RE: Choosing a Service/Hosting Provider

[Irwin Lazar]

Our consulting practice spends a lot of time on this very issue.  I'd rate
the top three things that our customers are looking for from SP's are as
follows:

- Customer Service - a single point of contact, pro-active network
management, and fast provisioning.  Poor customer service, IMHO, is the
single biggest complaint I hear from our customers about their current
service providers

- Cost - especially considering market slow-downs

- Geographic Availability - being able to provide service where its needed
and when its needed, via a single point of contact if partnership
arrangements are required.

I'd also add financial stability as another concern.  Companies are very
wary about putting their lifeblood onto a service provider's network when
that service provider isn't financially stable.

Irwin

-----
Irwin Lazar - ilazar@tbg.com <mailto:ilazar@tbg.com> 
Senior Consultant, The Burton Group
Office: 703-742-9659
Cell: 703-402-4119
http://www.tbg.com/
"The Ultimate Resource For Network Architects"


-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Gauthier [mailto:eric@roxanne.org]
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2001 11:29 AM
To: nanog@merit.edu
Subject: Choosing a Service/Hosting Provider



Hello,

I'm pretty sure that this question has been picked to death on
this list, but I couldn't find a good thread in the nanog archives.
If there is one in there, can someone drop me a pointer off-list?

Anyways, here is my question:  What should people look for when choosing
a service or hosting provider?

Thanks.

Eric