Cleartext can provide web, email and application hosting and dedicated servers in various forms from Australian and USA based providers. We've been a hosting reseller for many years and recently started using USA based providers for customers asking for virtual servers.

We can even help you select a data centre if you want to have your own space for your own computers and dedicated network.

We'll help you select hosting and can manage it for you during the life of your web site or project. We'll ensure your site is monitored and backed up and restored should it fail for any reason.

When should I use Australian hosting?

Australian hosting is fine for most companies hosting requirements, if you're a typical Australian small to medium business then any of the myriad of hosting companies can provide enough storage and data at a reasonable cost.

We recommend NetRegistry in Australia because they are reliable and provide excellent customer support.

Why use offshore hosting?

If you've been watching the news you may have realised that Australia is 'broadband challenged', the cost of internet connections and the amount of data (stuff you can download) is far more (and far less respectively) than you can get from US based hosting companies.

Prevalence of explicit bit/data caps among surveyed offers, by country.

Australia was one of four countries with 0% of plans with 'No explicit bit cap', the USA was one of 10 countries with 100% of plans with no explicit bit cap. (The average of the other surveyed countries was 66%.)

OECD Broadband Statistics, October 2007.

This becomes an issue when you want to deliver rich media content like audio and video via your web site or web based application. Most Australian based hosting plans just don't offer enough disk space and data transfer at reasonable price points. This is when you should consider US based hosting.

What is hybrid hosting?

We've coined a new phrase, "Hybrid Hosting", this is a hosting setup where your main web hosting is based in Australia, probably because your primary audience is in Australia, but rich media hosting is offshore, typically in the USA.

This setup has several advantages;

• It keeps your web site 'local' and always available in the event that Australia suffers a 'disconnect' from the rest of the world. This is rare, but does happen.

• It keeps costs down my allowing you to select an Australian provider for your web pages and then store your rich media content on a comparatively cheaper host with lots of space and data in the USA.

• Any outage in international connectivity only effects your rich media (audio and video) not the main web site pages.

This approach produces some interesting options for organisations moving into Web 2.0 with all the things that entails, RSS, Podcasts, streaming video and audio.

If you'd like to discuss hosting then please give us a call with your web site requirements and we'll work out a reasonably priced, reliable hosting solution for you.

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