How to survive web host failure

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

Few would doubt that last year was a bad one for the internet industry. The dotcom bust led to some spectacular failures of web infrastructure companies such as PSINet and Exodus Communications in the United States.

These were echoed by the demise of Webmedia in New Zealand and Zivo* in Australia.

All too often the clients of failed web-hosting companies, web designers and internet service providers have suffered with the employees and investors.

Stephen Spencer, managing director of Net Concepts, a web design and hosting company with offices in Browns Bay on the North Shore and Madison, Wisconsin, relates how one US-based cosmetics company was stung when its web host went bankrupt last year.

The cosmetics company had just spent $US250,000 ($592,000) with an ASP [application service provider] on an e-commerce system including a sophisticated online tool to allow customers to choose the right makeup.

But three weeks after the system had gone live they got a phone call: Get whatever you need off the site because we are going down in about a day.

They lost everything because the ASP was using leased hardware, which was taken away before anything could be retrieved.

Such horror stories may add spice to Mr Spencer's talks on the subject of internet management on the international conference circuit, but he believes many similar mistakes can be avoided if businesses using online partners follow a few basic principles.

In a nutshell you should own your source code, control your domain name and choose an alternative web-hosting company before you need one.

Mr Spencer says that in this case source code should include any images or audio files used in the website as well Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) programs and scripts.

It's important to specify this at the outset, otherwise these files are spread out all over the place and people don't know what to back up.

Generally, under any contract with a web design and hosting company, you should plan for the worst.

Mr Spencer says it has become common practice in the United States for copies of source files to be kept in escrow by a third party.

If the web company folds, the third party would then release the source code.

And if you back up that to another hosting company you are pretty much up and running again.

Compared with this, Mr Spencer says selecting alternative web hosting is easy.

You will just need the phone book. All you need to do is suss out a suitable web host based on your requirements so you are not starting your search once the problem hits.

But if you wanted to be totally covered you could mirror the entire site with another company so you would just have to change the server associated with the domain name and you would be back in business straight away.

Mr Spencer says it is always worth visiting the websites of hosting companies to look at their client portfolios.

"You should be wary if the client pages include a lot of dotcoms or startups and you should take a look at the content," he says.

"If you see a lot of Copyright 1999 notices it's not recent work and therefore it's not recent revenue.

"Too many old projects should be a concern. I've seen companies that list companies in the portfolio that have since moved to other agencies.

"It doesn't hurt to speak to some of these clients."

Mr Spencer's company mainly services customers in the US, including Unilever-owned brand Gortons Seafood, frozen food manufacturer Birds Eye, and Mid West Express Airlines, but he is keen to expand in New Zealand.

So far he has deliberately targeted companies that are strong in the traditional economy and are spread between business to consumer and business to business sectors.

"We've fared pretty well but we need to cover ourselves and we don't want to expose ourselves too much."

* CORRECTION: In the original version of this story we stated incorrectly that Zivo had shut down. Although it no longer operates in Australia, it is still operating in New Zealand as part of TelstraClear.