Searching for a new hosting provider

Over the past few weeks I've been presented with the challenge of looking for a new hosting provider for a few different companies websites and application infrastructures. Years ago when I was with OnPlane our entire application infrastructure was cloud based so I spent a lot a time looking for options as it was by far our largest expense. But I have to admit, I kind of lost interest in this market once OnPlane came to an end.

Interestingly enough, over the past few months I been asked by several clients to take a look at their web hosting and other computing resources and make some recommendations regarding where they could make improvements. Specifically they've been interested in improving not surprisingly their up time, speed and ease of administration.

I think speed and up time are obviously the easier metrics to compare however I'm always mindful that mileage varies and a lot of speed and / or up time issue are a result of code or application infrastructure issues and not hardware. With that in mind, my process began with a review of the clients code and infrastructure to see if their were any obvious clues to explain performance issues. Inevitably when you go looking for something you find something, often not exactly what you were looking for but in these cases small little nits that when taken together make a difference.

Ease of administration is a much tougher nut to crack since it involves a more qualitative approach to understand what constitutes easy to use in the eyes of the client. I will say having jumped back into this world after a 4+ year absence it has definitely matured and quality of services and tools have really come a long way in making in making it easier to manage and maintain a hosted environment.

In my next post I'm share some of the insights I've gathered during these projects and the benefits (hopefully) my clients have achieved.