Hosting Companies: Can They Be Trusted To Police Themselves? - A Good Start
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While I don’t believe there is only one right way to approach this concept, one good starting point might be putting together a non-profit entity which consists of large and small companies and businesses, and have them build a charter. This entity would have an elected body which would communicate with a similar hosting equivalent body. The group of hosting companies would ensure equal representation so that they would be able to offer a inside perspective into what may or may not be needed in the way of guidelines that hosting companies should follow.
This approach might be a bit utopian in plan and scope but I believe it is a necessary evil, as no industry would actually wish for or want outside input as to how it conducts its business. The only way a concept like this would fly is if on its face it comes across as a fair and equitable scenario in which both the consumer and the industry wins as a whole. Anything less and it would never get off the ground. I also tend to think that if this concept is laid out in such a fashion, it would appeal to the general Internet public and would create enough impetus to push it along.
What I do know is that there are many hosting companies with tons and tons of Better Business Bureau complaints and many businesses laid to rest due to negligent hosting companies which don’t back up their servers, don’t maintain proper security measures, don’t hire competent personnel and on and on – even though their website says they do all of the aforementioned and then some. So who protects the consumer? Right now many just file for refunds through their Visa or American Express merchant.
Certainly there has to be a better and more effective way to ensure these types of complaints and issues do not continue to occur. After all, the customer would only receive their hosting fees back (after much hassle with the credit card company) but what about all of the business, revenues, and data lost? They are never compensated for those things, and in many instances the damages are incalculable.
One other point that should not get lost in all the confusion is that, since there is no way to police existing hosting companies currently, there really is no way to determine who is running a business out of their garage and who is running a legitimate shop. This newly minted organization should focus on the issues that will matter most to the end consumer and in that respect the entire hosting industry should come through it stronger and smarter. It's a win-win scenario.
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