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Early mistakes by customers when underestimating future needs
Turbo_Pascal
Member
What are the most common mistakes business customers make early on by not considering future growth, needs or demands? For example, imagine an online store that sells physical goods.
I imagine the following are possible.
- Selecting a provider that is cheap but unreliable
- Selecting a datacenter in a disaster-prone location
- Selecting a hosting package that is too small and cannot be upgraded or upgraded easily
- Buying a shared package that cannot be converted to a VPS
- Selecting a provider with bad IP reputation
I am new at this and would appreciate ideas for avoiding such mistakes (or determining which "mistakes" are actually okay).
Comments
I would just say couple of things.
BACKUPS & DISASTER RECOVERY
shit happens even with the best planning. But having proper backups and disaster recovery plan in place will mean peace of mind.
Before someone else says I'll put it out, again.
RAID is not backup.
This!
That!
Point taken! But what is the best planning? That's what my specific question is about. I don't know enough about how to plan well.
My question is not about backups and disaster recovery, as essential as they are.
Planning for Backups and DR is the best Planning.
Don't overthink. If you have a set business things could be different. If it's something new, start small. Look for a provider that allows easy upgrades as demand increases.
Don't aim for the best from day 1. These things cost money and people to manage it.
If you are going to setup and manage things on your own, good. But DOCUMENT everything so in future as you expand your team, they know what you have done so far.
If it's purely e-commerce, starting with shared hosting is perfect. It relieves you from the burden to manage your infrastructure.
Regardless of any provider you use, please take time to read and understand their ToS and AuP. Of something is not clear/ need clarifications ask their sales/ pre sales.
If one provider does not respond/ match what you may have seen with other providers, don't crib about that. There are number of providers to choose from.
Have proper ToS and AuP defined for your customers too. Set correct expectations about return policy. Have proper policies defined when you will provide refunds.