The value of online system status reports from leading web hosting providers
Have you ever wondered to yourself if there is a way to test the marketing promises of web hosting companies which guarantee a 99.9% uptime as part of their Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for both dedicated servers and shared hosting packages?
Well, there is and it’s known as a system status report that regularly updates customers with security updates and other information related to the health of their servers on affordable hosting platforms. These online reports reside in the public domain and they are accessible by anyone with a web browser.
For instance, the latest server security update form the Midphase engineering team reports that “Over the next few weeks, we will begin to require password updates to your web hosting control panel (cPanel) every 180 days. Once your existing password expires, you will be prompted to change it upon your next successful control panel login attempt. The strength of your password, or its effectiveness in resisting guessing or brute-force attacks, will also increase to require a minimum score of 60.”
These system status reports are now considered to be one of the most transparent ways for web hosting providers, cloud hosting providers and dedicated server providers to keep their clients (and future customers) informed about changes on their network, infrastructure and data centers.
In the last several years, other technology players have rolled out their own system statuses. One of the most notable examples of this endeavor is the online TRUST report published by Salesforce.com one of the leading CRM providers in the world today.
In addition to the displaying server performance history, it also highlights scheduled maintenance notifications for the various servers that house individual instances of SMB, SME and Enterprise accounts.
Twitter does the same thing too, but as can be expected they keep their updates a bit terser, just like their Tweets. You will generally find that quality service providers will usually publish system updates. If they don’t, ask why and if their answer is not forthcoming or good enough consider choosing another web hosting provider.
Server uptime has been identified as the number one consideration for both existing and future clients considering or using a dedicated server with an affordable web hosting company. In addition to the system status report mentioned above, Midphase offers an ironclad Service Level Agreement (SLA) that breaks down its responsibilities and commitment to keep servers running smoothly on its hosting infrastructure.