Reliability and user experience are no longer just “nice to have” features. Many companies provide similar services and competition is just a click away. Those with state-of-the-art offerings will be ahead of the pack and have more resources for ongoing improvements. Certainly, speed and uptime are not for free, but the good news is that even with a small budget, reliable applications can be realized.

When gaming online, your “ping” refers to the time it takes for any input from your mouse, keyboard, or controller to register with the server that is hosting your game. Ping rate is measured in milliseconds and anything below or around 20ms is ideal, however, even slight increases above this can result in noticeable differences. Even with a ping rate of around 100ms, games are still playable, but where you will start seeing significant delays is around 150ms.