At Room101, we decided three years ago that we could only ensure the highest possible standard for our website design clients by providing our own hosting arrangements. Many website design companies are happy to outsource their clients' hosting. They don't want to spread themselves too thinly, and they'd rather not take on the responsibility which goes with constantly maintaining their own web server farm. We believe that our hosting service offers unrivalled levels of uptime, performance and adaptability - we're not afraid to modify many aspects of the server's configuration to cater for special needs which arise from time to time, and our web server hosts less than 100 websites, 95% of which are those we design and maintain in house.

We do not aim to provide the cheapest hosting - many other companies fight for that marketshare, resulting in inevitable reductions in service to their customers. But it's important to make sure that nothing frustrates or thwarts your web site visitors. It's the same principle as a company which insists that incoming calls are answered after no more than 3 rings, rather than one which forces you through their automated voicemail service. Both are important commitments to customer service, and by making sure that your website loads up in less than 20 seconds, you're effectively saying "Thank you for contacting our company, your enquiry is important to us".

The choice of location for the Room101 datacentre was key - our facility in London's docklands area can be thought of as the Mount Everest of the British internet - the highest point from which you can see everywhere else around you with ease. Security at the datacentre is definitive, with access granted to swipe card holders carrying photo ID with 24 hour faxed clearance being required. Extensive speciality air conditioning maintains the server rooms at optimum temperature and humidity, with state of the art fire-suppression hardware, and uninterruptable power supplies (UPSs) which kick in for up to 24 hours if both of the separate supplies from the national grid should fail. There are also emergency diesel generators in the basement, with contingency plans to ship in additional fuel by the Thames if a major catastrope should one day arise.

Our servers are monitored constantly from an off-site location, and any interruption notified to our staff by 24 hour pager, enabling us to take appropriate remedial action. We also have numerous traps set to ward off hackers - there are so many badly maintained servers still on the internet, and we've found that by maintaining strict security procedures, we can ensure that the hacking community focusses their destructive intentions elsewhere.

Spring 2002 saw the installation of the first Room101 server in the United States. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this key development provides for those Room101 clients whose operations have extended to the USA, and need to ensure that their American customers have the same level of rapid and responsive access to their site as already happens in the UK.