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What is Overselling?

Overselling is a marketing gimmick that many hosting companies use where they promise more (often far more) resources than they have available to try and lure clients onto their servers. Extreme amounts of disk space and bandwidth for very low prices to try and convey value are the hallmark of these providers.

If

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

you’ve recently gone searching for a hosting plan, you’ve undoubtedly seen an ad or two (or a thousand) promising “$2 a Month! 500 GB of Storage! 2 TB of Bandwidth! Host Unlimited Domains!”or some equally outrageous offer. This is overselling at its finest.

Anatomy of the Oversell

A new hosting provider leases a dedicated server wi

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

th 2 GB of RAM, a 120 GB hard drive and 500 GB of monthly bandwidth and costs $150 per month.

Now let’s suppose that this host was planning to sell hosting packages for $3 with 100 GB of disk space, and 500 GB of bandwidth (which, by the way, is nowhere near the extremes that some hosting plans go to).

Anyone who understands basic math inst

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

ntly recognizes that if the host actually allowed just a single user to use the resources he or she has purchased, he would have nearly used up his entire hard drive and would have accounted for all of his monthly bandwidth on the server he is leasing. All with one $3 a month client.

In order for this hosting provider to arrive at any reason

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

able amount of success in the business, they now have to pack as many clients onto this server as possible (quite often up to 500 or more are put on a single server) in the hopes that the clients never actually use the resources they have purchased.

What Can Overselling Tell You About the Host?

Overselling can (and should) raise seve

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

al warning flags to those searching for a hosting plan including:

• That they are involved in hosting only for the short term (or possibly even as a hobby during summer break). The barrier to entry is very low in hosting. Anyone with an allowance a reseller account and a website can portray themselves as a legitimate company. These ty

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

pes of hosts, not knowing anything about providing hosting services, think that by setting up shop and offering the moon for $3, they’ll be on the road to riches. A more likely scenario is they’ll disappear at the end of the summer leaving you without an account (and more importantly, your data).

• Quality of service is not a priority.
easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi
Many hosts that oversell need to pack as many clients onto a single server or reseller account as possible in order to realize any profit from their operations. With this many people fighting for the same RAM and processing power of the server, poor service quality is inevitable. Clients often have to endure this low level of service for mon
nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically
ths (if they haven’t bailed by already) until the host can save enough funds to get an additional server. Even then they will likely start overcrowding that one as well.

• Customer support is not a priority. By offering cheap plans, a host that can attract new clients in large numbers now has a new dilemma on his hands: how to support
and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ
a large user base with any kind of quality. Long response times to help tickets and responses that do not solve the problem but only buy time for the host should be watched out for. “We’re taking a look at this issue” is a popular response hosts use to keep you waiting another few hours.

How Can Overselling Impact Your Hosting Experience?
ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

Account Suspension/Termination: A host who oversells is counting on you to never use the resources you’ve paid for. Their business depends on it. If your blog, forum or online store becomes popular and your traffic increases significantly, you run the risk of your hosting provider suspending or terminating your account so that th
ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a
ey don’t have to live up to their advertised offers.

Frequent Migrations: If your site gains any degree of popularity or your ecommerce site sees an increase in transaction you may be asked to pay more or leave. In other words, if you actually use the resources you were promised you will likely not be welcome anymore.

Slow Site Pe
dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod
formance: As mentioned above, with often hundreds of sites competing with yours for valuable resources, servers can easily bog down and become unresponsive. If a solid support and monitoring system is not in place, you can be stuck in this situation for days.

Exposure to Malicious Users: Cheap hosting (especially those with 30 Day
cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin
Money Back Guarantees) is very appealing to spammers and other users with less than admirable intentions. Being able to get in on the cheap, run their scripts and leave without much accountability (if any) is the perfect vehicle for this crowd. Many hosts will try and protect against this kind of behavior but if you’re not on the ball 24/7 m
tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen
nitoring activity, you may not see them until they’ve done their damage.

Things You Can Do to Avoid an Overseller Nightmare

Ignore the Sales Pitch: Forget how big the resource allocations are. In reality, you are not really getting all of these resources anyways. Look for other signs of value such as: software and tools offere
t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel
d with your account, tutorials (if you’re new to hosting), reputation of the host on forums and message boards, account transfer services, a comprehensive knowledgebase, a busy company forum, multiple avenues to contact the company, etc.

Pay Attention to Response Times: Send a sales inquiry or technical question via the company helpde
ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust
k and note the response time and the quality of the response itself. You often tell if a host takes their business seriously by how quickly they get back to you and how well they answer your questions.

Ask About The Company’s Operations: If a host owns their own equipment and has significant investment in their operations, they are l
y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products
ikely (though not always) to go the extra mile and provide a higher level of service quality.

Is the Company Organized as a Formal Business Entity?: Using a formal business entity (corporation, LLC, partnership, etc) can be an indication of how serious the owners of a hosting company are likely to be. This process takes time and inves
.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de
ment to do properly and most "fly by night" hosts do not bother with this formality.

Are there hosts that don’t oversell who provide poor quality of service? Sure. Can you wind up with some of the same experiences noted above with a large company? Of course. Overselling is an unfortunate part of today’s hosting industry and is unlikely to go
elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip
anywhere anytime soon. One thing you can and should do to avoid a hosting nightmare is to do your own due diligence when looking for a host and remember, with hosting (like with so many other things in life), you ultimately get what you pay for. The next time you see an outrageous hosting offer that seems too good to be true, it probably is

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Just Other Articles - Web Host Overselling - What It Is (And What It Can Mean For Your Hosting Experience)

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