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The UK Internet Industry Awards 2011 - Best Shared Hosting
Originally published: May 2011
Company: Heart Internet
Service: Shared Hosting
Judging Criteria:
• Hours of support
• Hardware redundancy of each level
• Firewall protection
• Security measures at data centre(s)
• Patch management process
• Guarantees for connecting servers to the Internet
• Number of IP addresses offered
• Flexibility: Can size of site change without penalty or being tied into a contract?
• Payment options
• Price and value for money
• Domain / DNS management available
• Data centre availability / SLAs
Bearing in mind the judges criteria, entrants are required to answer the following questions using no more than 200 words per section. Please include any evidence within the given word limit. The Awards judges may contact entrants to clarify statements made in the written entry forms.
The deadline for completion of this form is 1st April 2011. Forms submitted after this date will not be accepted. Please email the completed form to awards@ispa.org.uk
1. In what way does your shared hosting service provide value for money?
24x7x365 UK support
All shared hosting customers get access to our UK web hosting support team, 24x7x365. We don’t outsource any support and it is all 100% based in our Nottingham office.
Always improving
We are always looking for ways to help make our customers lives easier and keep our products up to date. Examples from 2010 include a major refresh of our web hosting control panel, adding concrete5 to our one click install scripts, launching the iPhone control panel, introducing Hosted Exchange and upgrading our free Serif software deal to the latest version.
Free services and features
On top of the generous technical specifications we include a wide range of extra features and services completely free. These include a huge selection of one click install CGI scripts such as WordPress, Joomla & Drupal as well as web building software Serif WebPlus X4 (worth £79) and our exclusive iPhone web hosting control panel.
High quality servers
We only buy the latest and best servers. All our shared hosting customers websites are housed in Dell branded servers powered by the latest intel technology.
2. In what ways do you ensure the privacy and security of your customers’ data?
Technology & platform
We only use Dell servers in our web hosting platform. Our platform is designed to be highly redundant, all data is stored in network disk arrays. Data is automatically synchronised between the arrays so that in the event of an array failing the remaining array continues to serve data to the servers with no downtime.
Each array is also backed up each night to a separate backup cluster which is then written to tape and stored offsite.
Data centre
We utilise uninterruptable power supplies and an n+1 generator setup to ensure constant and clean energy to our infrastructure. The data centre is protected by fire suppression, monitored by CCTV both externally and internally, has 24x7x365 onsite security and the building is surrounded by an 8ft perimeter fence.
Security
We are automatically informed of new security patches via our vendor. Patches are applied within 24 hours. Our own platform is scanned each month for application vulnerabilities and we use a network scanner to identify weaknesses in our network. Heart Internet are PCI compliant.
3. Describe how your services offer choice, flexibility & innovation to customers
We cover all levels of experience and technical requirements through our shared hosting packages:
• Starter Pro is ideal for someone looking to build their first website or run a small website
• Home Pro is for more advanced users with features such as MySQL databases and Ecommerce
• Business Pro is for hosting customers who don’t want any limits placed on their website with unlimited web space, bandwidth, databases and Emails
• Reseller Pro: Built for web designers, IT professionals, & people who want to set up their own web hosting company. Every element can be 100% re-branded.
We accept payment via either credit card or debit card and provide a clear and easy to follow upgrade path for customers who want to move up a package.
Our customers have full domain and DNS management available through their control panel. Customers can also manage their websites and hosting accounts on the move with our exclusive iPhone control panel which has all the same functionality of the standard control panel. This is free for all Heart Internet customers.
4. What other features distinguish your service from that of your competitors?
customers ideas put in to action
Our customers have a real impact on our business and products with over 2,000 customer ideas and suggestions implemented to date. Using the feedback form within their control panel we receive hundreds every week and we read every single one of them and act on many of them.
No outsourcing
All our teams (support, development, system administration etc.) are direct employees based in our Nottingham office. We have no contractors and we don’t outsource any of our business abroad.
Customer engagement
We proactively engage with our customers through Twitter (www.twitter.com/heartinternet), Facebook (www.facebook.com/heartinternet) and our web hosting blog (www.heartinternet.co.uk/blog) initiating conversations and responding to questions.
About Heart Internet
Launched in 2004, Heart Internet has grown rapidly to become one of the UK's leading web hosting and reseller hosting companies. Named the UK's fastest growing Internet company of 2009 by Deloitte, Heart Internet's core values are based around high-quality products at competitive prices. Heart Internet is currently the fifth largest UK host for TLD domains hosted (source: www.webhosting.info).
Contact details
For further information please contact Matthew Telfer
Email: matthew.telfer@heartinternet.co.uk
DDI: 0115 934 2171
Heart Internet Ltd, 2 Castle Quay, Castle Boulevard , Nottingham, NG7 1FW
