There are two main server types to choose from for your ecommerce website hosting: Hybrid and Dedicated Servers. The server type you select is largely based on the size of your ecommerce store. It’s important to choose an appropriate server type from the beginning as server migrations can mean downtime for your customers.

For large-scale online stores, Dedicated Servers are the best option as they provide you with resources completely dedicated to your customers. You are the only client using the hardware, so you can use the entire resources of the platform without worrying about other users impacting you.

Hybrid Servers are suitable for small to medium-sized ecommerce businesses. They use the same technology as a Virtual Private Server, but feature much fewer tenants per server. This delivers significantly increased performance over traditional VPS hosting. Hybrid Servers are not scalable, so you would need to migrate to a new server if your site grows significantly.

The processor you select for a server will impact how efficiently the server is able to handle the daily traffic from your customers. Larger online stores with thousands of products and many active users will need much more processing power than a shop with only a few SKUs.

It’s best to take a look at the recommended processor requirements of the ecommerce cart software you are using. Many will provide you with resources to understand the best processor for your needs.

Dual Xeon E5 processors are a popular choice for many large online stores, so they are a good starting point for most site owners.

There are two main types of storage disks: Hard Disk Drive (HDD), and Solid State Drive (SSD) SSD drives provide significantly faster I/O performance compared to HDD, which makes them absolutely perfect for ecommerce hosting.

As customers visiting your site will expect your pages and product images to load quickly, we recommend choosing SSD over a traditional HDD. The performance improvements will more than pay for their increased cost.

Data redundancy is an important aspect of an ecommerce store. Any hard drive failure could mean hours of downtime for your clients, costing thousands of dollars in sales. RAID is a great option for maintaining disk integrity. It duplicates and stripes data across multiple hard drives to ensure that no data is lost in the event of a drive failure.

Our hosting plans support any Linux or Windows ecommerce cart software. Some of the more popular options include:

• WooCommerce
• WordPress
• Magento
• PrestaCart
• OpenCart
• X-Cart

Every Zumiv data center meets the strict PCI compliance requirements. This allows you to deploy a dedicated server that is PCI compliant.

Ecommerce hosting solutions need to be hosted on premium network connections to ensure that users around the globe can quickly order products from your business. If a user navigates to your site and sees it loading slowly, they are much more likely to head to your competitors.

Take a look at the network upstream providers that your hosting provider utilizes. A company that stands by its network connections will provide you with test IPs and files to show how the networks perform with your location. You will also want to work with a

provider that offers excellent connectivity to your client’s location so if your target audience is located in London, you will want the server to also be hosted there.

You should look for a provider that offers Tier 1 connectivity and redundant network routes. A Tier 1 network is a network that can reach every other network on the Internet quickly with low-latency routes.

Another important factor is the Service Level Agreement (SLA) that the provider guarantees on network connectivity. An online store needs to be accessible at all times, so look for a provider that offers a 100% network uptime guarantee.

The network speed and bandwidth of a server is critical as you want your potential client’s to be able to quickly access your order form and become a customer. Any high latency that occurs during this experience could end the relationship before it even begins.

It is important to choose a bandwidth plan suitable for the number of customers who will navigate your site. 1Gbps network ports are the best option for ecommerce hosting as it ensures that any client connecting to the server can browse your products at an exceptionally fast rate. We also offer 10 and 20Gbps connections in some locations.