Again and again we see companies offering 100% uptime. In a previous post I have ranted about how inaccurate uptime is perceived. Here I would like to have another go at the never-failing servers and indestructible network infrastructures.

100% Network Uptime Guarantee – It sounds tempting and nice. Actually, a lot of hosting providers are advertising this on their sites. When you read “100% uptime”, you instantly get the idea that they found some miraculous way to keep the network availability and servers running with no interruption. The other way to think about it is to consider it a scam.

A lot of reputable providers are advertising this, so we will leave out the scam option for now.

What hosting providers mean by the big 100% Uptime banner is that they guarantee you 100%, but under certain conditions. If they are not able to meet the expectations of their clients, webhosting providers credit their clients’ accounts. It still sounds somewhat fair. You don’t get 100% uptime, but you benefit from the whole situation, by prolonging your plan for free. You might also be offered extra space and other perks.

Here is where it gets real. The hosting providers do not offer any credits if any of the following conditions apply, including but not limited to:

Scheduled maintenance and emergency maintenance and upgrades

• Server power cycles (roughly 15 minutes)
• DNS issues outside the hosting provider
• War, insurrection, sabotage, armed conflict, embargo, fire, flood, strike or other labor disturbance
• Failures of server hardware – that one is my favorite

The list varies with different providers, but you get the idea. It sounds nice on a banner, but in fact 100% uptime, the way we would like to have it – never-failing hardware and not network issues, is just not possible in this day and age. The very moment 100% uptime becomes possible, a whole industry will go under. If one day 100% network availability and 100% never failing server clusters become available, we will still have the human factor.

Don’t get an overpriced hosting service. Get a reliable hosting service and back it up with one of our services. Our rate is usually a lot less than the difference which you will pay for an expensive hosting, but you will get extra protection and peace of mind.