that the service provider has the breadth of capabilities to handle your dynamic business demands. To put it simply, the provider’s data center facility should be equipped with scalable network infrastructure so that your growing business demands can be efficiently handled. Plus it should offer a host of services like cloud hosting, email hosting, and hybrid cloud so that if in future you want to add such services to your bucket you can easily do it.
Company Profile: Have a look at company’s profile and ensure it has rich industry experience in the same domain. Compare it with the other hosting providers for comparison and better understanding.
Technical Support: A data center provider that has employed experts to assist clients in case of emergencies will be of a greater help as it ensures that your business stays functional and in the right state in all the scenarios.
Apart from this, there are many other factors as well like
- What provisions does the service provider have to protect your business against natural calamities like flood, hurricane, tornado, and fire?
- What SLA does the provider offer and what are the services that are covered in the same?
- What Tier certification does the provider’s facility falls under?
I am hopeful that above information will guide you through the data center providers selection process.
