Tier 1's Hosting Transformation Summit-Day 2

• By Anastasia Tubanos on September 20, 2007

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Tier 1 Research's Hosting Transformation Summit continued on Wednesday with another full day of uber-informative panels and sessions following up on the event's themes of managed hosting, the evolving data center space and infrastructure as well as financing in the hosting industry.

Andy Schroepfer kicked off the day with a critical analysis of Microsoft's desktop apps versus Google's online apps (in this case with regards to Microsoft's PowerPoint software versus Google's recently launched PowerPoint-like application, Google Presentation) and the idea that launches like these really pushed the "trade-off era" we seemed to be experiencing and that people had to consider what kind of trade offs they were making when using a desktop version of an application in comparison to a hosted version of it. Andy didn't seem to evangelize one over the other as there were benefits to one that outweighed the other and vice versa, but he did make a point of mentioning that he felt Microsoft would lose if it didn't get to where Google was heading and that Microsoft's emphasis on experience was what would keep the company on top of its game, at least for the next couple of years.

Schroepfer then moderated the keynote panel "The Private Equity Invasion and Hosting" where C.J Brucato from ABRY Partners, Bill Luby from Seaport Capital and Eric Harrison from GI Partners took the time to discuss how the Web hosting space stacked up next to other industries on the private equity screen and provided some thoughts on which companies in hosting would be good prospects for the next private equity acquisition. For the record, it's unanimous that the hosting industry is poised to grow for many reasons and will be very attractive to private equity, if not so already. And although the market is healthy and there's lots of growing interest, so far there seems to be no velocity of action, but there will be.

Another highly anticipated panel (at least for myself) was "How Green is my Data Center?" which was moderated by Martin Levy, a senior analyst at Tier 1, who led a discussion about how technology, techniques and in some cases, simple ideas, could help data centers become more green. Panelists from Datacenter Dynamics, Digital Realty Trust, Square D/Schneider Electric and Structure Tone, took the conversation from green implementations in facilities today to the idea that a good design is a great starting point to green savings and the fact (or misconception, according to DRT's Chris Crosby) that Europe was ahead of the US with recognizing the need for green technologies and implementing them.

Although the discussion intended to get into the concept of carbon credits and what Levy called "fluff" solutions like solar panels and wind power, it unfortunately never got to that part of the conversation. However, in an interview afterwards, Levy explained that as nice and ideal these types of green energy sources are, realistically they couldn't really provide the amount of obscene energy needed to power a data center facility.

Other informative sessions included "Marketing Best Practices for Internet Infrastructure and Software Companies," where panelists discussed what tools and techniques were being used today to attract new clients and retain legacy clients while maximizing the value of each customer as well as Tier 1's annual "Analyst Synthesis" where the analysts reiterated their individual messages to the audience and opened up the floor for attendees to grill them on any of their thoughts and findings.

The event wrapped up with a lot of positive feedback from organizers and attendees as well as a teaser about the first annual Tier 1 Research European hosting transformation summit, which is anticipated to be held sometime in May 2008. And if this any indication of what Tier 1 is thinking, Europe is the next big space for hosting. In fact, Andy's exact words were, "The industry is totally growth oriented and Europe is going to be on fire in the next couple of years."

Verio's viaVerio Partner Summit kicks off today so stay tuned for some of the WHIR's updates from the event.

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