Defining Web Hosting Reliability – If a tree falls in a forest…
You may have heard the philosophical question, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it really make a sound?” I presume if no one is around, then it does not make a sound. Why? In the late 1800s a science magazine defined sound as a “vibration, transmitted to our senses through the mechanism of the ear, and recognized as sound only at our nerve centers.” They also reasoned that, “the falling of the tree or any other disturbance will produce vibration of the air. If there be no ears to hear, there will be no sound.” I can buy that.
To that end I pose this question, “If a Web site goes down and no one tries to view it, is it really down?”
To help answer this question, Netcraft, a non-affiliated Internet hosting research firm, uses a similar model in determining the most reliable Web hosting companies. “From a customer’s point of view, the percentage of failed requests is more pertinent than outages on hosting companies’ own sites, as this gives a pointer to reliability of routing,” Netcraft stated. “This is why we choose to rank our table by fewest failed requests, rather than shortest periods of outage.”
WestHost is proud to be recognized by Netcraft as one of the top three most reliable web hosting companies in the world. Providing constant uptime and responsive support is our aim. Basically, we hear everything, even when no one else does.
If a Web site goes down and no one tries to view it, is it really down?
What do you think?