100 % Up Time

[martynw]

Does anyone have any insight into how it would be possible to achieve 100% up-time for a site? I was told by support that this is not possible to achieve at TotalChoice Hosting.

 

Since it is inevitable that all servers must suffer some down time, I presume that there is some way that it is possible to have multiple servers being pointed to by the same DNS server? I also read somewhere about proxy-cache-servers (I think). People trying to access a Web site could be routed to the cache server without getting to the actual site. I understand these are used to make the Web more efficient, but they can also be useful if a particular site were down. Is this the case?

[wayne]

Sure you can have multiple servers for load balancing etc. If one fails, the others take over. However the server can be fine and yet a site be unreachable due to another piece of hardware (switches, etc) and the site may become unreachable.

 

100% availability? Not possible.

 

Just my opinion.

[TCH-Bruce]

There is no such thing as 100% uptime. As Wayne put it there are other factors to consider. I googled for the heck of it to see what some of these other companies that say they have 100% uptime guarantee and here are a couple of the results. I will not include any names. If you want the names you can google yourself.

 

Does 100% Uptime mean that my site will be available 100% of the time?

 

Because web site availability is essential for your mission-critical hosting, our Service Level Agreement (SLA) is designed to protect our customers against unscheduled outages by providing remedies in terms of real account credits should they occur. While we endeavor hard to provide 100% uptime, it does not mean that your site will be available 100% of the time. No web host can absolutely and honestly state that they will provide 100% availability because all servers need to be rebooted occasionally, have preventative maintenance performed, and because servers and networks are hardware and software, they may occasionally fail.

 

Here is another.

 

What would a network crash cost your business? Think of the lost productivity you could face when a workstation goes down, a server crashes, or your network laser printer needs repair. One of your employees or your entire staff could be down and unable to work. When you add in the amount of time it takes to get your equipment repaired, the results could be disastrous! Now there is a way to take the uncertainty out of your equipment support needs. Introducing the "100% Uptime Guarantee" Program! Should something happen that brings down your network equipment including your workstations, servers, laptops, or laser printers, our technicians will be on-site at your office within four hours of your first call to us to fix your equipment and make sure that your PC’s boot. They will even bring spare equipment with them to lend you in case your equipment needs to go out for repair!

 

Why risk any downtime? Call today for your guaranteed 4 HOUR response!

 

100% uptime guarantee but it will take up to 4 hours for them to get to you.

 

I think that should about cover it.

[martynw]

Thanks for the insight. I had heard the one well known hosting provider talks about 100% up time - but the reality is that they have more downtime than they would like to admit.

 

But my question is not really 'does anyone provide 100% uptime hosting' but raher what are the technical things that could be down to acheive it. For example, could you have 2 different servers running in 2 different locations with too different switches etc (e.g one of TotalChoice hosting servers in the USA and one in the UK). I suppose the problem with that would be having DNS point to both places?

 

Also has anyone heard of this "proxy-cache" that I mentioned?

[stevevan]

Thanks for the insight. I had heard the one well known hosting provider talks about 100% up time - but the reality is that they have more downtime than they would like to admit.

But they do have 100% uptime...when they're up!

[Samrc]

Anyone can promise 100% uptime and access to your website.

Goes back to the old "if it sounds too good to be true, it is".

 

I would rather be with a company that has the integrity to tell the truth and say the company strives for 100% and backs it up with excellent support than one that promises the moon.

[youneverknow]

TCH is one of the only budget hosts that lets you go to their SITE STATUS page and displays all the servers present conditions.

youneverknow

[Deverill]

Martynw,

100% is not something that can be promised because of so many things outside one's control, but from my experience at TCH, it's been very close to that for my sites. You could spend a ton on redundant provider lines and hardware and co-location and all that, but consider this...

You set up a switch that says if site 1 is down then send everyone to site 2. What happens when that switch shuts down because the air conditioner in the building goes out and it overheats?

There is always somewhere a site can "fail". I even had a situation recently when I was told my site was down but it was working fine - the route from the site to one particular user was breaking in the middle (somewhere in Switzerland) and he couldn't understand it was absolutely nothing about the site that was deficient.