There’s a saying in the venture capital community: If you want money, ask for advice; if you want advice, ask for money.
It doesn’t work quite the same way with cloud hosting providers. But it is true that customers who ask us for advice during the pre-sale process are often the ones who end up saving money further down the line. The best approach is to start with an honest conversation about your needs and plans. Using an e-commerce company as an example: Is the business even and steady, or do you see major spikes around big sales? What are your plans for outbound marketing? Are your customers just in the United States or around the world? For what contingencies do we need to plan?
At this stage, you’re getting free advice, while you’re defining your needs. Leaseweb has done this kind of work many times before for customers ranging from very small to quite large. Most of the problems that are likely to crop up – technical or otherwise – are items we’ve had to address already.
We also understand the commonalities and “must haves.” I know every e-commerce company is focused on at least these three things: 1) reliability, 2) scalability, and 3) security. However, the best way to achieve these three objectives varies tremendously based on their specific needs.
Reliability goes beyond uptime. It’s the assurance that while your company is thinking about marketing, fulfillment and a hundred other things that go into running your business, someone else is laser-focused on the computing infrastructure. (Of course you also want fully redundant architecture and to be on state-of-the-art equipment.)
Scalability is simply knowing that success in marketing won’t lead to failure in hosting. Backing dedicated hardware with a virtual private network – which can be spun up or down as needed – ensures traffic spikes won’t end up in missed sales.
For security, the protections are universal but the necessary certifications will vary by country or continent. As a global hosting provider with experience in many different markets, Leaseweb can help advise you on solutions that meet local legal or regulatory environments. Our global Content Delivery Network (CDN) means that no matter where your data is located, the customer experience can be just as good for everyone in any market.
I mentioned above that the best scenario is when we can be brought into the discussion at the beginning of the process, when the architecture is still being developed. Conversely, some of our least successful engagements have been with customers who were sure they knew exactly what they needed and just wanted the hosting to run it. Sometimes they’re right! But other times, issues crop up later that we could have helped avoid with an honest and transparent discussion up front.
Leaseweb is a trusted partner to mid-market companies, helping them find not just a solution but the right solution to their critical cloud-hosted needs from our global hybrid platforms. The hosting costs money, but the advice and know-how are free. What can we build together? Find out more here.