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The More Things Change, the More They Stay a
Pain
Even the most unskilled businessperson knows instinctively the old adage that
it is "location, location, location" that is most important when
reaching one's target customer base. Why then, do so many companies ignore this
concept when building their eBusiness? Fundamental business practices are
strikingly similar for both bricks-and-mortar and virtual storefronts. The only
difference is that an eBusiness exists on the virtual "lot" of a Web
host. Choosing the wrong host for your eBusiness can be as damaging as
attempting to open a baby-goods store next to a brothel.
Much has been written on the methodology of choosing the right Web host for
your business. But what happens when you want to move to another - hopefully
superior - hosting company? Just as a decline in local income, a rising crime
rate, or limited space in the face of corporate expansion will cause a
bricks-and-mortar business to move to another location, an eBusiness will
sometimes need to find another virtual lot to set up shop in.
Why would you want to make such a move? As always, it's an issue of expansion
of business or reduction of service. Perhaps your store has outgrown the meager
resources of that small, inexpensive hosting company that was such a godsend
when you were working out of your basement. Or maybe a recent merger has caused
the service agreement to change in a detrimental way. The worst-case scenario -
your host is going out of business - will definitely necessitate a move.
The assumption is that many eCommerce professionals are too complacent, and are
unwilling to make such a large, fundamental change to their business. However,
this complacency is well founded, as changing your Web hosting service can be a
long and complicated process. This is especially true for an e-tail site, since
the store's software, catalog, customer database and Web commerce server needs
to be moved as well - all without causing an instant of disruption to the
day-to-day transactions and sales of the company.
In general, however, you can make the process relatively effortless as long as
you take some preemptive steps:
- Make sure you've already secured the
services of the new host.
- Ensure that you have access to your existing
scripts and data.
- Resolve any issues that may surround your
domain name with the move.
While the temptation may be to rush through the change in order to move and
resecure your site as quickly as possible, if you don't take the time to
choose the right provider, you could experience similar problems down the
road - which will necessitate another move!
eCommerce sites in particular have some special
issues to address when choosing a new host:
- Ensure that the eCommerce package your
business is using is supported by the new host, unless you wish to redo the
entire architecture of your storefront.
- If your store runs on CGI scripts, you must
find a host that supports these. Even so, leave some extra time, as your
scripts will probably still have to be amended to reflect the new server
environment.
- If your business is running on a
single-source eCommerce solution (such as Yahoo! Store), then be prepared to
leave time for a major overhaul, as you will have to select and configure a
new eCommerce package.
- The next major hurdle is the transfer of
data to your new host. Obviously, in order to do this, you will need to have
access to your current data and scripts. Ideally, you will be able to
download these from your existing host, but issues of propriety, or your
host going out of business can make this problematic. The best solution is
to always maintain a local, updated copy of this info, as your most valuable
asset as an eBusiness is your customer, sales, and product data.
The issue of you domain should be the easiest
step. Your new host should be able to give you the nameserver information,
which you then pass on to your domain name authority. It's best to do this on
a Friday, as it will probably take about 72 hours to fully direct your current
traffic to your new nameserver.
One obstacle you may encounter is that the naming authority will only accept
change requests from the person listed as the administrative contact, so make
sure your name is there and not the host's, for if you host goes out of
business, this person might be impossible to track down.
Remember, the quality of your location will influence your customer's opinion.
If your eBusiness is stuck in a bad neighborhood - it's time to move on!
We can recommend you quality and cheap Linux web hosting
http://www.junpak.com
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