What does the loading speed of a web page depend on? Why is user experience so important? What advantages does having a server in Spain offer? Having a good network infrastructure is essential, that is why we have interviewed Eladio Pérez, Head of Network Management at dinahosting, to give us answers to all those questions that small and large companies ask when looking for the best network provider. hosting and hire a hosting plan that best suits your needs.
1. Taking care of the loading speed and UX of a website is important. What are the keys to making a web page load faster and provide a better user experience? What benefits does optimal website performance bring to a business? Let’s talk about the role that good network infrastructure plays.
The loading speed of a web page or any other service hosted on external servers depends on numerous factors. Many are directly related to programming, but one of the most important is the speed of transfer of the information that makes up a web page.
A good network infrastructure ensures that the server always has all the available bandwidth to deliver your data at the highest possible speed. In this way, congestion is prevented from occurring due to the fight for resources between the different hostings and servers housed in the infrastructure, which forces data packets to be queued, waiting for there to be space to be transmitted. Congestion always implies delays in the delivery of data and even retransmissions and this inevitably leads to increased loading times of the website or service.
If the hosting provider has multiple high-capacity Internet connections, there will be much less chance of the main links becoming saturated and causing such a traffic jam. If, in addition, the internal connections between the network infrastructure equipment are high speed and the servers themselves are connected to devices with sufficient capacity so as not to be saturated with the traffic of all the connected systems, it can be guaranteed that most of time there will be no type of congestion on the network.
2. When talking about network infrastructure, the need arises to highlight the importance of the location of the Data Centers. What guarantees does having Data Centers in Spain offer? How does the client benefit?
This question also has to do with the previous point. Distances when transmitting data are not irrelevant, since it takes time to traverse the different network infrastructures and to reach one location on the planet from another.
Latency is the time it takes for each data packet to reach its destination and receive a response. The larger it is, the longer it takes to transmit a website that is made up of thousands of packets and whose latencies add up because they are transmitted in sequence, one after another.
If your server is located in the United States, it will take double or triple the time to transmit the same information as if it were hosted in Spain, simply due to the distance. Even in Europe it can be 50% or more overtime.
This is one of the factors to take into account when choosing a hosting provider. If your server is hosted in Spain, you are assured that it will comply with all the requirements that the law requires of service providers and for which they are legally responsible.
3. On a technical level, how can choosing an unsuitable hosting service affect you? What aspects do you need to look at when choosing a good hosting provider?
To choose a good hosting service, in addition to looking at the aforementioned aspects of latency, bandwidth and location, you must also take into account the quality of user support, as well as the guarantee of operability.
For example, there are important questions that need to be asked before choosing one service or another: Do you want to have the option of contacting by phone or chat to speak directly with a person, or do you prefer to have a robot answer you? Are you in favor of receiving immediate attention? Are you satisfied with it being in English, or do you like it being in your language? Is it more convenient for you to open a ticket to be attended to by the Customer Service team when I can? These are just some questions that any user who wants to choose a good provider to start their online project has to think about.
At the same time, there are other key aspects, such as contracting a service that aims to provide an uptime of more than 99.99% that guarantees that the hosting will be available to users as much of the time as possible.
Extra services are also important, such as Backups, balancers, easily installable web plugins and a Control Panel that allows you to manage everything in a simple and understandable way, among others.
4. Once the service has been contracted, how can you monitor that the contracted service is being received and optimized? Why is it key for hosting providers to monitor the needs of their clients and adapt the contracted plans?
Any user who contracts a hosting plan at dinahosting has free access to their own Control Panel from which to fully manage all services in a fast and unified manner, without the need to access other external platforms. Thus, you can check what you have contracted, how its performance is, what customization options you have active, what self-installable applications you have available, etc.
In addition, our clients have access, also from the Panel, to a web Antivirus tool, which allows them to scan a specific directory, in order to identify if there are suspicious files on the hosting. If they are malicious files, there is the option to delete them on your own or ask us to disinfect the hosting.
From time to time, the Support team contacts each client to follow up and evaluate their needs, so that the contracted services can always be adapted to the evolution of each project. In this sense, the quality of Customer Service is essential, because if there is any question or incident, a specialized team must always be available to assist 24/7.
5. Another challenge for SMEs and businesses on the Internet is the security problems they face. How can a trusted hosting provider help make your business better protected?
One of the best ways to ensure the protection of a website is to have a perimeter firewall system that cleans up most of the unwanted traffic.
Other resources are, for example: having a constant monitoring system that alerts of suspicious behavior and implements automatic filtering measures to stop potentially dangerous behavior; rely on companies specialized in DDoS control (denial of service attacks) to withstand this type of threats when they are beyond the capabilities of the internal infrastructure; or certifying that Data Protection directives and others related to network security are complied with, and accrediting them through external audits.
6. What is the impact of Artificial Intelligence in the field of hosting and domains?
If we talk about the significant impact of Artificial Intelligence in this field of hosting and domains, I can separate it into three important levels.
At the development level, AI can greatly simplify the process that goes from having the need or idea to create a website, until it is developed and launched.
At the network level, it can end up implemented in routing and switching equipment to make decisions about the best way to send data packets from one side of the network to the other, both internal and external, more flexible.
Finally, at the security level, which is surely the field with the greatest potential, it can be very useful to discover inappropriate or dangerous behaviors that are currently difficult to detect with traditional tools.
7. In an environment as changing as the Internet is today, how can hosting companies be constantly updated to offer the best service to their customers? Why is it so important that you always offer the latest technology to your customers?
You must be permanently alert to the new developments that are being shown, both at the level of services and infrastructure and, in the case of the latter, making the necessary investments to have the network equipment updated so that you can take advantage of the latest technological developments. relevant that have arisen during the useful life of the equipment.
From a hardware point of view, at dinahosting we were pioneers in incorporating NVMe SSDs in both hosting and servers. They are the latest technology in the field of storage and provide much higher speed for all types of tasks.
In addition, we have recently added servers with GPUs to our catalog of services, designed to accelerate high computing or massive data processing in AI projects or businesses that need to process large packets of information.
8. In addition to the emergence of AI, what other technological challenges will you have to face in the short term?
The constant increase in bandwidth available at users’ homes will increasingly require that the websites and services they visit load as quickly as possible and they will not understand that after having increased the speed of their Internet connection, a website or service may take the same time as it took before and end up blaming the provider for the poor performance detected.
DDoS attacks, ransomware and other threats have more and more bandwidth and can use more complex algorithms to do evil. This allows them to bypass standard protective measures with a greater chance of success. It is necessary to get ahead of them and put more sophisticated security measures in place to protect the services hosted by clients.
9. Is it possible that technological advance goes hand in hand with respect for the environment or is it a utopia? How can you guarantee customers that they are hiring a green and efficient hosting service? What advantages does it have?
It is difficult to go hand in hand, but not impossible. It is necessary to ensure that the Data Center where the infrastructure is stored complies with environmental regulations and, above all, that it has Green DC certification, which ensures that the energy sources used to generate the necessary electricity are of renewable origin. .
At dinahosting we received accreditation as Green Hosting a few weeks ago thanks to the use of 100% renewable energy, both in our offices and in the Data Centers in Madrid. This reflects the commitment to the environment and sustainability, and guarantees users are hosting their websites on quality and sustainable hosting.
10. Where is the hosting and domain market heading? What are the challenges you will have to face in the near future?
Little by little we see how more traditional businesses are realizing that the online world can provide them with direct advantages and new opportunities. There are still many projects around us that still do not have their basic digitalization needs covered, but interest is growing.
Without losing sight of everything new that comes, our goal is to continue working on making our hosting plans fast and secure, and on providing the client with easy-to-use tools that help them in their management.
Artificial intelligence, Edge computing, 5G…. Trends lead us to think that we will have the bandwidth on our mobile that a server has right now. We will have to be prepared for this and for many other challenges to come.
