| Are you familiar with the concept of booking | | | | working with the averages. If they have |
| a plane ticket for a trip, then arriving at | | | | enough clients and have been in business long |
| the airport and being told that you cannot | | | | enough, they can soon determine what |
| board the flight since it is full? How is | | | | percentage of clients tend to use what |
| that possible if you have booked and paid for | | | | percentage of disk space. They can then base |
| your ticket? | | | | their overselling features based on these |
| | | | numbers. |
| Welcome to the world of overselling. | | | | |
| | | | 2. On the other hand, they have to be |
| Everyone oversells - from the air travel | | | | prepared for the small percentage of clients |
| companies to the cell phone operators. | | | | who WOULD use the space. Maybe someone buys |
| Overselling is a business model where the | | | | the package to do off-site backups, or they |
| business sells more of a resource than they | | | | upload large videos or images. The hosting |
| actually have to a group of customers since | | | | company needs to be prepared for those |
| they know that a large percentage of these | | | | customers and be able to provide them with |
| customers will never use 100% of the | | | | the space if they really require it. The |
| resource. | | | | hosting company therefore needs to be able to |
| | | | quickly scale up and bring in extra hardware |
| For example: Airplane companies regularly | | | | in the form of additional hard disk space or |
| overbook their flights since they know that | | | | servers to meet this demand. |
| not everyone will pitch for the flight. In | | | | |
| this way they can make sure that their | | | | 3. Lots of hosting companies offer reseller |
| flights are full regardless of the fact that | | | | services, where they sell a certain amount of |
| a percentage of people will cancel or not | | | | hard disk space and bandwidth to a reseller, |
| arrive. | | | | who then chops up the resources into smaller |
| | | | packages and sells it on again. The danger |
| Cell phone companies oversell their talk time | | | | comes in if both the parent hosting company |
| - offering huge packages of possible talk | | | | as well as the reseller do overselling! This |
| time minutes to customers for a very low | | | | can quickly lead to a lack of resources and |
| price since the know that it is not humanly | | | | the customer will suffer. |
| possible to utilize all those talk time | | | | |
| minutes in a month. Why do they do it? It | | | | 4. Most hosting companies, whether they |
| offers a very attractive and competitive | | | | operate on an overselling principle or not, |
| package to potential clients (Wow! Look at | | | | have a Terms of Service that regulates how |
| how many talk time minutes I have, for only | | | | the account can be used. This is to protect |
| $very-little). | | | | the web host against abuse and practices that |
| | | | might harm their businesses or |
| During the past couple of years the concept | | | | infrastructure. This normally includes |
| of overselling has also started to take place | | | | practices related to spam, illegal websites, |
| in the hosting world. What, you mean you | | | | and what the web space and bandwidth can be |
| thought you were REALLY getting 350GB of hard | | | | used for. Some web hosting providers do not |
| disk space and 3000GB bandwidth for $5 a | | | | allow video streaming, for example. These |
| month? | | | | Terms of Service can assist a web host to |
| | | | control the use of its infrastructure and can |
| Basically overselling in the hosting arena is | | | | contribute to the good management of the |
| what makes it seems like you are getting a | | | | packages and customers utilizing this |
| really good deal - tons of hard disk space | | | | infrastructure - whether they are overselling |
| and bandwidth for very little money. Hosting | | | | or not. |
| companies know that the average web site | | | | |
| probably do not use more than about 150Mb to | | | | Unfortunately there is no way of really know |
| 250Mb of hard disk space for a website, so | | | | whether a hosting company is operating on a |
| why offer 350GB? And can you really use the | | | | reselling basis or not, unless use your |
| full 350GB? | | | | common sense with regards to the prices on |
| | | | offer. Overselling in the hosting industry is |
| Firstly, they offer it because it makes them | | | | not necessarily a bad thing, it is just |
| stand out as offering exceptional value for | | | | something that you might want to be aware of |
| money. A good deal, or getting something for | | | | when you buy a hosting package. If the |
| practically nothing is always irresistible, | | | | hosting provider provides good service, |
| even though most people, in the back of their | | | | monitors its server usage and is able to |
| minds, know that if the offer is too good to | | | | scale its resources when necessary - what |
| be true, it probably is not true. | | | | more can you ask for? |
| | | | |
| Let us see if a hosting company can offer | | | | If you are concerned about overselling, |
| such huge packages and still be true. | | | | enquire from your hosting provider whether |
| | | | they have their own infrastructure of not - |
| 1. It is definitely true that not everyone is | | | | if they are resellers and they offer enormous |
| ever going to use all that space. The trick | | | | packages you might want to be careful before |
| then comes in with calculating the odds and | | | | you sign up. |