Web Hosting Industry Editorials, Opinion
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Streaming on a Shoestring
February 16, 2003 -- The project is still evolving, and what follows is by no means an exhaustive exploration of the options, but my experiences to date should be enough of a guide for anyone who's got the same ambitions and budget to get started. (read more) (make a comment)
Cost Control Through IT Planning
February 11, 2004 -- Cost controls are measures any business should implement in order to increase cash flow and retained earnings. Web hosting companies and Internet service providers are no exception. (read more) (make a comment)
The End of the Cobalt Line
January 19, 2004 -- The end of the Cobalt line of rack servers represents the end of an era. The servers, which helped define the Web hosting industry as it emerged, were discontinued by Sun Microsystems late last year. (read more) (make a comment)
Web Services in Your IDC
December 18, 2003 -- Although most of the hype surrounding Web services is focused on e-commerce, Web services are also finding their way into other less glamorous infrastructure applications. (read more) (make a comment)
The Down Side of Upmarket
December 11, 2003 -- We all dream of landing the big account that will lift our businesses to the next tier, bringing in a long-term contract and a high-powered reference account that can attract even more large customers. (read more) (make a comment)
C&W US Clients Face Uncertain Future
October 27, 2003 -- Since declaring its intention to exit the U.S. market in early summer, C&W has yet to deliver a clear update with regard to its business direction. C&W seems to be avoiding the inevitable. (read more) (make a comment)
Protecting Against Spam
October 8, 2003 -- Hosting a spammer can affect the performance of your infrastructure and your other customers. Even worse, it can put your block of IP addresses on the known-spammer lists, which in turn could shut down your entire operation. (read more) (make a comment)
Why Web Hosts Need Certified Staff
November 3, 2003 -- Certified personnel are trained to provide quality support for hosting products and technologies, including installation, configuration, maintenance and support. (read more) (make a comment)
Outsourcing and the Dot-Org Vision
October 1, 2003 -- Compared to corporate America, non-profits were initially slower to adopt the Internet as a means of communicating to their target audiences, because for-profits adopted it as an opportunity to create a streamlined global "storefront." (read more) (make a comment)
Buying and Selling Specialized Hosting Firms
September 25, 2003 -- Many firms have turned to specialized industries, applications and regions in order to sell their services; as such, a unique approach is required when attempting to buy or sell a Web hosting company serving one of these audiences. (read more) (make a comment)
Staying A Step Ahead of Spammers
September 23, 2003 -- Despite an increase in user awareness and countless products designed to counteract them, spammers continue to successfully employ several techniques that circumvent many anti-spam products. (read more) (make a comment)
Using Direct Marketing in Web Hosting
September 8, 2003 -- Most Web hosting companies rely on conventional online marketing techniques to reach their prospects and gain more clients. Advertising mediums like banners, hosting directory listings and pay-per-click search (PPC) engine placements are flooded with hosting marketing messages. (read more) (make a comment)
The Importance of Newsletter Marketing
August 29, 2003 -- Newsletters aren't right for every audience-I wouldn't recommend them when targeting the nursing home crowd-but if you're in the Web hosting business, there's a good chance that 100% of your customers and prospects use email, making newsletters a good medium. (read more) (make a comment)
Complex Hosting Can Ensure Continuity
August 27, 2003 -- Complex Web hosting firms were put to the test following an unprecedented power outage on the afternoon of August 14, 2003, that affected major parts of Canada and the United States. (read more) (make a comment)
When Your Own Host Goes Down
August 8, 2003 -- The recent announcement by Cable and Wireless that it is abandoning the U.S. market is a timely reminder that we all need to think about what might happen if our own vendors suddenly go out of business. (read more) (make a comment)
Web Services Security
July 28, 2003 -- Perhaps sooner than you expect, you're going to want to add Web services to your Web site or those of your customers. Have you considered the security implications of doing so? (read more) (make a comment)
Must Be Present to Win
July 1, 2003 -- The owner of a small Web hosting firm recently said to me, "You can't help but make money in this business." (read more) (make a comment)
Security Issues Paramount to Hosting Clients
June 23, 2003 -- One of the most important components of any successful business is the value of understanding your customers' needs and concerns. Consumer security issues like hackers, credit card thefts and identity theft are some of your retail ecommerce customers' most pressing challenges. (read more) (make a comment)
Interoperability Key to Automation Convergence
June 20, 2003 -- Recently, hosting automation and enterprise server software developer, SWsoft, announced it had acquired Plesk, Inc. and the parent company of Confixx, Yippi-Yeah E-Business GmbH.
(read more) (make a comment)
Enhancing Revenue Through Business Continuity
May 14, 2003 -- Business continuity services provide corporations with the infrastructure necessary for physical and IT architecture recovery in the event of a disaster. (read more) (make a comment)
Achieving Hosting Success: Stay in Touch
May 8, 2003 -- Customers are people, and the owner of a small web site gets just as anxious and upset as the manager of a big one. So when Web hosting vendors-whether they're large or small-ask me what they should do about customer relations, I tell them: communicate. (read more) (make a comment)
Business Continuity Can Address Denial Attacks
April 9, 2003 -- The adversity inherent in war should lead mission-critical news and government Web sites to reinforce their online resources with business continuity services. (read more) (make a comment)
Showing Signs of Aging
April 2, 2003 -- In the business world, consolidation is considered a sign of maturity, and in the hosting and managed services industry, it has been downright ugly. (read more) (make a comment)
Finding the Customer Sweet Spot
April 1, 2003 -- You may not have noticed a story a few weeks ago in The Boston Globe, in which Peter J. Howe of the Globe's staff reported that 250 customers in good standing--many of them receiving web-hosting services--would be dumped by Level 3 Communications as part of its takeover of bankrupt Genuity. How and why did this happen, and is there a risk it could happen to you? (read more) (make a comment)
SMBmeta: A Web Service for Small Businesses?
January 24, 2003 -- Go to Google and search for “shoe store.” You’ll find there are roughly 471,000 matches. But ask Google or the other directories and search engines to help you find the nearest bricks-and-mortar shoe store, and you’ll be out of luck. (read more) (make a comment)
SCO v. IBM: Should we Worry?
January 15, 2003 -- The tabloids may have Martha, Rosie, Kobe, and Michael to keep their readers' attention, but Darl McBride, president and CEO of the SCO Group, and his lawsuit against IBM over Linux have likewise provided news and entertainment to the IT community. (read more) (make a comment)
Complex hosting to shift from components to service
November 29, 2002 -- Pronouncements concerning the end of Web hosting, as we know it, are abundant. (read more) (make a comment)
Share the Pain
November 22, 2002 -- The vast majority of web sites are hosted on shared servers supported by shared infrastructure. When a web site becomes more complex or receives more traffic than a shared server can handle, it’s standard practice to upgrade the site to a dedicated server. (read more) (make a comment)
TCP Offload And The Evolution of High Performance Interconnect
November 21, 2002 - The data center is undergoing an interconnect evolution that should be factored into the strategic plans of data center architecture teams. Will the industry consolidate around a standard and thus fuel focused innovation and product development? Or will the number of interconnect technologies continue to grow, fracturing the technological horizon and slowing development as many options abound? (read more) (make a comment)
Cable & Wireless scales back global hosting operations
November 15, 2002 -- As previously reported in the Web Host Industry Review, Cable & Wireless was contemplating pulling out of the U.S. This week, it was announced that the firm has indeed opted to scale back its outsourcing operations in the United States. (read more) (make a comment)
Will Web Services Change Web Hosting
October 25, 2002 -- Most web-hosting vendors agree that web services will bring them more business. After all, they say, anything that generates more Internet traffic requires more servers; and more servers require more data-center space and management. (read more) (make a comment)
The Role of Community-Based Support
September 20, 2002 -- Like many of my clients, my concerns over the financial instability of my former web-hosting service led me to search for a new vendor to host rds.com and a few other domains and projects. (read more) (make a comment)
Paramedics and Neurosurgeons
August 20, 2002 -- In their marketing brochures and sales pitches, many MSPs project images of well-integrated services in which the people who build and tune your servers are the same—or at least on the same team—as those who provide 24x7 support. (read more) (make a comment)
Working With a Reseller
July 26, 2002 -- The small entrepreneurial web-hosting vendor still exists, but he’s no longer in the infrastructure business. He’s now a reseller. (read more) (make a comment)
The Return of the God Boxes
July 19, 2002 -- While attending various networking trade shows and conferences this spring, I noticed an interesting trend: the “god box” is back. At least that was the scuttlebutt. (read more) (make a comment)
Web Hosting’s Adolescence
July 7, 2002 -- The web-hosting industry is less than ten years old, but some vendors are already acting like teenagers. Loudcloud’s managed services unit announced it was leaving home to go live with EDS, and Intel’s hosting operation was kicked out of the house by its parent. What does it all mean? (read more) (make a comment)
Centralized Management Controls Data Center Costs in Deregulated Energy Markets
June 14, 2002 -- Centralized energy management is a "must" for hosting service providers that want to control costs within a competitive utility market. (read more) (make a comment)
CIOs Resist Cost-Saving Web Outsourcing
June 7, 2002 -- Companies that do a lot of technology outsourcing thrive during economic downturns. Traditionally, outsourcing outperforms other segments of the technology industries when the economy experiences hard times. (read more) (make a comment)
Outsourced Services Should Adopt Consultant Model
May 17, 2002 -- Many challenges surround the complex Web hosting sector in the short-term, but industry participants can rest assured that long-term opportunities lie in wait. (read more) (make a comment)
Beware of Wimpy SLAs
May 10, 2002 -- By and large, the Web hosting industry has made great strides during its brief history. But when it comes to service level agreements-although there are a few exceptions-most Web hosting vendors have done a remarkably poor job. (read more) (make a comment)
Acts of God: Sorry, That's Beyond Our Control
April 19, 2002 -- Why do you outsource your Web hosting? Among the reasons are your vendor's impervious data center and the robustness of its connectivity. (read more) (make a comment)
Attracting New Markets: Where Does Web Hosting Go From Here?
April 5, 2002 -- In seeking out new market opportunities, Web hosts need to be in a constant state of evolution. To accomplish this, companies must seek to improve their service offerings, levels of customer service, and stay abreast of new technologies. (read more) (make a comment)
Branding Managed Services: Have You Really Moved up the Value Chain?
March 28, 2002 -- Over the past couple of years, managed services have emerged as a new, higher-margin service product for many providers. By offering managed services, the theory goes, service providers can "move up the value chain" and offer products with greater differentiation, and therefore higher margins. (read more) (make a comment)
What Web Hosting Customers Want
March 15, 2002 -- The Web hosting industry is less than a decade old, but already we've seen dramatic changes in the attitudes and priorities of customers. In these few years, the concerns of my clients have switched from, "Who's the best?" to "Who's the cheapest?" to "Who's going to be around for a few years?" (read more) (make a comment)
Business Models Must Become Sustainable
March 1, 2002 -- Exuberant capital markets are no longer the hallmark of high-tech in general and the hosting sector in particular. The markets have proven that they can only sustain rational growth and have therefore undergone a correction. (read more) (make a comment)
Contraction, Consolidation and Innovation to Define Web Hosting Sector
January 10, 2002 -- The lack of economic stimulus from North American governments will concurrently spawn new waves of contraction, consolidation and innovation within the Web hosting sector. (read more) (make a comment)
Cash slump in the Web hosting sector
July 23, 2001 -- While Web hosting outfits are slated to experience tremendous growth within the next few years, they must ride out a telecom slump in the interim. (read more) (make a comment)
Stream Intelligent Networks Using Robots and Wireless Technology to Build its Metropolitan Area Network
July 4, 2001 -- On a particularly sweltering day in late June, a gathering of Toronto’s biggest media outlets crowd onto a lawn across from City Hall. They’ve been invited to witness a remarkably cast production. (read more) (make a comment)
British hosting will raise the bar
June 14, 2001 -- The privatization of public broadcasting in the United Kingdom has ironically resulted in more choice for consumers of complex hosting services. (read more) (make a comment)
Content Delivery Market to Grow, Consolidate
June 1, 2001 -- As the U.S. economy slows, complex Web hosting firms must shift their strategies to accommodate growth in the content delivery sector.
(read more) (make a comment)
Managing the Managed Host
May 10, 2001 -- Managed hosting of corporate applications is destined for a temporary downfall due to the economic downturn.
(read more) (make a comment)
Competition spawns consolidation
March 28, 2001 -- Expect the consolidation of smaller firms to continue as global telecom giants enter into the Web hosting arena. (read more) (make a comment)
DNS under technical and regulatory siege
February 14, 2001 -- A series of high-profile events over the past few weeks has clearly demonstrated the need for a comprehensive revamp of the present domain name regime. (read more) (make a comment)
Hosting M&As sustain slow, continual growth in value added service market
January 31, 2001 -- Expect the consolidation trend to continue albeit at a slower rate according to Daniels and Associates a leading financial services consultancy.
(read more) (make a comment)
Micron Electronics to adopt ASP strategy
January 16, 2001 -- As a price shakeout looms in the personal computer market, survival strategies and corporate transformations are being hatched. (read more) (make a comment)
ASPs Not to Be?
December 5, 2000 -- The application service provider (ASP) market won't disappear, but many of its participants might.
(read more) (make a comment)
Independent co-location providers overextended
May 25, 2000 -- The quest to capture dominant market share has overextended many industrial-strength, co-location providers. (read more) (make a comment)
Web hosting needs ISO standards
May 18, 2000 -- Web hosting needs ISO standards not for the purposes of interoperability but for consumer satisfaction. (read more) (make a comment)
Why ICANN Shouldn't
May 3, 2000 -- One of the greatest challenges facing the Web hosting industry concerns the assignment of domain names. For most hosting firms, domain name registration constitutes a substantial portion of their revenue streams. (read more) (make a comment)
Large hosting firm hacked, credit cards exposed
April 4, 2000 -- Caveat emptor still remains the lingua franca of the Web hosting industry. Despite advances in hosting automation and e-commerce technologies, hosting firms still remain vulnerable to comprised security. (read more) (make a comment)
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