Does the Location Of a Web Host Really Matter?

Every byte data on the web also exists in a physical location.

The cloud is a method of duplicating those bytes in multiple physical locations. But they still exist somewhere.

So does location really matter in web hosting?

Does Closer Mean Better?

The location of the data – in other words, the server – matters, but only in a very straightforward sense.

Geography affects the number of hops that it takes for data to move around, and fewer hops means a faster loading time. But there are other things can affect the site too: its software, the server’s specs, the load placed on the server and any network congestion.

Take Steam for example. It automatically assigns the closest data center to a user. But when the network is busy, Steam users can change their region settings and use a less busy data center that may be further away.

In a simple test, we used SpeedTest.net on a local connection in the US. We sent a single ping packet to Houston (300 miles away) and one to Spokane, WA (1,900 miles away).

The time difference was about 50 ms (0.05 seconds), an immeasurable difference. Download speeds remained roughly the same.

This proves the fact that distance isn’t everything. So many other variables could have affected this result.

Acts of God

In web hosting contracts, an ‘act of God’ is shorthand for a natural disaster. When choosing a location for your server, you might want to avoid areas prone to these events.

Zipa, a New Orleans-based host, managed to endure Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath without incurring any downtime. (That includes the hurricane itself, the flooding, chaotic aftermath and the weeks of power outages that followed.)

Many other hosts would struggle with such a monumental challenge.

Thankfully, major incidents are extremely rare. The most common concern is fire, a risk that data centers are unfortunately prone to. That’s why most hosting companies invest heavily in fire detection and suppression equipment.