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• HostColor Celebrates Halloween, with Discounts
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• HostColor Celebrates Halloween, with Discounts
• FatCow Recognizes Breast Cancer Awareness
• HostGator Adds Billing to Hosting Plans

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Share this :

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Technically, ISPCON ended 10 days ago. However, since that 10-day period includes two weekends and five days of very enjoyable vacationing, I would prefer if you considered the interval between my accounts of the event something more like one day.

 

One of the standout presentations in a session that included two out-of-the-ordinary keynotes was the day-two keynote delivered by Douglas J. Erwin, CEO of The Planet.

 

Erwin’s stint as head of the company coincided with the investment by GI Partners that led to the merger between The Planet and EV1 Servers, and the injection of a little bit more big-business culture at The Planet.

 

That is not to say that the company was poorly run before GI Partners, or before Erwin, but to address the common occurrence that Web hosting companies built by tech specialists are often built around that special expertise first and foremost, rather than according to more old-fashioned business principles.

 

This is the are a mostly addressed by Erwin, who skipped the standard esoteric hosting theorizing and sales pitch and instead offered quite a candid discussion of what he intends to accomplish with The Planet.

 

 

Like the previous days keynote (given by Cogent’s Dave Schaeffer), Erwin’s address had that sort of impact that had attendees nodding thoughtfully. He described a world of “geeks” and “suits,” differing –but not necessarily conflicting – backgrounds that have to be reconciled in moving a Web hosting business forward.

 

He willingly described himself as a “suit,” and somebody who has been working to learn about Web hosting since he became the head of one of the business’s biggest players. Fortunately, he says, he’s surrounded by people who really understand Web hosting. Maybe that’s where those old-fashioned business principles begin to kick in.

 

One of the challenges facing Web hosts, says Erwin, is a limited talent pool in which to find employees, and a circumstance that sees those employees following new opportunities from job to job. Among the more interesting projects he described at The Planet was an effort to create a company where employees would be excited about coming to work in the morning and that they would think of as a place to build a career.

 

Rarely did he talk about technology. He talked about dealing with customers. Asking them if the company is doing a good job, or for suggestions on what the company could do differently, and how. One of the points he tried to drive home is The Planet’s determination to watch whether it is succeeding using tangible metrics, which enable the company to improve.

 

Those points of focus, customers and employees, were visible in the examples he used, showing the company’s new facilities, and the customer service practices being put in place.

 The folks I talked to seemed to feel like they’d left the keynote with something to think about, which is probably the mark of a good presentation. It will be interesting to see if they can identify the places where the old-fashioned business principles fit into their businesses.

In this final look at the recent ISPCON show in San Jose, we’ll hear from the exhibitors themselves on what the show meant and how things went.

ISPCON consistently draws a number of web hosting and hosting-related exhibitors to the show floor. This year’s fall event was no exception. Here is the brief list of the companies exhibiting and a brief description of the products promoted:

AT&T Wholesale – Largest provider of communications services the U.S. Network, data, and IP solutions were featured.

CrashPlan PROServer – Cross platform enterprise backup solutions.

Everyone.net – A leading SaaS messaging solution for service providers.

groupSPARK – A leading provider of hosted SaaS solutions. Featured Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and Dynamics CRM.

HostMySite.com – A service-oriented web hosting provider. Featured developer solutions, managed servers, and VPS products.

Hostopia – Wholesale private-label, web, email and application services.

NaviSite – IT hosting, outsourcing and professional services.

Roaring Penguin Software Inc. – Specializes in email filtering and fighting spam at the mail server.

SWSoft – Advanced server development company offering control panels, virtualization software, billing software and hosting automation software.

Tucows Inc. – An Internet services provider for hosting companies.

Web Host Industry Review – Yes, The WHIR had a great booth manned by the staff you know and love!

Here are a few comments heard at the exhibit hall this year:

James Bird, Manager, Strategic Solutions with Hostopia – ‘’We’re happy with the traffic we’ve seen so far.’’

Ravi Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer, groupSPARK – ‘’It’s been intimate. The sessions were all intimate with 2 to 3 speakers per session. This allowed the audience to lean more from each speaker. There was also more time on the Q&A side.’’

Stacy Griggs, Vice President of Sales, HostMySite.com – ‘’ISPCON is a great show. It’s always good for companies to get together and exchange ideas and best practices. The sessions were informative and of a high quality.’’

Candice Rodriguez, Director of Business Development & Marketing, The WHIR – ‘’There are many more web hosting vendors. There are more companies who want to get their foot in the door with larger web hosting providers.’’

That’s the exhibitor wrap up. Look for more comments and trade show coverage in the near future.