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metric since download speeds are typically higher than upload speeds. Small and medium
businesses can also benefit from faster continuous access than was previously possible.
The higher speeds available through broadband together with a continuous ‘always on’
connection that has already transformed use of the Internet. Information access is more
rapid and it becomes more practical to access richer content such as digital video. The
increased speed increases usage of the Internet.

Issues in management of ISP and hosting relationships
The primary issue for businesses in managing ISPs and hosting providers is to ensure a satis-
factory service quality at a reasonable price. As the customers and partners of organizations
become more dependent on their web services, it is important that downtime be minimized.
But surprisingly in 2008 severe problems of downtime can occur as shown in Box 3.5 and
the consequences of these need to be avoided or managed.

Box 3.5 Downtime is inevitable

The Register (www.register.co.uk) catalogues challenges of managing IT. Here is a
recent selection of downtime article headlines which indicate the type of problem:
Thieves take out Cable & Wireless centre (10 July 2008)
Fasthosts’ dedicated servers go titsup (15 April 2008)
Fasthosts customers still frozen out of websites (5 December 2007)
Fasthosts customers blindsided by emergency password reset (30 November 2007)
Banking data fears over Fasthosts intruder (19 October 2007)
Fasthosts customer? Change your password now (18 October 2007)
Fasthosts admits email destruction fiasco (17 October 2007)
Fasthosts hit by severe floods (23 July 2007)
Fasthosts ‘electrical issue’ halts service for four hours (17 July 2007)
Level 3 floored by robbery (1 November 2006)
Level 3 has a little lie-down in the sun (25 July 2006)
Pipex hosting service floored by electrical fault (20 January 2006)
In the United States, a fire at hosting provider The Planet’s H1 data centre in Houston
caused downtime for many company web sites delivered around the world including the
author’s web site DaveChaffey.com, which as for many businesses is hosted by another

hosting provider that uses The Planet’s data centre for their services. The company
blamed a faulty transformer for a fire which meant that the local fire department asked
the hosting provider to switch off all generators and evacuate the building. No servers or
networking equipment were damaged, but the data centre remains without power, after
The Planet shut down all generators ‘as instructed by the fire department’. Around
10,000 servers were affected and some sites were down for as much as 3 days.

Speed of access
A site or e-business service fails if it fails to deliver an acceptable download speed for users.
In the broadband world this is still important as e-business applications become more com-
plex and sites integrate more rich media such as audio and video. But what is acceptable?
Research supported by Akamai (2006) suggested that content needs to load within 4 sec-
onds, otherwise site experience suffers. The research also showed, however, that high
product price and shipping costs and problems with shipping were considered more impor-
tant than speed. However, for sites perceived to have poor performance, many shoppers said
they would be be likely to visit the site again (64%) or buy from the e-retailer (62%).