Take another look at your uptime guarantee

Thanks to Yupapa and his post dated Oct 16,

I did some calculations and the figures make for

some interesting reading : -

Downtime Minutes & Your Uptime Guarantee
===============================
99.999% Uptime
Less than a minute down a month
5 minutes down in 365 days

99.99% Uptime
4 minutes down in a 30 day month
53 minutes down in 365 days

99.95% Uptime
22 minutes down in a 30 day month
263 minutes down in 365 days (4 hours)

99.9% Uptime
43 minutes down in a 30 day month
526 minutes down in 365 days (9 hours)

99.5% Uptime
216 minutes down in a 30 day month
2628 minutes down in 365 days (44 hours)

99% Uptime
432 minutes down in a 30 day month
5256 minutes down in 365 days (88 hours or 3.7 days)

So an uptime guarantee of 99.5% translates to a whopping 2600 minutes of downtime a year.

99.9% uptime sounds good but it converts to 500 minutes of downtime a year.

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Of course, a host can promise you 99.99% and deliver 88.8% or worse and it's happening every day!

That is correct. There's also a difference between an uptime guarantee calculated over 365 days and one over 30 days. A host can easily use "credits" from good months in the former example and cover in bad months and that means a single month can still have hours of downtime at a shot.

On another note, while 99.9% is a lot of downtime, that's the so-called floor level. It doesn't mean they hit 99.9% every single month... if they do, you need to look elsewhere too.

Sorry if this sounds rude, but isn't that all stating the blatantly obvious?

I should imagine any reputable host has already done those calculations.

I agree with sprintserve completely regarding the monthly "floor level".

Uptime guarantees are worthless. Choose a host that has a proven track record of great uptime, uses quality hardware, knows how to run a server, and has a good data center before a different host advertising a 99.99% uptime guarantee. A 100% refund of your monthly hosting fees is nothing if you go out of business, lose customers, or lose money in advertising fees because of a server crash that takes 12 hours or more to fix.

The backend for most uptime guarantees is usually an extra prayer at night hoping there are no hard drive crashes, the nonredundant nameservers stay alive, the nontested software upgrades compile correctly and don't cause a problem to the users sites, no hard drive problems because it might take hours to get a operating system restore let alone restore user data, the nontested backups actually work, etc. It only takes five minutes to make a nice graphic stating "99.9% uptime guarantee" but it takes time, planning, and money to run a server that can actually meet the 99.9% uptime guarantee on a consistent basis.

It's just a advertising gimmick to lure unsuspecting newcomers to the webhosting industry to sign up. People always have a better impression when they see so many 9s.

I honestly don't think it's possible to offer 99.999% uptime unless you never upgrade your server or you have so much redundancy that the plan costs a small fortune each month. Just a few kernel and/or control panel upgrades with restarts will put you over that mark.

I have to agree with watcher; uptime of better than 99.9% CONSISTENTLY, should sevre most of us pretty well, particularly if the downtime is during back hours for maintenance activity. Servers require some maintenance on an on-going basis, some of which will stop the processes. The cost of providing completely redundent service (mirriored servers) would cause the hosting fees to be significantly higher. If you're getting well over the 99.9% average from a $10 host, you're doing pretty well.

------------------ mpalamar quote 1---------------------
Uptime guarantees are worthless.
----------------------------q----------------------------
Perhaps. But it IS one of the main things a prospective customer will want to know before they sign up with you. If they’re smart they’ll ask for your actual uptime track record.

-----------------------quote 2---------------------------
Choose a host that has a
proven track record of great uptime,
uses quality hardware,
knows how to run a server,
and has a good data center
before a different host advertising a 99.99% uptime guarantee.
----------------------------q-----------------------------

Yup, proven uptime is key. Or demonstrated uptime as some like to call it. It offers clearer evidence of a host’s seriousness about delivering maximum uptimes. It’s far easier to promise a 99.99% uptime (bird in the bush) than to actually fulfill it over a period of time (bird in the hand).

--------------------------quote 3--------------------------------
A 100% refund of your monthly hosting fees is nothing if you go out of business, lose customers, or lose money in advertising fees because of a server crash that takes 12 hours or more to fix.
----------------------------------q-------------------------------
Couldn’t agree more. BWH calls these mission-critical sites – where the image and reputation of a business can be adversely affected by even 10 minutes of downtime happening at the wrong time (some times are more awkward than others) let alone 12 hours down in one go.

Such sites shouldn’t be on shared servers but many still prefer to take their chances with shared hosting for reasons of thrift.

---------------------tvi quote---------------------------

don't think it's possible to offer 99.999% uptime
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I wonder too but OrcsWeb offers it.

Quote :

---------------------orcs---------------------
We have demonstrated 99.999% network availability, which means that the network will be down no more than 5 minutes a year — as close to perfect as you can get.
------------------------------------------------

Perhaps they can tell this forum how they do it.

Well, they're not a ten dollar host.

Cheapest plan is $40/m.

Well if they play the same game that BurstNet does, only the core router and main fiber are actually the *network*in their eyes. They don't think that any of the smaller switches, cabling or pretty much anything else that doesn't affect every client are part of the Network. :rolleyes:

I'm sure that 99.999% uptime is possible, but you are talking about some serious expense and hardare to provide it.

While we are at it, how about those who promise 100% uptime?

Originally posted by Watcher_TVI
I honestly don't think it's possible to offer 99.999% uptime unless you never upgrade your server or you have so much redundancy that the plan costs a small fortune each month. Just a few kernel and/or control panel upgrades with restarts will put you over that mark.

Most uptime guarantees I have seen refer to times outside of maintenance windows. So, server upgrades, etc would not count against the uptime.

Originally posted by net-trend
While we are at it, how about those who promise 100% uptime?

Most places that promise 1005 uptime are referring to network uptime. It is relatively trivial to offer 100% uptime guarantee on the network (redundant switches, routers, and multiple carriers with the proper configuration will do it for most people). Network equipment, when properly configured, is suprisingly stable -- as are the networks themselves.

Oh

I heard that when the server down it may take 12 hours

Well the host don't have any alternative in such a postion

since the server problem is common to every host it may occur

at anytime to any host

So atleast a good host can't offer this much downtime to their customer.......

I agree; many do seem to see thier major network as the measure of uptime--very unrealistic for a hoster. The guys I'm with (for the most part) actaully say they measure the host's uptime; your site being visible to an off-net viewer.

Originally posted by allan
Most uptime guarantees I have seen refer to times outside of maintenance windows. So, server upgrades, etc would not count against the uptime. Oh I agree, there are more exclusions in an uptime guarantee than there are web hosts. What amazes me the most is the various definitions of what a *network* is...;)

I wasn't speaking about exclusions as there would be way too many to try and account for. I was speaking as to a genuine 99.999% uptime.

I have always complained about this and ask is it based per day, per week, per month, per year, per decade, per century?

Great post I can refer potential client to now. :D