Kayla Fleming

Transparency Transforms Industry

Watching the effects of social media slowly glaze over the web hosting industry is very interesting. I remember in 2003 when I first installed a forum for Surpass Hosting. I loved talking to customers and helping them as soon as they posted. Their immediate satisfaction gave me a very pleasing sense of accomplishment to make them happy and impress them, especially when other visitors could see! The forum quickly grew into a very important part of Surpass. I truly consider Surpass one of the first web hosts that had a strong sense of community and that trait is forever a glue holding together the company's goals. Throughout the years I noticed other hosting companies adding forums but most never devoted the needed attention. Many forums would sit unattended and without much activity. While select hosts did try, others were either too corporate to have a forum, uninterested to have comments in public or just didn't get it. In 2004, less than a year after being created, the Surpass forum's name was changed to Surmunity to reflect our direction.

Fast forward to 2007, I stumbled across a little blue site called Twitter because, ironically, a customer in Surmunity linked to their personal Twitter account. I didn't really understand what the craze was about or where it was all going, but there was definitely something engaging that needed to be latched on to - especially considering the existing, open personality of Surpass. Besides getting my own personal account, I also registered one for Surpass and started to test the waters of a new social pool.

Now in 2009, every host (and almost every person) has a Twitter account. If you didn't get hooked a few years ago, you have likely surrendered or were pressured by now. Many hosts are using this opportunity superbly and follow up with customers normally within a few minutes (yes, that's minutes, not hours). The personal attention customers are able to receive now is outstanding. If it wasn't for Twitter, I am not sure how the majority of web hosts would have opened the social gates so easily. Twitter has inspired entirely new feelings for businesses, and not only web hosts. Customer driven question sites like UserVoice and GetSatisfaction seemed to have popped up only during this inspiring period of the tweet revolution. Companies no longer seemingly hide far away behind a helpdesk or phone call and if you want to talk to a CEO, there's a good chance you can.

What does the future hold for this new wave of extreme customer satisfaction? If it's not already amazing enough that a Ruby (er, I mean Scala) powered application called Twitter, often swimming with fail whales, is still attracting so much attention, anything could happen next to make customers even happier.

(And Twitter may really get slow from now on, Oprah has only had her Twitter account for three hours at the time of this posting. New sign ups will spread across the country like an uncontrollable virus. Cross your fingers.)

Top 10 Hosting Memories of 2008

Join me on a trip down memory lane as we welcome in 2009 and all of the new technology and ideas it will bring.

10 - Will it blend?

From Layered Tech buying Fastservers to The Planet acquiring Touch Support, among many other mergers, 2008 was The Year of Acquisition as noted in my previous article. Never before have there been so many buyouts in the hosting industry. 2009 should be another record year that most likely will include just as many new combinations, if not more.

9 - "Um, whoops."

The biggest blip in the accounting department for 2008 belongs to DreamHost. They accidentally overbilled customers to the click of over $7.5 million in January 2008. Their billing software mistakingly read that all of their customers were a year late on their payments.

8 - Taste tests without blindfolds

Network Solutions denied they were front running domains after many customers noticed fishy behavior after searching for domains to register. Later NetSol began to refine their policies to shine up their name again. This entire story made consumers more aware of domain tasting and related issues.

7 - Sun's billion dollar baby

We know all too well the love between PHP and MySQL on servers all over the world. So when Sun purchased MySQL, one of the most successful open source companies for $1 billion in 2008, it was an interesting move for us to see. (And yet another merge.)

6 - On Cloud 2009

Virtualization technologies or "cloud hosting" became one of the most popular buzz terms of 2008. Many hosting companies will be introducing cloud hosting into their services in the next year. We will also watch as new companies bridge cloud software and hardware together.

5 - Planet explosion

In June of 2008, one of the biggest data center disasters happened in Texas at The Planet facilities. An explosion and resulting fire led to over 9,000 servers being without connectivity for nearly 48 hours.

4 - DNS fiasco

DNS cache poisoning is nothing new, but an article published by Dan Kaminsky gave a new spin on DNS vulnerabilities which in turn gave many customers a scare. Hosting companies had to explain their preventive measures and that there was nothing to worry about.

3 - Security received spotlight

In the beginnings of the web hosting industry, security was not the top concern of many companies. But as hacks and outdated applications created impossible days, we all began to pursue a smarter way. And as we all grew more aware of good and bad practices, we watched as even Google was on top of the badware list.

2 - Green was the new black

One of the most lingering buzz terms of 2008 was green hosting. Whether you leased servers in a green facility or bought carbon credits, if you weren’t already going green it is definitely on your to-do list for the upcoming year. In 2008, IBM opened its greenest data center to date in Colorado and other companies show no plans of stopping their environmental plans.

1 - The heart of the web hosting industry is its people. No one knows the industry better than us, especially if you are reading this article right now. According to astrologists, 2009 will be a year of completion and closure since nine is the last number. If this notion is applied to the hosting industry, we should be planning our own noteworthy news for 2009. If you've been thinking about a new feature or service, now is the time to get everything up and running for the success of your business. And with that token of inspiration, I also wish you a Happy New Year!

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Solar Sunrises and Moonlight Mazes

The predecessor of the Internet, ARPANET, was set up by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1969. Cyber attacks against the U.S. government in the last ten years, such as Solar Sunrise and Moonlight Maze, prove that an original creator does not know all forever. Some news stories call the attackers "brilliant" or "sophisticated" but I find them to be anything but. Like most engineered attacks, even against normal Internet users, hackers focus on very weak vulnerabilities and betrayals of common sense. Government security officials claim they are suffering from high-tech espionage but I think it merely boils down to the basics of phishing and social engineering.

Just as attacks against innocent Internet users rise continuously each year, so do attacks against U.S. government to obtain sensitive information. As I read an article detailing how a hacker in China sent a very believable email to an executive of a government consulting firm, it made me realize how far we are from sealing security here. Even if the government's IDS, Einstein, ever reaches the front of all government networks, there is no way to successfully stop human error. But I have an idea for them.

The only answer to keep hackers out of government information is to completely lock down all of the networks. No agency would receive an email unless it most definitely traced from a certain range of government IP addresses. Agencies just outside of the government performing any work would have to use the same method. With multiple reinforced layers, there would be no way an email originating from China and passing through untrusted networks would reach an official. This recurring problem of faked emails including malware should be stamped out before anything else moves forward. I scratch my head wondering why this is still an issue?

While the rest of Internet users just try to keep their online banking logins secure and keep spam out of their inboxes, the government will spend $17.0 billion dollars on a cyber initiative. "The Bush administration's cyber initiative, known as Presidential Directive 54, is partly a response to a series of cyber intrusions that plagued the Pentagon last summer. Hackers seemingly based in China stole untold amounts of e-mail data from the Department of Defense's servers." This initiative, which has been in talks since 2007, will create guidelines on auditing government networks. Unfortunately the initiative has not even reached a starting point as we head towards 2009. (At least I have trouble finding if it has.) Their slow pace frightens me. What else will hackers uncover during this period of disorder?

Stealing Employees : Do It With Pizazz

Maybe grabbing an employee from another company can never be looked upon as a totally innocent move, but there is a way to do it with a little pizazz. Have you ever been at a store, business or even a restaurant and were impressed with service received from a particular staff member? It was their attentiveness, personality, attitude or just how well spoken and knowledgeable they were. Suddenly a chord strikes within you: this person would be great at my company. How can you tell them? Seems like it would begin with a long story. "I started this company three years ago and we are located here and do this and that, and you seem really happy here and I hope you don't mind me asking you this.." Doesn't seem so smooth!

Enter the Apple way. We know that business cards aren't just for names and numbers anymore, they can also have coupons on the back, special promotion info, or if you dip them in water they may turn into a sponge - who knows these days.  Some things that Apple has done have not rubbed the right way with me, in fact some things they do seem unnecessary. But coming up with the idea for this "come over to the dark side, we have cookies" card is fascinating.

The card reads: "You're amazing. We should talk. Your customer service just now was exceptional. I work for the Apple Store and you're exactly the kind of person we'd like to talk to. If you're happy where you are, I'd never ask you to leave. But if you're thinking about a change, give me a call. This could be the start of something great."

The more I think about this idea, the more I like it. What better way to evaluate a new employee than to see them in action? One of the most important things about customer service is the ability to handle issues under pressure and just keeping a cool air of friendliness. Seeing someone in their element, without knowing you are giving them a secret "interview" of sorts, is an interesting idea for sure. And applying this idea to the hosting industry is just as easy as it is for Apple. This card could have a special company website address (that is only printed on the cards) so they can get more specific information at their leisure. From there, good things can happen.

Image courtesy MacNN "Apple looking to poach retail workers?"

 

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2008 : The Year of the Acquisition

I feel like I should be writing this article for a recap at the end of the year rather than in the middle, but where we are heading is clear to me. In all corners of the tech industry, companies are merging. But this year it seems that the most notable combinations have better reasons than those before them - usually. To begin, we learned in April that Layered Technologies acquired Fastservers. The reason for this venture was described by John Pozadzides, Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of LT. "We're really big in the individual unmanaged servers, and we're really big in the grid hosting space. And that leaves this little sweet spot right in the middle for the managed server offerings, which is the only thing that Fastservers does. So when you put the two companies, that's why it's such a beautiful fit for us."Larger companies are actively seeking specific value to add into their existing offerings. Unlike hosting mergers of the past, the most recent mergers are not for the sole purpose of gobbling up more numbers. Those other deals (think of the ones in 2007) make you ask, "Was it a merger or simply a purchase?" Icing can be layered on but doesn't change the cake inside.The next tech mix that caught many of us by surprise was the scoop of Ars Technica by Conde Nast Publications. All of us are familiar with the excellent quality of Ars content and didn't imagine they would blend with any other company. Apparently they are on the climb for more readers and more contributions. Ars stated their reason as this below."Once we realized that an acquisition would be the quickest way to accelerate the growth of Ars, the question turned to who the best possible partner could be. Respect for our community and our stewardship of the website was of utmost importance, and Conde Nast could offer both.Just as important, Conde Nast is privately owned, unquestionably strong, and has a very solid reputation for respecting and fostering talent. We wanted to be somewhere corporate leadership would "get it," somewhere the next fiscal quarter isn't more important than the long term, and somewhere with a proven track record of fostering smaller businesses."The two mergers I have mentioned so far have a clear basis of providing a better, smarter service while expanding at the same time. This idea brings me to the latest question on the tipping scales this week: the surprise which combined efforts between ThePlanet and TouchSupport. In press releases, TouchSupport has mainly been described as a provider of server administration and management. While they do offer such services, what is instead most important about TouchSupport is that they provide technical support to many hosting companies, who may or may not have services with ThePlanet. You can imagine the complexities of the feelings on this merger. Instead of acquiring their services, ThePlanet instead acquired the company itself.

 "At The Planet, we are interested in extending our Advanced Services portfolio, and the services Touch Support provides its customers are precisely the kinds of offerings our customers are requesting. We evaluated a number of companies, and Touch Support was identified as the ideal company to help us jump start these services for our dedicated hosting customers and to grow that segment of our business. As we see it, it's an ideal fit for both companies and for our customers."

What does all of this movement mean for the rest of the year and years ahead? Hopefully you have a very solid idea of where your company stands and how you will navigate its growth. There are always options but never choose swiftly. And companies you rely on for information or support may change their own directions, therefore causing a few detours on your map of success. Stay subscribed to publications like theWHIR for the latest news and predictions.

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