If you own a business, it can be safely assumed that you have dreams, and even plans, of growing it as time goes by. The plans you have for the future should always include your website – an integral part of any modern business today.
And yet, even the most proficient business owners and managers struggle when it comes to planning the web hosting future of their websites, not because of lack of will, but simply because not much is said about the subject.
The most common way of dealing with a website’s growth is to simply get the best, the cheapest and the latest package on offer and try to move the old website to it. This approach might work – in fact, it usually does – but the margin of errors and the chance of wasting resources are almost always on the high side.
So, let us see how you can plan, today, for an optimal web hosting future using the proper way:
- Plot and map all the features of your website, your hosting package and the server your hosting providers have assigned to you have. Be as detailed as possible as you might need the information later in case, knock wood, the transformation doesn’t work out as planned.
This information can also be used as a list of features that you will need to upgrade when the time comes.
- Things that you need to keep track of include operating systems (of your local machine and the server you host the site on), your web design tools (their current versions), number or size of files (including their backup) and the feature specifications of the hosting server.
Don’t forget to also look into apps or extensions that have been added to the site and what their individual requirements are.
- Take note of features that have been added to the server since you started hosting with your provider, patches and updates they have applied as well as any other supporting software they use (anti-virus and anti-malware, for example) and their versions too.
- Next, list out the sizes and limits of your hosting package. This includes things like disk space, bandwidth and processing speeds. At this stage, also make note of how much of these resources you have used and how much was sitting idle – this will help you plan the way forward.
- Keep a diagram of your network structure and the way it has been configured. Map out how your servers communicate with one another in case you use more than one server.
- Don’t forget to list intermediary soft- or hardware – the kinds that are used to convert data from one format to another or perhaps even to encrypt it.
Once you have this information clearly mapped out, you can now go towards planning for the future. Depending on whether it is a short- or long-term plan you can draw up an improved comprehensive or extended plan.
But first figure out what it is you want to improve upon:
- Are you anticipating a growth in traffic?
- Are you anticipating an addition of stock or products?
- Are you expanding your site and need more processing power?
- Are you enhancing your website and need more technologically advanced features?
- Are you doing all of the above?
Depending on the answers to the questions above, add the necessary resources, find out software improvements that can be done to your website and don’t forget to cut out resources that have been sitting idle and that you haven’t been using.
Integrate these findings into your new, improved plan taking into consideration new technologies and improvements made on old versions of both soft- and hardware. On the other hand, replace or drop apps, applications and software that have been outdated – or are soon going to be so – as well as those that are no longer being supported by their manufacturers or second-party software distributors.
Wherever you can, update or upgrade these software and then make absolutely sure that the new versions work with your site and perform as well and as accurately as they should.
Next, make sure all the changes and predictions are included and reflected in all parts of your structure. You wouldn’t want your new versions of software to work fine in the front and totally fail when it comes to storing your data in the background. You wouldn’t want your apps to work well on your client-to-server connections but fail when they are accessed from, or uploaded to, the cloud. If there is conflict anywhere, you will need to go back and start afresh – smooth everything from back to front.
Once this plan is finalized test it out at least once more; don’t take anything for granted. You might also find tweaks and improvements than can drastically change your website’s performance or even bring about a new way of doing things.
Finally, draw up the final master plan and make sure you store it where it can be accessed and reviewed by your concerned staff until it is actually implemented.
