The Internet is prime platform for any business and organization to present its products and services before the world. Not only does it throw open your business to unexplored business markets but also ensures that your online store is open 24 X 7, whenever a customer visits your store. Online business is becoming a crucial, if not an essential part, of every business.

The Internet is growing today at a much faster pace than ever before. In fact at the Internet Innovation Alliance this year it was found that while the national network growth is about 19%, internet growth is at about 40% annually and increasing. This can be attributed to the growing number of websites coming up and also the high quality videos being uploaded by internet users. According to the San Francisco Chronicle 20 homes will generate more Internet traffic next year than the total Internet traffic in 1995.

Global consumer Internet traffic is projected to quadruple by 2011, according the Cisco and the New York Times.

OCLC a non-profit research organization states that while in 1998 there were 2,851,000 websites in 2002 there were 9,040,000 websites on the internet. According to Netcraft in 2008 the number has exceeded 182 million. It is forecasted that this number will continue to rise rapidly.

What does this mean for online businesses? When customers visit your website they may encounter problems while they download files from it. There may be website downtime and ultimately this spells loss of revenue for your website and online business.

The five most important reasons for IT failure of an online business as stated by Steve Walterhouse, Vice President of Web Service Guard include operating system failure, software application failure, network failure, hardware server failure and misconfiguration.

The Nemertes Research Group states that a slowdown in the Internet speed and demands on bandwidth is caused due to increased internet traffic. Whether they are looking for news, friends or products and services, the Internet is fast becoming the top choice for people across the world. In such a situation if a customer visits your website and is unable to open it, it is as good as closing the doors of a brick and mortar store to good business.

Coping with Bandwidth Famine

It is important for the industry to formulate policies and execute them in order to cope with the certain bandwidth famine predicted in the near future. It is crucial to pay attention to this grave issue and respond to it before it poses serious problems.

Meanwhile the first signs of a strained bandwidth are seen in the glitches that come up when opening sites and the amount of time it takes to open them. It is crucial that you are informed when your website is unavailable to internet users and this is possible with reliable website monitoring.

It is essential that you are constantly informed of the state of your website. If your website is down due any number of reasons it is important to get it up and working at the earliest. Time is money, and truer words haven’t been said when it comes to an online business.

The Web Uptime Monitor Service offered by http://www.webserviceguard.com informs you, the business owner or your webmaster immediately of your website’s outage. It offers real time alerts and also has a central uptime reporting system and metrics. The Web Uptime Monitor Service also provides you a clear idea of how well your website and server are performing.

Web Service Guard, the premier website monitoring company, offers uptime and performance monitoring for websites and servers.  Check our Website Monitoring site for more information.

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