Choosing a hosting provider is a decision you live with for years and one that is awkward to reverse. These are the questions worth asking, including the ones that are uncomfortable for us.
Ask every provider on your list the same set and compare the answers side by side. Vagueness on any of them is itself an answer.
Infrastructure
- Which physical facility is my data in, who operates it, and what certifications does it hold?
- Is my environment shared or dedicated, and what stops a noisy neighbour affecting me?
- What is the measured latency from my offices, and can we test it before committing?
Resilience
- What exactly is backed up, how often, and how long is it retained?
- When did you last perform a real restore test, and what was the result?
- What is the documented recovery time if my server is lost entirely?
Security and access
- Who on your team can access my data, and is that access logged?
- What sits between my server and the internet?
- How and when will you tell me about a security incident that affects me?
The commercial and exit questions
- What is the total monthly cost including egress, backup and support, and what makes it change?
- What are the support hours, who answers, and what happens outside them?
- If I leave, how do I get my data out, in what format, and what does that cost?
That last one is the most revealing question on the list. A provider confident in their service answers it plainly. Difficulty getting a straight answer about leaving tells you something about how the relationship is expected to work.
Our answers
Teraco DB1 in Durban, ISO and PCI compliant, audited annually. Dedicated resources with guaranteed CPU, RAM and storage. Veeam backups with up to 21 days of retention and quarterly drill tests. Fortigate firewalls in front of everything, 24/7 monitoring, 8×5 remote support. Fixed monthly rand pricing with no egress charges and no lock-in contract. Your data is yours and we will help you move it.
The longer version is on our datacentre assurance page, and the offer of a walkthrough with your technical team is genuine.