We're reluctant webhosts! We never wanted to provide web hosting. All we ever wanted to do was build websites.....nothing else. But back in 2003 we reached the point where it was impossible to get anything done on potential clients' hosting services because more often than not they were unreliable, slow, and in some cases unfit for purpose. So we had no choice, we had to provide hosting ourselves!
We wanted the best that we could realistically afford at the time. So for some years we struggled to break even on hosting......just to be able to build sites. Then we'd outgrow our resources, so costs increased once again! In 2007 we had to move from reseller accounts to virtual private servers (VPS), then in 2009 onto a Hybrid VPS. By 2011 we'd outgrown all flavours of VPS's.....and it was onto Dedicated Servers!
We share with no one, we don't sell hosting to outsiders, and only our clients with our sites are on there. We actually turn hosting business away every week simply because we do not want a bad neighbourhood.
We're not server administrators.....we're web designers. So we pay for the highest level of server management that the datacentre can provide, with a guaranteed 5 minute response time 24/7/365......using the same upstream provider since 2009. We're in good hands.....and so are you!
Now let's look at some of the different aspects related to hosting!
Server uptime: Our uptime percentage over the last year is 99.97%. That figure is up there with some of the best in the industry! It means that over the last 12 months the server has only been inaccessible for 2 hours 37 minutes. And approximately an hour of that was down to scheduled network maintenance performed overnight GMT.
How do we know if a server goes down? We use a remote monitoring service to ping our server (send a signal) every minute of every day. If the remote server doesn't get a response it sends me an instant text message that something may be wrong. It's no joke getting a false alarm at 4AM, but it happens. You see why we never wanted to be web hosts?
Backups: Many hosts claim to have them.....but don't always take that as read! We actually do.....using the industry leading R1Soft backup system.
Every Monday/Wednesday/Friday starting at 12AM an automated process makes a backup of every site on the server, and then stores it on another server in the same datacentre. It repeats this process throughout the month till it eventually reaches it's maximum of 10 backup points. Then the oldest backup is replaced with the newest, and the process continues.
Security: One very important point here! If you are still running on outdated software that has now been withdrawn, then none of the factors below will help you much. This is because your site may well have security vulnerabilities that cannot be patched due to age, so an intruder could potentially just walk straight in without the alarm going off. If this applies to you, then you've already been informed of the situation. Now here's some (but not all) of the security processes that are in effect:
We take the hosting side of the business very seriously.....despite the fact that we never wanted to be webhosts. But as we had no choice, we thought that just like design, we'd better do it to a standard that surpasses all others.....so we did!
Let's summarise the facts:
1. Unlike others, we are not hosting resellers on low budget shared public servers. These are our servers!
2. We turn away business regularly because we won't expose our clients to any potential risk by taking in outsiders.
3. We have a solid infrastructure that is professionally managed and running on business class networks.
4. Throughout the years we've invested back into the business to deliver a better quality hosting environment.
So don't compare what we do with others.....because not all web hosting is created equal!
Any queries, just contact us at
