As businesses, and particularly small and medium-sized businesses, rely  increasingly on the internet for core functions such as e-commerce web sites, email and hosted applications, any interruption in service is a huge concern.

In the current economic climate, every opportunity to sell must be maximised. Hosting providers have
become adept at building in get-out clauses to protect themselves, rather than their customers, in the event of failures - even when they appear to offer a 100 per cent uptime guarantee.

So when selecting a hosting provider, do not be bamboozled by marketing puff and false promises. Place
issues such as resilience,   customer care, hardware fix times and real-world service level agreements at the top of your list.

Ben White