The e-commerce bandwagon is rolling full steam ahead, and competitive pressure dictates that you climb aboard. There's an intense push on to roll out eye-catching Web sites that keep those credit-card numbers coming in. But while marketing visionaries and profit-hungry executives rally to the clarion call of the Web, IT managers confront the less rose-colored reality. In many companies, there are simply too few hands on deck with the right skills and the time to devote to new, cutting-edge projects, much less commit to the care and feeding of data-hungry Web servers.
But where there's a need, there's a third-party provider. Web-hosting services promise to handle the technical aspects of running a Web site for you. Of course, proffered services vary widely. At the least, the hosting services house and maintain Web servers, providing shared space to customers. At the high end, a Web host service is a partner, a critical implementer of its customer's e-commerce strategy.
We issued an RFP to see which Web-host providers could present the necessary infrastructure and expertise to assume Web-server management and guarantee the continuous availability of business-critical information on the Web. We created Widgets R Us, a fictitious multimillion-dollar retailer catering to do-it-yourselfers. Widgets R Us has about 2,000 employees operating out of a Denver warehouse and administrative center, with 22 storefront locations in the Midwest and two in Canada.
Widgets R Us' chairman has kicked off a new and, in his words, "brilliant" initiative: Widgets R Us will open a virtual complement to its brick-and-mortar operations. The site it will create is to showcase its selection of several hundred widgets. Customers will be able to buy any widget in the warehouse direct from the Web site. For those who don't make their purchase online, the site will provide the location of the retail store closest to the buyer. The chairman intends for the site to be an informational hub.
Our RFP included many elements. Some were specific, such as asking for Domain name registration. Others were more general, including Internet access for the retail stores.
We never specified a budget, so respondents were free to operate on their own assumptions. Click to see the proposal
We quickly discovered that all Web-hosting vendors are not created equal. Of the 24 companies sent our RFP, seven submitted a formal response--AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Concentric Network Corp., Frontier Communications, GTE Internetworking, Sprint Corp. and Verio. Several of the no-shows replied that they couldn't offer the dedicated service that our RFP specified; the limited resources or changing plans of others made a timely response impossible.
Compare the seven responses we received and you'll see the main differences falling into five categories: connectivity, the hardware-software solution, IT services, application services and price. Obviously, picking a Web-hosting plan is a more complicated decision than choosing a rental car, but for illustrative purposes it may be helpful to draw parallels between the two. Imagine choosing between an economy car, a midsize car and a luxury car. One is not superior to the other two in every respect; they simply serve different needs. The luxury car may offer more features, but you have to pay more for the pleasure.
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But where there's a need, there's a third-party provider. Web-hosting services promise to handle the technical aspects of running a Web site for you. Of course, proffered services vary widely. At the least, the hosting services house and maintain Web servers, providing shared space to customers. At the high end, a Web host service is a partner, a critical implementer of its customer's e-commerce strategy.
We never specified a budget, so respondents were free to operate on their own assumptions. 
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