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  1. #1

    * For newbies : 99.5% / 99.9% uptime guarantee explained.

    For newbies : 99.5% / 99.9% uptime guarantee explained.


    A site that is “down” is as good as not having a site at all – no visitors, no traffic, no revenue, nothing – zilch. Because of this, a very high uptime guarantee percentage should be your top, or at the very least, major criterion when choosing a host.


    Not too long ago, the hosting industry was looking at 99%, then later 99.5%. These days, some people say you should never settle for anything less than 99.9% as 99.9% beginning to become the "industry standard"/the norm. As more and more hosts offering 99.9%, those offering less than that will surely lose out in the competition simply because uptime is so important to website owners.


    But what does this percentage really mean ? It is actually a simple calculation :

    the total number of minutes in a month x (100-uptime%)/100
    = 30days x 24hours x 60min x (100-99.9)/100
    = 43200 x (0.1)/100
    = 43.2 minutes (max downtime).


    So, if it is 99.9%, it means your website should not be down for more than a total of about 43.2 minutes in a month. Mind you, the total number of minutes in a month is about 43200 minutes or 720 hours. So, 0.1% of downtime is actually very minimal. Out of this much time, your host should only down your site for a max of 43.2 minutes – whether it is for maintenance work, reboot, troubleshooting (because some monkey shares the same server as you and ran some mass emailing program/malicious script that cause CPU usage to go red ? ), change of failed hardware etc.


    This does not mean that your site will be down for 43 minutes every month. That figure is actually the longest or maximum down time. Some good hosts might actually give you 100% uptime for months in a row in reality – even though they state 99.9% for the guarantee that they give. These are hosts that take care of their CPU / RAM / executable file security etc – overall server environment properly.


    Logically, the more domains/websites you plan to host in a single account, the higher percentage you should look for.


    Also, do know how committed a host is in honouring their guarantee. Do they just mention it in their marketing channels, eg websites etc. Or do they really specify it clearly in their “terms of service” (ToS) ? What kind of compensation they plan to honour if they exceed the agreed upon max downtime ? Not all host are willing to compensate for exceeding the max downtime. Honest and responsible hosts will refund the hosting fees you paid for a particular month upon you reporting to them that they had exceeded the max downtime - and this is stated clearly in their ToS.


    Hope this mini article helps.
    <<< removed >>>
    Last edited by SoftWareRevue; 08-13-2006 at 10:07 AM.

  2. #2
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    Out of this much time, your host should only down your site for a max of 43.2 minutes – whether it is for maintenance work, reboot, troubleshooting (because some monkey shares the same server as you and ran some mass emailing program/malicious script that cause CPU usage to go red ? ), change of failed hardware etc.
    Generally maintenance work doesn't count under the uptime guarantee...else companies like Rackspace wouldn't be able to guarantee "100%" without paying out for maintenance
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  3. #3
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    Also, most hosts guarantee NETWORK uptime...not SERVER uptime.

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
    www.AEIandYou.com - - (WP Friendly - Premium Reseller Hosting and Cheap Dedicated Servers)

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by AH-Tina
    Also, most hosts guarantee NETWORK uptime...not SERVER uptime.

    --Tina
    Not really, there are plenty of hosts out there, CartikaHosting.com for one, who guarantee the uptime on the hardware...or rather SLA it. (I don't really like the word guarantee).
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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by layer0
    Generally maintenance work doesn't count under the uptime guarantee...else companies like Rackspace wouldn't be able to guarantee "100%" without paying out for maintenance
    Which is why they shouldn't be saying "100% network uptime" as technically its not.

    It *is* possible to keep your network up even during maintenance...
    Ultra High Performance UK VPS without compromise.
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  6. #6
    Also, most hosts guarantee NETWORK uptime...not SERVER uptime.
    Not really, there are plenty of hosts out there, CartikaHosting.com for one, who guarantee the uptime on the hardware...or rather SLA it. (I don't really like the word guarantee).
    layer0 is right.

    I can easily name another - Hostgator - which guarantees both server and network to be up 99.9%.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by joetryn
    I can easily name another - Hostgator - which guarantees both server and network to be up 99.9%.
    HostExcellence does too. And they actually pay if they mess up. Too bad they don't want to make PHP 5 available or I wouldn't be looking for another hosting provider.

  8. #8
    Learned a lot from you guys. Thanks

  9. #9
    I assume that most of these must have mirror servers or such that they can just switch to when there is a problem with the main machine.

  10. #10
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    Interesting comments. I run a small reseller ISP in the UK and it always amazes me when clients choose 'Standard' connectivity over 'Premium'connectivity. Sure, Standard is way cheap in comparison but there is only a single point of failure in real terms and the SLA is 99.5%. Premium is dual-routed, multi-homed connectivity that has shown 100% for the last three years (SLA 99.9%). Despite recommending to clients that if there services are in any way critical (and let's face it, most are!) then it is essential to choose Premium. However 75% plump for Standard then complain when there is downtime (little but enough). Nowadays we have stopped giving a choice and only offer the dual-routed connectivity. We now lose 3 out of 5 deals because we appear expensive but our fault ticketing system is all quiet all of the time It's a no-brainer; all of our clients are now totally happy and we receive no complaints. For the sake of such a relatively small amount of money it never makes sense to go for connectivity based purely on price. Ask around; do some latency checks. Ask to see records of uptime. in the long run you'll have a happire hosting time and have a host of happy clients!

  11. #11
    iClaudius,

    You have certainly gained much experience & learnt much from running a reseller business. Your experience shows in your writing.

    [We now lose 3 out of 5 deals] - yes, people these days go for cheaper hosts...simply because competition in the web hosting industry is getting fiercer by the weeks and months. They do have a choice because web hosting providers are always lowering their prices.

    But still, I would advice against going for free or dirt cheap hosting which does not provide a minimum of 99.5% uptime. Go for 99.9% whenever possible.

  12. #12
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    Joetryn

    Thanks for your comments! Basically we now have our own rack cabinets in various datacentres and only provide top-quality bandwidth. our growth has been slower but our complaints desk is redundant and apart from sales calls our phones are quiet

    I totally agree with what you are saying; you get what you pay for!

    All the best

    iClaudius
    UK Server Hosting - from Port One
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Business Broadband and Business Hosting
    info@portone.co.uk | 0845 602 1452

  13. #13
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    Great post!


  14. #14
    greate tips

  15. #15
    i already knew what down-time was, but this has boosted my knowledge in it! Thank you!

  16. #16
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    In the reality, these 99.5% or even 99.9% uptime guarantee doesn't meen a lot.

    Often the host will only give you credit for the downtime in excess of the max allowed.
    So, if there are 1 hour unscheduled downtime, with max allowed downtime of 43 minutes or so, they may give you credit for 17 minutes.

    Unless you are using very expensive hosting services, the amount of credit would be less than a dollar, most probably.
    And often you can only benefit from it IF you submit a ticket within so and so days,
    and IF you renew and continue to use the host because it's not always refundable credit.
    (The details vary wildly among hosts. Check their SLA, TOS, etc.)

    In short, most of these uptime figures and guarantees are nearly useless, overused marketing crap.

    It's just trying to present the image of "reliability", or they just put it because almost everyone is doing it and/or some potential clients ask about it.


    Personally, I would choose a host based on their server setup/configuration;
    If they are using RAID disk array or not.
    If they are using different servers for different purposes, such as web server, mail, FTP, DataBase, Control panel....
    (This is often called clustered setuo.)
    If they have redundant server setup or not.
    If yes, what kind/degree of redundancy do they have? Is it just web servers?

    And moreover, I try to see what kind of PEOPLE are running those servers.
    But it's not always easy to guess the quality of admins, unfortunately.

    Also, the luck can play the role, on top of that.
    So, good luck and happy hosting.
    Last edited by extras; 12-09-2006 at 11:00 AM.

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