Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : Helpdesk/Support on another server?

[GideonX]

Maybe this was covered earlier, but a search didnt turn up anything relevant.

Anyhow, any hosts here have an external account with another company to act as a backup for their support? For example, host your helpdesk/forum/etc. on another providers system. This is just in case your own datacenter has a major network hiccup or something, at least your clients can still access help.

Do I make sense?

[ukdzine]

I mentioned this the other day in another topic. Yes, this may be a good idea, it is certainly something that I myself am going to be doing eventually.

[bobcares]

Having your help desk on another server is a good idea.
We have some clients who keep there helpdesk on other servers for the very same reason you mentioned.
It goes like this.
Your site
http://besthostingcompany.com
Your support site
http://besthostingcompanysupport.com

This way the customers can always come to the support site and check out the latest updates as well as post tickets.

Have a wonderful day

Regards
Amar

[peersignal]

Yes, this is actually something we use. It's a great benefit as a few months ago our main server went down for a period of time, but the support and billing desk were still operational because it was in a different DC on a different server.

Regards,
Waylon

[cywkevin]

support yes but billing should go down with the ship. It can be seen as a negative experience if your sites are down and your host is still taking signups.

[bobcares]

Yes I would agree here. But generally the signup would be on the main site which would go down. This is a good system when you have a seperate support site.
Many hosting companies have such sites these days.
They would have FAQs , knowledgebases , ticketing system, forum etc. on the support site.

A good point raised by pixel_fenix because many hosts use an integrated billing and support system these days.

Regards
Amar

[GideonX]

Interesting, didn't think other people thought the same way

i'll have to look into having another account somewhere else.

[MarcelC]

I also have support on another server, in my case billing also because its esupport and modernbill combo.

But to me it is a "must have" to be reachable when customers server is down.

[Shaw Networks]

Our company locates our entire website seperate from our customers server. We believe that it is a good idea to do this, so in cases of downtime your customers won't be out of luck trying to contact you. You've probably seen horrible cases of downtime unfold on WHT where the host is down for over 24 hours and their site is down as well. Customers start jumping ship and finding new hosts if they cannot find out what's going on.

Hope this helps

[Servstra-Sales]

Originally posted by IncognitoNet
Our company locates our entire website seperate from our customers server. We believe that it is a good idea to do this, so in cases of downtime your customers won't be out of luck trying to contact you. You've probably seen horrible cases of downtime unfold on WHT where the host is down for over 24 hours and their site is down as well. Customers start jumping ship and finding new hosts if they cannot find out what's going on.

Hope this helps

We have a similar setup. Our websites are located on their own server that is in a different data center to our shared servers and clients' dedicated servers. Also, our community forums are located on a different server altogether. This way, our clients can always reach us to receive updates during any downtime.

[GideonX]

not a bad idea, sounds like I may just have to go and pick up a small sized server to host our site alone