When the Internet is borderless, does the server location still make a difference? Vienna, San Francisco and Djibouti, one and the same? Far from it!
“There are hosting providers all over the world – I’ll go for the cheapest provider and ignore the server location!” Read this article to find out why this is not a good idea and why the server location contributes to the success of your website.
Table of contents
Server Location Austria: Because it matters where your website lives.
Introduction
In theory, one server location is like another. In practice, however, there are major differences.
Websites are hosted on web servers that are located in data centers, supplied with electricity and connected by cables. This is the same for all server locations worldwide. So much for the theory.
In practice, however, it makes a serious difference where a web server is physically located. It is not only the country and economic area that play a role here. The physical distance between the server location and the website visitor in meters and kilometers also makes a difference.
Excursus: Data is the new Gold
Personal data, login details, payment data: Data is worth hard cash. Hosting providers therefore have a special responsibility and duty of care.
Whether in an electric car, on a smartphone or on the road, data is collected, analyzed, used and monetized everywhere.
For example, if you know how many people pass through a shopping street each day, you can calculate and argue the rent accordingly.
Social media have been collecting their members’ data for years in order to create personal profiles and sell advertisements. You can read here how profitable this is.
Maintaining control over your own data is no longer that easy these days. If you share a photo on a social platform, for example, you usually also cede the rights of use to the platform.
Security has its Price
How valuable data is today cannot be emphasized too much or too often. And: As soon as you store data on another computer – whether with a cloud storage provider or a hosting provider – you need to be aware of the treasure you are entrusting to someone else.
Conclusion
- You can make good money with data.
- Be careful who you entrust with your data.
- Be careful with social platforms and especially with servers outside the EU. This is especially true if you as an entrepreneur are responsible for the data of your customers and employees!
Data Protection and Legal Certainty
Data protection and data security are always a matter of trust with a hosting provider. Data protection is difficult to check and you only become aware of a lack of data security when the data has already been lost. Two aspects can provide security here:
Legal situation
The legal situation in a country or economic area is highly relevant for both data protection and data security. In Austria and the EU, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulates how companies must handle sensitive data.
But also building regulations, system approvals and technical standards and compliance with them also help to ensure the security of a server location or data center and the data hosted there. And yet something can always go wrong. In 2021, Europe’s largest data center in Strasbourg (France) burned down, resulting in the loss of a large amount of data forever.
And since it is not possible to protect a data center 100% from a technical failure, even in our latitudes, helloly hosts all customer data in two different data centers.
Legal Certainty
A clear legal situation is only one side of the coin: being able to reliably enforce applicable law is the other.
In Austria, we can rely on our legal system, even in comparison to other countries.
Conclusion
- A solid legal situation and a trustworthy legal system with a high level of legal certainty form the basis for data protection and data security.
- The European Union is currently the only economic area with solid legislation on data protection
- Data is subject to the legislation of the country in which it is stored.
Faster Loading Times
The physical location of a server influences the loading time of a website and therefore also the waiting time of visitors. The closer the visitor and server location are to each other, the sooner the two will come together.
Nobody likes to wait, and certainly not online. If a website takes longer than two seconds to load, the majority of visitors have already bounced!
Search engines also include the loading time of a website in their evaluation, which in turn affects the search engine ranking and placement.
Conclusion
- The closer the server location and the visitor are, the faster the website will load.
- The server location of a hosting provider and the quality of its Internet connection are decisive competitive advantages.
- The server location should also depend on the website’s target group. If you are a website operator serving the European market, for example, it makes sense to host the website in Austria.
Local ties
For Austrian website operators who expect visitors from Austria and the EU, Austria as a server location is ideal:
No language barriers
If you need help, it is there for you: and in your native language. With an Austrian provider, you will find all support documents in German.
Same time zone
At critical moments when you expect personal support on the phone, the support team is not in bed.
Maintaining critical infrastructure
As the foundation of telecommunications, data centers are part of the critical infrastructure. By maintaining and expanding data centers, we remain independent of other countries in this highly important area.
Spatial and Cultural Proximity
Due to the geographical and cultural proximity, questions about current conditions in Austria can also be clarified by the support team.
Conclusion
- The server location in Austria also makes sense on a social level in order to maintain critical infrastructure
- Cultural and physical proximity also makes collaboration easier and more pleasant on an interpersonal level
Note: Be careful with Website Builders
DIY websites are all the rage and website builders are a dime a dozen. However, very few of them host their data in Europe.
Developing your own website with a website builder is easy and requires no prior knowledge. What was previously only possible for experts is now available to the general public.
Caution is always advised with website builders. You should ask yourself the following questions before making a decision:
- Who is behind the offer and where is the server located?
- Is support documentation also available in German?
- When is technical support available?
- What language does the support speak?
- In case of doubt, do I have any legal recourse against the provider?
- How much do I depend on the provider?
Conclusion
- Website builders make it easy to design your own website.
- For providers outside the EU, you must explicitly address the issue of data protection
- helloly offers a website builder that is securely hosted in Austria
You may also be interested in the following article:
6 Reasons for our Website Builder0 (0)
Can you build houses with Lego? Then you’ll love our website builder! We’ll show you how easy it is to create your own do-it-yourself website.
