Shared Hosting and Downtime

If you use shared hosting for your website, then there is the potential for your site to experience the occasional downtime. Regardless of many hosts promising a 99% uptime guarantee there is every possibility that your website will actually suffer from downtime and this is an ongoing concern for all website owners because it ultimately has an effect of traffic and sales.

The Different Types of Downtimes

There are two main forms of downtime and these are:

• Planned downtime takes place when maintenance is required or there are upgrades to install. As part of this downtime users will be informed in advance that it will be taking place.
• Unplanned downtime is the type of downtime that occurs when there is no prior warning. There are many reasons as to why this could happen and this could be things such as hardware failures following software problems, bad component as well as human errors. This form of downtime makes it impossible to inform users directly do notifications will be made via social media.

Uptime- what is it?

This is the complete opposite of downtime and it relates to the amount of time that a server is available and running. If the servers have power and the ability to connect to the internet whilst responding to a ping then this is classed as uptime. Before choosing a host, it is crucial that the uptime of a shared hosting service is researched before making a decision. If uptime is of a high standard this will mean that your website will receive increased traffic and improved sales.

Uptime is often given as a percentage and this relates to the percentage of time that a website is available to users. Most web hosts that come with a good reliability will have plans in place to help deal with emergencies that will help to combat downtime which will help to ensure that uptime never decreases.

Whilst the percentages are important it is not actually clear what they mean, so what do they mean? A promise of 99.9% uptime is the equivalent of 1 hour downtime per month whilst an uptime of 99.95% is the equivalent of 30 minutes per month and an uptime of 99.99% equates to 5 minutes per month.

There is not one single web hosting company that will offer 100% uptime, and although they may have zero downtime for a certain period of time there will come a time when an incident occurs because there are many factors involved that could cause problems. Try a site like hostingwatcher.com to see the latest uptime stats for each host.

When uptime is calculated by hosting companies they do not include downtime cause through maintenance and upgrades.

How is Uptime Affected?

Hardware and software play the largest part when it comes to uptime and hardware has an effect on speed, storage, performance and reliability, all of which have to be considered when it comes to deciding on your chosen web hosting service.

Configuring Hardware

The main parts of hardware that play a part in uptime are the medium used for storage, infrastructure, CPU’s and communications.

If there as large capacity infrastructure in place then the web host will be able to deal with high traffic spikes but it also makes it possible for an expansion in the future. Choosing a host that is reliable from a hardware perspective and they have the correct infrastructure then your website will have a bright future.

Configuring Software

Whilst hardware plays a large part in the amount of uptime a web host promises, software can also have an impact on the speed and performance. The operating system, programming and updates all influence the performance of the website.

If the code has been correctly written then uptime will be improved but it is important to ensure that the web host runs regular updates to software to ensure that bugs are fixed.