Requirements for Entry:
- Entrants must register their services and other requested information for the appropriate award(s) via the registration form linked to from http://www.ispaawards.org.uk.
- Entrants must be an ISP or a company offering mass web site hosting to customers.
- Entrants for Best Dedicated Hosting will be given a file that they will place on a dedicated server.
Overview of Technical Tests:
Epitiro will periodically download the hosted binary test file in order to measure performance of the service. The same broadband service will be employed to test all the hosted services. Specific measurements taken are as follows:
- Download speed
- Availability
Value-Added Section:
In addition to technical testing, entrants to this category are required to submit a value-added form, which will be used to assist the judges in selecting the winner of the Award. The judging criteria and questions are available below. Please download the value-added form below and submit to awards@ispa.org.uk by 31st March 2009.
Judging Criteria:
- Hours of support
- Hardware redundancy of each level
- Provision of protected private network
- Firewall protection
- Security measures at data centre(s)
- Patch management process
- Guarantees for connecting servers to the Internet
- Peering arrangements with other ISPs
- Number of IP addresses offered
- Guaranteed service level agreement
- Ease for customers to change to different bandwidth level and any costs involved
- Data back-up services
- Mirrored hosting services
- Power supply, reboot and administration options
- Flexibility: Can size of site change without penalty or being tied into a contract
- Payment options
- Price and value for money
- Server redundancy – availability of ‘hot’ replacement
Bearing in mind the judges criteria, entrants will be asked to answer the following questions using no more than 250 words per section
1. How does your dedicated hosting service provide value for money?
2. How do you ensure the privacy and security of your customers’ data?
3. Describe the choice / flexibility of your services?
4. What further characteristics distinguish your service from that of your competitors?
