Reliability / Downtime

If you pay for your package then you should expect the site to be reliable with downtime limited to less than 1% over a 24 hour period, 7 days a week including holidays. As you pay more this figure drops as hosting companies invest in back up systems including power and broadband lines that any problems that do occur go unnoticed.

Hardware Support

Check what happens if there is a significant outage as this could damage your site's reputation. If the hosting service has a technical hitch then fast hardware support turnaround or ideally an option to switch your site too a backup server will limit any loss to your hard won business.

Data Protection

The security measures implemented to protect your site ensures your data is well protected from viruses and hackers. This becomes essential if you hold sensitive and financial information. It is important that you takes steps to protect your client data from these types of attacks.

If you have a large database that is constantly changing then it is advisable to make sure it is backed up.

Your budget will determine how often this is done but the best scenario is to have a mirrored site so that should your site fail then the customer would be none the wiser as they are switched to the backup. If your database and budget make this option unrealistic then daily/hourly backups of all changes is a good idea, these would then be held at another secure location and can be fetched and restored should your site fail.

DNS Record

Having someone manage your DNS record for you is a good idea so you do not get stuck with one hosting provider. They do allow you to pass the DNS record on but the whole process can take several days and there will be additional downtime between 2 hours to 2 days as the DNS record change is rolled out to all providers. Having a company that manages this for you and is competively priced to manage it ensures you can move hosting and only experience the minimal downtime.