Websites ill-prepared for new technology

The majority of businesses that run their own website are concerned that new technologies will have an adverse effect on performance.

A poll conducted by hosting firm NetBenefit revealed that 74 per cent of respondents are concerned that adding new technologies to their websites will slow down performance.

But 52 per cent are not changing their hosting requirements to meet the growing demand.

The survey, which was carried out among delegates at the recent E-Commerce Expo in London, asked a series of questions about company websites.

While 52 per cent revealed that their companies are doing at least half their business online, a worrying 80 per cent of these had experienced downtime in the past 12 months.

Jonathan Robinson, chief operating officer at NetBenefit, said: "Only three fifths of those surveyed were confident that they had the right levels of redundancy in their hosting platform to guarantee uptime.

"Businesses are still slow to see the connection between brand and revenue protection, and a truly robust managed hosting platform that can provide guaranteed uptime backed by 24/7 support."

As online applications such as wikis, RSS feeds, podcasts and web seminars become more mainstream, companies need to embrace the opportunity to make their websites more interactive, according to Robinson.

"However, it does not matter how well designed and clever a site is. If it is not reliable and robust enough to manage all these new applications it is an empty investment."