Do-it-yourself Hosting

Do-it-yourself hosting

A lot of small businesses and IT contractors turn to the idea of hosting their own online services after experiencing mounting costs and occasional unreliability with their hosting provider. However, while self-hosting can seem like an ideal solution, there are a lot of things to consider before making this transition.

Internet Service

A domestic Internet provider is unlikely to offer you the right levels of speed and service to facilitate self-hosting. You will need to have a business service with: 

• A good to excellent upload speed. This will affect how quickly people can access your pages, and it is usually a lot slower than download speed.
• Confirmed high levels of reliability. If your Internet goes down, so does your email and website. Most Internet providers will only promise certain levels of uptime, which may be insufficient for business-critical processes
• Rapid response times. The speed of your connection will affect how quickly your server can respond to requests. Any delays will be cumulative over the number of queries it gets in a given period. 

Security Issues

In addition to sourcing the right Internet provider, you’ll need to do a lot of work on data security if you host your own emails or websites. You’ll need to make sure your network is secure from external attack while still allowing legitimate traffic through. This can involve complex programming, and few systems are entirely foolproof. If your security doesn’t let real queries and customers through, you may miss out on business. Even worse, in the case of a security breach, you will have to deal with all issues arising from it yourself rather than having a third party handle the practical aspects while you focus on reputation management.

Choosing hardware and software

This is important in terms of both your networking equipment and server. Your networking setup needs to reliably handle traffic routing and security and be easy to manage. You will need to make sure your physical equipment is robust and accessible and that you take time getting the setup right for your needs. 
Similarly, your servers will need to run all day, every day, so you need to choose hardware with a reputation for reliability and ease of maintenance. These will not necessarily be the cheapest options, but they are cheaper than repairing reputational damage after a system failure. 
When choosing server software for hosting, you need to consider long-term support as well as functionality and stability. The best software is no good if there’s no-one to help you fix it in the rare event something does go wrong. 

Info Graphic: Advantages about Self-Hosting

Conclusion

Hosting your own services is not for the faint hearted. Having full control over your online services is appealing and can enable a more responsive business model. However, it comes at the cost of taking responsibility for many different aspects, a failure in any of which could damage your business and credibility. 

Web hosting agencies can absorb some of this risk and provide you with expert advice. The right provider will also understand your need to be responsive and to grow your online services with your business. If you decide not to self-host, use your skills and resources to shop around for the right provider for your needs, rather than settling for the cheapest or the one with the best sales department.

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