Does location of servers matter to clients?

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Posted by maze65, 10-09-2002, 09:13 AM
Hi there, I'm currently researching reseller packages and wondered if anyone could give me some feedback on the following: I'm based in the UK and would be predominately selling to UK customers. My initial investigation has led me to believe that the best reseller plans come from non-UK suppliers. Do you think it matters to clients that the servers their sites are hosted on are not located in the UK? I know that not all clients will ask this but I'm sure that some will. If anyone can recommend a good UK reseller could they send me personal email at info@sand-baggers.com. Any opinions appreciated.
Posted by Joana, 10-09-2002, 09:34 AM
It does matter where Servers are located because it will mean fast or slow response time from servers to clients via the NOC network. Also matters is the load on the server it self if it's over crowded or light loaded. For examples, email me..
Posted by alohahosts, 10-09-2002, 10:19 AM
Most of my clients don't know where our servers are, since they have never asked. But the ones who do ask, usually ask for a specific datacentre since they find faster response times in some centres over others.
Posted by pmabraham, 10-09-2002, 10:37 AM
Greetings: "I'm based in the UK and would be predominately selling to UK customers. My initial investigation has led me to believe that the best reseller plans come from non-UK suppliers." Your not alone. One of the reasons we are told by U.K., Netherlands, etc. customers that they picked us or our resellers telling us they picked us and several other U.S.-based hosting providers is that the overall performance is faster / better. Thank you.
Posted by UH-Matt, 10-09-2002, 11:04 AM
UK customers would PREFER uk hosting should they have a choice, but often they do not have enough knowledge to know about facts like ping times. This rule applies throughout hosting.. generally a customer "in the know" would prefer a host as local to them or there intended site audience as possible.
Posted by maze65, 10-09-2002, 11:40 AM
Thanks for the feedback, I have to say regardless of traceroute results etc. I would rather be able to say to my clients that at least one of my servers was based in a UK datacentre. When you compare the costs and features between non-UK and UK reseller accounts the differences are considerable. I know people say you get what you pay for. However I've looked at a number of what I consider value for money reseller accounts (not based in the UK) and they get good reviews from people who post on these forums. So, are there any competitively priced resellers based in the UK? Email me at info@sand-baggers.com if you can help. Thanks John
Posted by pmabraham, 10-09-2002, 11:41 AM
Greetings: "UK customers would PREFER uk hosting should they have a choice, but often they do not have enough knowledge to know about facts like ping times." If they had a choice, that would be true. However, we are frequently told by our U.K. clients the choice for them does not exist locally. They've made those statements in the past based on overall performance issues. I believe huge advancements are being made in European markets in terms of technology AND business practices. But I believe both (technology & business practices) must be in sync for customers to have a real choice. To be clear on the business practice issue, most of what I've seen happens to come down to response time for sales and technical support issues in relation to various holidays, human resource labor issues (the clock), and similar issues and events. We had our own experiences earlier this year when we were seeking high end hosting for one of our managed service clients. Their hosting solution required five servers, load balancing, VLAN, etc. Response time from U.S. companies averaged same day to next day while response times from companies in the U.K. averaged one to two weeks. When they did settle on a U.K. company, we were forewarned that particular times support availability would be lowered due to holiday and other issues that would not have impacted U.S. based companies. Also see => Web Hosting Downtime Costly for UK Firms => http://www.thewhir.com/features/downtime032002.cfm Now, on the plus side is that once they were set up at the U.K. firm communication during the supported business time periods was awesome in terms of frequency, quantity, etc. The largest issues came to overall accessibility and technology performance. Thank you.
Posted by Dnslinux, 10-09-2002, 01:07 PM
Hello. We are also based in the UK with US based servers. Most of our clients are based in the UK, but we also have clients from the US, Europe and as far a field as Australia. Not many of our customers ask where the servers are based. They are more concerned about support issues, up time....etc Regarding a good list of UK based resellers, try www.whichhosts.com What servers are you lookign at (Windows/ Linux) and how much webspace/ bandwidth do you need? Regards
Posted by maze65, 10-09-2002, 01:31 PM
Hi DnsLinux, I'm looking at the H-Sphere control panel at the moment because it caters for both Windows and Linux. Although I have heard that there are billing problems with the H-Sphere control panel (on these forums). As for bandwidth 30Gb + per month. Reading the replies has been beneficial. I started out thinking a UK prescence would be important to clients now I'm beginning to think differently. I guess what it boils down to is reliability and speed. If you can source a quality service outwith the UK for less money then it's a good business decision. It's going to take me a lot more research before I take the plunge so I'll no doubt be posting more newbie questions. Thanks John

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