The Australian startup scene is one of the most dynamic global technology hubs that launch numerous successful companies each year. According to 2015 figures provided by RJMetrics, four Australian cities are ranked within the top 20 list of the world’s best cities to create and run a startup company.

Indeed, Australia provides excellent conditions for startup company establishment and growth, thus motivating a great number of both national and international visionaries to turn their ideas into a reality. Of course, even in settings where entrepreneurial culture is well developed, startup life is a difficult one. This is primarily associated with the fact they need to make different strategic growth decisions (often on a low budget) right at the start so as not to face challenges in future.

Among the strategies that need to be planned right upon a project launch, the use of web hosting resources emerges as an aspect startups should approach strategically. As one of the critical resources for digital expansion, web hosting is a resource every startup needs to conquer their digital audiences. However, this doesn’t mean simply choosing a suitable provider and picking a web hosting package; it involves a dynamic plan for scaling web hosting resources as the business develops and its online community grows in number.

To give you a better idea on how this should be approached, we talked with two innovative startup companies that managed to build large communities around their ideas. More precisely, we aimed to discover how they developed a plan for scaling web hosting resources and whether this was their idea from the start.

Tiger Pistol: Planning from day one

In the age where billions of consumers move online, social media presence becomes critical for businesses of all niches and sizes. However, rather than just sorting social profiles, companies need to develop them in such a way that they bring value for their businesses. This is where the expert team at Tiger Pistol can be of a great help since it helps companies “take one key item from their shoulders.”

As a team heavily focused on digital expansion, Tiger Pistol evidently needs a stable infrastructure that supports their users’ demands. Now helping thousands of small businesses in Australia and beyond, Tiger Pistol needs fully functional web solutions to support large amounts of traffic even at peak times. In relation to their use of web hosting resources, Felix Jorkowski, Technology Lead at Tiger Pistol notes that the company has had a strategy regarding this from the very start:

“Luckily, Tiger Pistol had a plan for growth that helped us to decide on our web hosting requirements from day one. We knew we had to use cloud-based infrastructure so that we could scale on demand. Our platform is designed from the ground up to allow for multiple server instances, and we can dynamically add or remove instances depending on demand.”

Furthermore, Jorkowski points to the importance of planning infrastructure resources according to the expected growth of traffic:

“Another important part of our plan for scaling web hosting resources is the need for a storage solution or database backend that can handle a large load. Tiger Pistol is pleased to have a flexible system that allows us to scale for growth without having to sacrifice resources to maintain hardware.”

FunCaptcha: Powering global growth with zero downtime and max security

Another web-oriented startup, FunCaptcha aims to “put an end to user frustration without compromising on security.” Namely, the team provides a unique solution for securing online forms that is stable, secure and fun to use. Based in San Francisco and with offices in Los Angeles, Seattle and Brisbane, FunCaptcha is a great example of global success.

However, with big success comes great responsibility and FunCaptcha understands the importance of making their service available anytime and anywhere. More importantly, they know that an increased use of their services across different regions would require a solid hosting infrastructure. This is why their web hosting plan was a way for them to ensure minimum downtime and maximum flexibility as their user base grows. For Crucial, James Wood of FunCapthca comments:

“FunCaptcha is a vital security asset for many websites across all regions of the globe. We needed to ensure that our service was available at high speed with zero downtime, as any doubt in a security asset is unacceptable.

We knew that our client base would grow rapidly on a global scale and would require a solid solution that could cater to many regions, not just the US. We needed a solution that would allow us to make changes and updates to our service instantly, without hassle and also the ability to handle massive traffic loads at any given time. The importance placed on web hosting resources, how our product interacts with those resources, and the necessity for clear communication channels to our current hosting partner, are all key considerations we’ve had to make, and our existing strategy incorporates all of them.”

Lessons from these two companies could help not only startups, but all the other businesses that aim for global expansion to understand how to best plan their web hosting infrastructure. After all, without solid hosting, any online service can break down and lead to negative user experience. The general recommendation, therefore, is to create a plan right from the start in order to avoid potential service disruptions in future.

Thankful for their comments, the Crucial team greatly appreciates the time FunCaptcha and Tiger Pistol representatives have taken to share their views on this important topic.