In web hosting business, a marketing fad in the past few years has been offers of unlimited space and bandwidth. The only thing I can think of offhand that is really unlimited – is time. What kind of servers are these sites being hosted on anyway? What’s the biggest hard drive physically available? If I am expecting bandwidth at 1129 Tbps, is that possible?
There are real physical limits on bandwidth and space.
The bandwidth available to data centers in the Midwest is different than the bandwidth offered, for example, in NY, Dallas, LA and Chicago. Data centers have to pay upstream providers for the bandwidth they offer to their clients. Some upstream providers with varying latency on their network price out lower or higher than others. Data centers routinely offer a blend of 3, 4 or more providers through BGP (Border Gateway Protocol), but can offer a preferred network with failover to a blended network – significantly reducing the end client’s bandwidth cost.
Are unlimited plans at $3.99/Month realistic?
In one word – NO. I’ve yet to find one offer of unlimited space and bandwidth at any price that doesn’t have a corresponding TOS and AUP that addresses the specific bandwidth and space allowable. So why do so many hosts offer these packages? It’s all about perception of value – to the unsuspecting general public. The offer sounds fantastic, until you buy into the plan and get canceled by that provider for violating some clause of their TOS. I read threads every day of the week posted in forums on the Internet by unsuspecting clients – wondering why their account was canceled by host xxx?
Compare this to your own business.
Do you find that managing your prospects expectations works out best? That ‘never needs sharpening’ knife isn’t really going to last forever, is it? Here’s a simple question to ask any provider that offers unlimited space on their webserver. How large is the hard drive that I’ll be hosted on? Unlimited? Not by a long shot!
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Friday, 3. April 2009
I remember the Google CEO saying recently that all the worlds information would be on one hard drive 15 years from now. He never said that hard drive would be the size of a quarter. So, I agree with you but it is so hard for companies to resist this type of over-promising. I suspect that they don’t get called out on it very much.
Saturday, 4. April 2009
Agreed. I am a host as well. I believe in honest upfront pricing and telling the customer what to expect from it. I tried an “unlimited” plan once. I knew it was a high traffic, high resource site, but to me unlimited meant unlimited. They kept shutting the site off saying it was using so much processor that it was disrupting others. Well I guess it was not really unlimited them was it? Unlimited is a physical impossibility, don’t buy into it.
Wednesday, 15. April 2009
I’m new to the hosting business and I will say this is truthful and very helpful. I want and will be one of those host that will not over promise. The truth is needed people appreciate it.