Jun 07 2008
eggs && baskets
So I've been dedicating a good bit of my time lately brainstorming a new product. This has made me think about how I go about providing hosting to the very small number of people I do (some friends and family that need a business presence on the web and that is about it). I loathe the idear of finding a one stop shop for all my offering needs as it were. It is my opinion that the companies that have the resources to provide every possible tool and utility one may want to offer to their customers also have the resources to box those same people in. By box in I mean that you don't get the source to the products you are running and you have no idea where to go if you have issues execpt through their tech support. This may be good, it may be aweful and that almost assuredly will depend on the mood of the support person you speak with as well as your mood (don't ever forget how much your mindset and what you project going into a tech support call will effect the outcome of the call).
Many shun open source products because they don't come with some level of tech support. For a number of organizations this is just, they don't have the resources to bring on a full time admin or to dedicate a full time admin to one particluar task. It may make sense to put the burden of support somewhere else. This area is so grey, really. There are so many software vendors out there who provide only one product. This may be email, this may be web services, this may be anti spam or anti virus protection, but in my opinion, these individual vendors are who we need to be looking to to provide a bundled product to our customers. This takes careful consideration and the decision should not be made over night. If you really need something right away, at least make sure you aren't getting locked into something you can't get out of if you change your mind in a month (or even a week). Then spend some time as you can and really dig into a few things that are options and re-evaluate your decision. There is nothing wrong with changing your mind and your customers will understand (especially if your decision provides them with a better product).
OK, this has kinda been all over the place. The reason for all of that drivel will become apparent in the next couple of weeks. I've been cooking up some real world scenarios on hosting solutions (mostly geared towards the would be hosting provider) that focus on the paradigm of convenience and secuirty. I'll start on Friday with what I would do if I were starting from scratch and going to start up a small hosting company on my own. The first one will be based on convenience. What works best and is easiest to set up. The second one (in a couple of weeks) will be based on security. More to follow.....
jb