What are the keys to success in end-to-end Web hosting?

By Greg Landis

Web hosting, like many other industries, has companies focused on niches within the marketplace and others that provide the proverbial one-stop shop. There are companies concentrating on specific technologies such as dedicated servers or companies targeting a select audience such as software developers. And then there are those that try to cater to all ends of the market.

In fact, every industry has examples of niche providers and one-stop shops. Think of the automobile industry as a parallel. Toyota would represent a company that is looking to cover all ends of the market, while someone like Porsche only sells to a certain segment. In financial services, Citigroup provides everything from banking, credit card services and loans to consumers up and down the spectrum while Goldman Sachs focuses on higher net worth investors only. The debate isn’t really which approach is superior, but rather, what does it take to succeed in each?

In hosting, there are not many companies that focus on end-to-end services and those that are doing it successfully are far and few between. What then are the keys to succeeding as an end-to-end hosting company?

First and foremost, hosting companies need to have a range of services that a growing customer can move up to without having to seek out another service provider. They need upgrade paths and various options. Basic shared hosting services are a start, but a company will also needs to provide semi-dedicated and dedicated hosting to accommodate for customers seeking more capacity, reliability or control.

Hosting companies need to be sure that they also have the technologies and procedures to migrate customers along the different lines of service seamlessly and uninterrupted. Customers will not tolerate downtime and your reputation will suffer if you continually botch the process of moving customers up the value chain. It won’t be any good to upsell customers if you can’t transition them properly and efficiently.