A news portal has uneven demand. A breaking story can create a short traffic spike while editors are publishing updates and media assets. The right hosting arrangement depends on that traffic pattern, the publishing workflow and the cost of downtime. A provider’s general speed or uptime claim is not enough to choose a platform.

Document operating requirements

Estimate ordinary visits, peak concurrency, media delivery needs and expected growth. Include publishing, search, membership or advertising tools that add database or application work. Identify which pages can be cached, how quickly a correction must appear and which editorial actions must continue during a traffic surge.

Compare the complete service

Ask providers to explain:

  • Capacity and scaling: CPU, memory, storage, connection limits and what happens when agreed capacity is exceeded.
  • Caching and delivery: which pages and assets are cached, how editors invalidate cache, and how regional readers reach content.
  • Resilience: backup frequency, retention, isolation, restoration responsibility and tested recovery objectives.
  • Security: administrative access, patching, DDoS response, firewall controls, logging and incident communication.
  • Support: coverage hours, escalation route, response definitions and any service remedy in the contract.
  • Cost and ownership: recurring charges, overage fees, add-ons, access to data and files, and exit or migration assistance.

Do not assume that a local data centre will always be faster for every reader, or that a CDN can solve origin, database or application bottlenecks. Test a representative page under a realistic load with the intended cache and media configuration. Validate the test environment and assumptions before comparing results.

Test recovery, not just availability

Confirm that a backup includes all files and databases needed for the site. Restore it in a separate environment and verify publishing, search, login and advertising integrations. Define who can decide to fail over, what data may be lost and how editors will communicate during an outage.

Is a 99.9% uptime promise enough?

No. Ask how uptime is measured, which maintenance and incidents are excluded, how the service reports outages and what remedy applies. Choose an arrangement that matches the newsroom’s tolerance for disruption and its ability to operate the platform.