What are the Common Project Hosting Challenges and How to Solve Them

What are the Common Project Hosting Challenges and How to Solve Them

The hosting provider you use varies depending on the project you want to host. A project manager is tasked with finding the best hosting provider that aligns with each project's needs. Even after deep consideration, businesses face challenges arising from hosting their projects. 

Whether you need to host an application, or a website, or store data backups, hosting providers cannot guarantee that you won't face any challenges.

Below are the common challenges faced in project hosting and how to solve them.

1. Maintenance cost

Businesses don't need to invest in new hardware and can save up while hosting projects on the cloud. But due to the speed of growth and high demand for cloud services, there is no guarantee of an increase in prices. The value may be worth the price, but the overall costs can be outrageous if you work with a big team.  

How to solve it

• Compare hosting plans depending on the size and type of your project.
• Choose overall users and per-users if working with a team and compare the costs.
• Supervising the usage of services. Ensure services are used when necessary and avoid storage of unnecessary data.
• Developing integration strategies. Instead of using all the cloud services, integrate them with other systems that are cost-effective.
• Reduce traffic. Restrict cloud access to professionals who can design a performing cloud infrastructure while restricting spending.
• Use caching for data to minimize the access of data in storage. 

2. Security concerns

No hosting provider can claim perfection in terms of security. There is no transparency as to where your data is stored. Cyber threats such as data breaches and account hijacking may cause your business to lose money.  
The data breaches are even higher if you use a hosting plan where a server is shared with other users. 
In security matters, prevention of breaches is better if achievable. To protect your data and account, read how to solve it. 

How to solve it

• Ensure the hosting providers' data backup policies are clear and in place.
• Ensure you use the latest version of PHP
• Ensure the provider complies with the data protection and privacy laws
• Search for reviews on a hosting provider before investing.
• Work with third-party security firms to run tests and uncover vulnerabilities and pain points.
• Use encryption to protect sensitive data. 

3. Speed and performance

No one wants to click a page and take more than a minute to open. Your data or site needs to load fast to avoid discouraging clients. If presenting data to stakeholders and retrieving it from the cloud isn't fast enough, you may lose big on a decision that needs to be made. If your website takes more than three seconds to open, visitors will leave and may never return.

How to solve it

• Check the source of the problem.
• Contact customer support to investigate the problem
• Use simple code for your web design
• Scale up when your business expands and your plan is causing unsustainability.  

4. Support system

Imagine your site falters, but when you seek customer support, they are either unresponsive, slow to respond or keep referring you from one person to another. You are always in urgent need of help whenever you cannot access your site or data. Most projects have a time limit, and your hosting provider should respect your time. Even if a problem is beyond their control, you should receive support from your provider.

How to solve it

• Communicate your dissatisfaction and ask for immediate support calmly.
• Ensure you invest in a hosting provider that has a 24/7/365 days customer support
• Incorporate DevOps tools or IT experts in managing your project to avoid problems arising.

5. Downtime/ease of access

You cannot predict when downtime will occur, but when it does, it causes losses to your business. Accessing your site or data is a top priority in your industry. Downtime may occur if your hosting provider is performing maintenance or integrating services such as security updates. A provider should inform you about rest in cases where there is scheduled maintenance. 

How to solve it

• You have no control over downtimes happening. Nevertheless, you could minimize the damages by,
  Informing affected parties such as your team or shareholders in case the provider gives notice of downtime related to maintenance to avoid being caught off guard
• Updating affected parties when the downtime is over.
• Engaging a developer if the cause of downtime resulting from your end

Why is project scheduling important?

Research shows that most projects fail because of poor performance. And what causes poor performance? The factors mentioned above are the number one cause. Another primary reason is how you schedule tasks and resources. A well-designed schedule is a significant key to a successful project. 

NOTE: A project schedule aims to identify deadlines and interdependent tasks and assign dates to required resources. It's a vital tool in completing projects on time and within budget.

What is the purpose of project schedules?

A project schedule is based on a work breakdown structure (WBS), which notes down all the tasks and goals of the project. The charges are placed in a sequence of linked events with dates and scheduled starting and finishing times. The project schedule creates a model for the whole project, which guides and measures the progress of the work being done.

If the project changes, the schedule details; task time requirements, interdependency between various tasks and resources, availability of resources, and time constraints and bottlenecks. Overall, a project schedule serves as an overseer of the process of the project. It also evaluates alternative strategies to accomplish the task on time. Additionally, it controls costs and optimizes resources.

What are project scheduling tools?

The project scheduling tools are used to keep track of the project. It would be best if you chose a tool that; define project workflows, offer visualization tools like Gantt Charts, identify the project's critical path, adjust schedules when changes are made, and sets reminders and alerts when tasks are due or overdue.

What is a project scheduling process?

The scheduling process starts after you've set the project goals, chose your team with a proper budget, and developed a WBS. With the above, you'll be able to answer these questions; what needs to be done, how much it will cost, when it needs to be finished, and who will do the work.

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can start assigning dates and resources to the tasks listed in the WBS. They are also arranged according to their interdependencies. Once the schedule has been established, you'll need to confirm that the required resources are available on their required dates. 

If the required resources aren't available, you'll have to reschedule those tasks or, better still, find replacement resources; this can happen over and over again in a project as unplanned events can happen, like a supplier failing to deliver on time. That's why you should always view the schedule and keep it updated often.

Conclusion

Despite its challenges, hosting your project on a cloud is advantageous for your business. It would be best if you faced the challenges to achieving its benefits. More companies are moving their data to the cloud due to remote access. You can reach out to Outsiders outlook for the best services in project hosting.