What does unlimited mean?
Unlimited means that Blue Forest does not impose a quota limit.
Hardware: The new limitation of shared hosting.
A web hosting server is typically shared by multiple customers.
Blue Forest’s servers are powerful and typically under-utilised, while serving a conservative ratio of customers per server. This approach supports website growth as well as significant, sporadic spikes, without risking performance. 99,95% of websites will exist in this environment.
In the rare event (less than 0.05%) that one website dominates the server or network resources to the extent that it compromises the performance of its co-existing websites, the customer should opt for a dedicated server.
How will I know that my site is unsuited to a shared hosting server?
Determining that threshold upfront is difficult. In monitoring the performance of our servers Blue Forest will make that call and contact you to discuss alternatives.
Coding efficiency is usually a key factor in the demand on server resources. For example, poorly coded sites could consume significant server resources without generating much traffic and vice versa. Where a shared hosting site really does generate significant traffic to the extent that a shared server or network resources becomes a limitation, a dedicated server is required.
It is also important to observe our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).
In summary, hardware is the new limiting factor for shared websites as opposed to traffic. This is good news and indicative of the increasing affordability of bandwidth, as well as Blue Forest’s purchasing volumes.
What happens to my site if it is deemed unsuitable for shared hosting?
If your site outgrows a shared server environment we will contact you to discuss alternatives and give you a timeframe within which to instruct a suitable course of action. In the event of an emergency, our priority is to protect the integrity of the server for all its other, legitimate users. In that case we may temporarily suspend your site, but will be equally pressed to ensure that your services are re-instated as swiftly as reasonably possible.
Website owners taking undue advantage of the low cost of shared hosting, when their site should actually be accommodated on a dedicated server, risk the disruption of their site. On the other hand, if you do not suspect the possibility of over usage, relax - you are 99,95% likely to have no concern - a comforting thought for most and the reason why we have made shared hosting traffic unlimited.
