By David Hamilton, theWHIR.com
September 17, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Led by a keynote address by Tier1 Research (t1r.com) head of research Daniel Golding, the first day of Tier1's Hosting Transformations Summit 2008 was largely dominated by discussion of how hosting providers can gain the investment they need to prosper in the current, turbulent market.
The theme's relevance was precipitated by the devastating stock market shocks stemming from faltering investor confidence as the government bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America, and most recently American International Group's faltering standing as an insurance giant.
Golding's keynote address "Managed Hosting and Colocation in 2009 and Beyond" gave attendees a glimpse into the future of hosting and colocation from 2009 to 2015.
He addressed the fact that discussions about the hosting industry are changing. "It's no longer how to succeed. It's about how to keep succeeding," said Golding, noting that hosting providers are not looking for a "quick flip" but rather "the next great" product or service that will last for the next five years. He noted that portable container data centers are one such fad.
He also noted that while colocation demand is steady or increasing, one of the barriers is that investment has been difficult to secure since the credit crunch in 2007, but also because investors do not understand the industry. "Every one who owns a data center is being painted as a villain," he said. He encouraged the audience to educate journalists and analysts about the industry to grow awareness and as the credit crunch subsides, investment will return.
Tier1 chief executive officer Martin McCarthy said he is very confident about the industry and that his firm hopes to equip professionals at the conference with the knowledge needed for "practically applying insight for economic gain."
Read Back Issues of WHIR Magazine
October 2009 - Web Hosting's All Star Team
This has been, for us, one of the most interesting, exciting and challenging build-ups to an issue of the magazine yet, Web Hosting's All Star Team. The balloting process was our first experiment with a kind of user participation we're planning to do a lot more with in the months to come. We had thousands of ballots submitted, with hundreds of write-in suggestions and a demonstration of user engagement that has us feeling super positive about the project.
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July 2009 - What am I Worth?
One of the interesting luxuries of working on a project like the printed WHIR magazine is that it allows us to play with things like our point of view from one issue to the next. In recent months we've been giving added attention to the kind of practical and applicable advice aimed at smaller hosts and resellers. This issue carries on with that point of view, asking, in our cover story, "what am I worth?" It's a complicated question without a clear-cut answer.
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May 2009 - The Blueprint for a Small Web Host
I was a little surprised by how difficult it became to see this idea through. We set out to assemble a blueprint for a small hosting business, but butted up pretty quickly against the general impossibility of covering all the territory that was out there to be covered. The basic constraints of a printed magazine, and the less-than-infinite amount of time we had available forced us to face the fact that we could never produce an exhaustive guide to starting a hosting company.
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