Web hosting needs ISO standards

By Rawlson O'Neil King, theWHIR.com

May 18, 2000 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Web hosting needs ISO standards not for the purposes of interoperability but for consumer satisfaction.

With the advent of standards endorsed by The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), hosting would become a much more reliable service. Ironically, the present problem with hosting is that the myriad of Internet presence service options available is too wide, decreasing the reliability of service throughout the whole industry.

While choice might benefit consumers by providing them with an encumbered, abundance of preferences in cost and selection, by and large such circumstances are more apt to confuse consumers by making it near to impossible to find analogous service packages when a change of service providers is necessary.

The main problem with selecting a hosting service then is ensuring that a comparable backup service exists.  While the basic protocols and standards that define the technical aspects of Web hosting are well established, no basic protocols and standards exist to define Web hosting service levels. With ISO standards, this could easily be achieved because as a condition to
obtain certification, a Web host would be compelled to offer a specified core of essential services.

Though some Web hosting executives might argue that such standards will limit innovation, I do not believe that to be the case.  Standards would simply ensure that the most basic of Web hosting services are provided at a minimum standard of quality.  Service providers thus would not be precluded from offering enhanced or highly specific services.  They would just be
encouraged through certification to offer a standardized, basic set of services in their roster of offerings.

Presently, consumers cannot easily compare or switch service providers because basic services offered by firms differ in the extreme.  While one firm might offer more storage space with its service, another provider will offer less.  While one firm might offer proprietary, ancillary services, such as support for Microsoft Access databases or ColdFusion, another firm might not.

These differing levels of service make it extremely difficult for consumers to switch services offerings.  While locking in the consumer is a long-term goal of any ambitious hosting firm, it is not practical to achieve this by creating technological dependence.

With the economy experiencing turbulent times, smaller and more ambitious hosts and application service providers (ASPs) are failing. When these firms go belly up, they leave their customers in an utter state of confusion because attempting to find an equivalent suite of services is near to impossible. Standards could alleviate this problem by enumerating the minimal services required in basic Web hosting packages.

ISO standards could also be used to establish quality of service and assurance benchmarks.  In order to retain ISO certification then, a host would need to submit to a rigorous set of assurance testing.  These evaluations would determine whether a host is truly providing high quality connections to the Internet and whether their router and server configurations are optimal.  Continuous testing would also ensure that a host's uptime guarantee is being met.

The advantages of adopting ISO standards in the industry are thus three-fold.  Firstly, the implementation of standards would define a level of uniform basic service.  Secondly, the adoption of ISO standards would ensure that a minimum quality of service is met.  Thirdly and most importantly, ISO standards would be enforced by an independent and unbiased set of industry participants.

This independence factor would be of utmost importance because of the highly competitive nature of the Web hosting industry.  Previous experimentation in ensuring consumer satisfaction resulted in the formation of industry-led evaluators such as the now defunct Web Host Guild..  While the mantra of such groups was that the industry could police itself, such organizations
were abysmal failures because they degenerated into unabashed marketing campaigns before they could develop meaningful industry benchmarks.

For this reason, only the adoption of independent ISO standards should be entertained.  The longer the industry avoids standardization, the more customer dissatisfaction will increase due to a lack of congruent, interchangeable services throughout the Web host industry.