Overselling

[monaghan]

Just a thought, none of my accounts are oversold, however, I know many hosts do oversell.

Maybe this is a bit of a dumb question, but how do you cope if (when) the customer starts to actually use all this "vapour disk & vapor bandwidth" that you've sold them ?

 

[imported_HadleyHost]

They don't cope - that is the answer, they would ask you to upgrade or find a reason to remove you

 

[monaghan]

That's what I was thinking, seems like a good enough reason for me to keep things as they are !

 

[Decker]

I've always said, you can't oversell disk, and if you oversell transfer (as few use it all) then they pay when they go over.

Otherwise they lose all customers and credibility when their sites go down.

 

[Lesli]

If you oversell, then when customers start to use all the resources they've paid for, you can

SHORT TERM FIXES
* purchase extras from your provider (if it's bandwidth)
* ditch archived system files / backups / log files if it's disk space they need

While you're breathing a quick sigh of relief, you then get another server and start looking for clients who would be amenable to moving to a new server.

I will warn you, though, as someone who's been with hosts when this happens: your credibility takes a huge nosedive. It's annoying, it's inconvenient, it's a big fat hassle, and as a customer you start wondering what else your hosting provider is shorting on.

In any business, you should never let yourself get so close to the wall that it can reach out and smite you. It's just a bad idea. Whether it's having enough inventory on hand, or enough personnel on the regular staff to handle peak service times, or knowing where to get additional personnel / inventory in a hurry - a business had best be able to quickly take care of its clients. It can be oh so tempting to cut corners (believe me, I know - I'm there right now on another issue), but in you always have to look seriously at what concessions you'll need to make if / when things start getting busier. Sometimes, you'll come to the conclusion that you can skimp on something in one or two cases because the solution is rather painless. Often, though, it's not worth the initial or shorter-term savings.

 

[XGravityInc]

Very good answer Lesli. I agree with you 100%

 

[RobAPI]

Also, instead of deleting files on your hard disk when you are very close to running out of space, you could keep an eye on your hard disk, once there is roughly a few GB space left, just get another hard disk installed.
It is not the best solution, but it is a solution that could help.

I don't like seeing hosts oversell space especially, you can oversell bandwidth if you have a good plan for it and don't go OTT trying to make as much money as you can.

Any hsots here, take a look at the bandwidth used by your customers, and take a look at how much bandwidth they have on their plans.