Hi all.
I am curious to know, when a host company is looking to providers for servers, what are the main factors they are looking for?
Is it the price of the hardware or capability? Both?
Are services like getting SSL certs, domain registry, backup solutions better if all offered via one company?

I would like your feedback as I am very interested in finding out what exactly host companies are after when looking to a provider to fulfill their needs.

Thank you all and I look forward to your responses.

Cost and reliability are important. As far as all-in-one solutions, most people don't want to have all their eggs in one basket.

Reliability will be at the top of the list if they're serious about their business. Obviously downtime can be incredibly costly.

Both definitely play an important role and a good balance is important.

I don't believe offering other services will necessarily make or break the deal. How many people actually have all of their services with 1 provider? Not many I would think.

Optimization, security, and stability are all very important

Hi,

Network Stability, Hardware Options and Availabitly of Upgrades, Support and then Pricing...

Regards,
Bobby

There are 3 good scenarios:

1. To go with a reputable, usually big dedicated hosting provider that applies the best possible standards to server hosting. Then you will receive reliable service and probably decent support. It can not be cheap! However there is a risk to face a lot of bureaucracy when need anything custom to be done.

2. To sign up with any middle-size provider or smaller company. YOu should be able to pick up the phone and to talk to any of the host's executives in such scenario. You will be an important customer for them.

3. To find a one-man web company, a guy who works hard to support 10 - 20 server customers. You will be very important client and you are supposed to get a customized service. But you have to make sure that the one-man-web-host host in a good data center and uses a good network.

...and has a good backup plan in place in case he gets hit by a car or suffers an injury while skying or worse, and can't work for weeks in a row.

Thank you all for your feedback. I am finding some great consistencies here and appreciate everyone's responses.

I believe that along with reliability, cost factor, security too plays a major role. How safe are your Servers? coz, physically you will not be close to it, so its important to make sure that the company you deal with takes care of your server really well, so a credible company helps.

I remember hearing about a case in Chicago, they had a break in to one of the less reputable datacenters and several servers were stolen.

network reliability
support
hardware

not many providers can seem to provide all three
we got so tired of it many years back and have our own hardware

eliminated support & hardware only network to worry about

Wow, that surprises me in this day and age, however, I do know that even with key card security, these things can happen. A company should have stronger steps to protect not only its customers, but its own hardware and facility. Obviously security is an unspoken need in this situation but glad you shared this point.

Get an antiviurus install on the webserver to ensure the protection against worms and viruses. This way you can secure your data on the server.

Yes, it is always great when you can graduate to a self contained solution. Until then, its good to know that there are some reliable facilities out there to use.

network
support
price...

If they have good network and customer service, I am ready to pay more!