Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock these past two weeks then you’ve heard of Pokémon Go – the mobile augmented reality app that has captured the imagination and free time of the nation. Between stories of weird places that Pokémon have been found, to enterprising Uber drivers offering rides to players looking to collect Pokémon, the game has been everywhere.
Another story that has gone hand in hand with its massive success, however, has been the difficulties that players have had being able to actually log into the game. The game’s servers have been completely overwhelmed with the response. New fans wanting to play have been unable to even register an account, leading to frustration and more than a few potential customers deciding to forego even trying to catch a single Pokémon, never mind catching them all.
Despite the success story that the game has become, it is worth noting that the company was ill-prepared to handle the desire of customers to play the game.
Think about this in terms of your own business. If you had launched a product – an app even – and then been unable to handle your customer requests, and actually had to turn away customers that wanted to hand you their money, what do you think would have happened? Would you even still be in business today? Not many businesses have the extreme amount of interest an app like Pokémon Go has to offset the problems that existing and new customers have faced trying to play it. A company with less of a brand behind it would already be scrambling to save their investment.
What this also highlights is the need to invest in the technology that supports your organization. Your customers not only expect 100% uptime – they demand it. You need to work with partners that can handle the needs of your business and keep you up and running, while also providing room for growth and expansion – say for when you create a mobile app that gets an overwhelming response from the public.
The three most important aspects of choosing a good partner to help your customers “catch them all” are:
Uptime – is your partner confident in its ability to keep you up and running? Do they guarantee it? Will they openly discuss with you their outage histories with other clients? Do they have strong redundancy/recovery plans? Or do they use double-speak and “talk around the issue”?
Unexpected Growth – How can they handle the unexpected (or even expected) growth of your company? Are they able to grow with you – adding servers and capacity as your business demands – even in a short period of time? Or do they only have a certain about of space for you? If you feel that you’ll have to start all over with a cloud provider and data center provider search once you become successful, than that’s a telling sign.
Service – Are you just “filling a slot” for them – or are you seen as a strategic, important customer? How is your partner staffed? Are they monitoring things 24/7/365? How quickly can you get in touch with someone if there’s a problem? How easily is it for you to discuss your options for growth with your new partner? All things to think about before you sign a contract.
At the Markley Group, we’re dedicated to helping our clients and their customers stay connected all the time, every day. To learn more about how our colocation and cloud services can support your company’s present and future “evolutions,” contact us at sales@markleycloud.com.
