I’m Headed to LinuxCon!
One of the best parts of my job is being able to go places and meet our partners, our peers and our clients face to face, be it in meetings or at conferences, speaking engagements and events.
It’s funny, despite how much closer the Internet brings us, sometimes the tech industry can seem oddly impersonal. Well, we take things personally at ServInt. Our customers come to us in search of a partner, someone who has genuine concern –and in some ways a vested interest — in their success.
After all, few things are as personal as one’s livelihood, and all of us at ServInt take our role in the lives of our clients seriously. Our service and our technology power thousands of businesses around the world. People trust us with the foundation of their day to day lives online and they expect us to take that role seriously.
That’s why I’m proud to be one of the public faces of ServInt. I’ve logged plenty of travel time under my belt to make sure that people know we’re a living, breathing group of caring and hardworking people.
Tomorrow I have a fun stack of meetings up in Boston at LinuxCon, which is run by our partners at The Linux Foundation.
If you’re in town and want to sit down and chat, let me know!
“Oh My God We’re All Gonna Die” – HostingCon 2010
A couple weeks back, I mentioned that I would be speaking at the HostingCon 2010 conference in Austin, TX. I also mentioned that I would post the presentation here for all to see after the conference and I want to make good on my word. The presentation is posted below (after the jump).
The title of my presentation is “Oh My God We’re All Gonna Die”. While the title is intentionally provocative, the message is, I think, pretty optimistic. Our industry is changing rapidly, while we’ll be forced to innovate and compete on a whole new scale, it will mean a leaner operation for businesses and better and more affordable services for end users.
Since there is no video of the presentation (sorry about that), I’ll try and sum it up as best as I can here.
My HostingCon Presentation: “Oh My God We’re All Gonna Die…”
As you may have heard, I’ll be speaking at HostingCon 2010 next week in balmy, beautiful, and weird Austin, TX. I love Austin and am really looking forward to mingling with friends and industry colleagues, but I thought I’d mention something about my presentation before I hopped on a plane to the Lone Star State.
The name of my presentation is:
“Oh My God We’re All Gonna Die: The Future of Webhosting…and What We Can Do About It.”
Now, I admit the title is a bit provocative, but I want to be clear that what I think is going to happen to our industry in the next few years will completely transform the landscape of the web.
What this presentation will spell out are what I believe to be the coming shifts in web hosting and web infrastructure in the next few years. Like the automotive industry more than a century ago, the web is a chaotic marketplace with competing platforms and standards.
Whether it’s Windows and Linux, WebM vs OGG vs H.264, or Open vs Proprietary, the movers and shakers on the web are still arguing over foundational issues. We are only now beginning to see a crystallization of standards, and along with it we’re seeing the entrance of technology behemoths creating and promptly capturing entire segments of the internet economy.
I’ll be out of the office for a few days after I give my presentation, but I’ll be sure to post it here for all to see as soon as I’m back and am looking forward to your thoughts and feedback.
Questions? Comments? Leave a comment below, Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter!
Follow Christian Dawson on Twitter.
ServInt Solo Series Dedicated Server Customers Can Now “Go Gigabit”!
Gigabit speed
Today ServInt is announcing the availability of full gigabit (Gbps) throughput to all ServInt Dedicated Server customers for just $25 a month.
Of course, this isn’t the most revolutionary news. Though ServInt’s pricing on this service is very competitive, we’ve been offering this service on a custom basis for some time. Really, this announcement is a public signal that we see where the web is headed and are reshaping our products to fit those needs.
The 5 Worst Sales In Webhosting Part 2 of 2
This is the second entry in Christian Dawson’s The Five Worst Sales In Webhosting. Check out the original post here!
Sale Type #4: Out of sight, out of mind
I treat new customers better than my existing, loyal ones.
Have you ever been a loyal customer of a company and suddenly noticed them advertising a far superior deal to new customers? How does that make you feel about your purchase?
Banks, cable, and phone providers do this a lot and we see it EVERY DAY in webhosting. Look at the ad above and think about what it says:
“New Customers Get The Best Bundle Prices.”
We’ve all fallen for this at one time or another, and it never stops sucking. Why should a new client be treated like gold when a dedicated one is left to languish? In hosting you see tons of promotions that give new customers special promotions that “double your RAM” or “double your bandwidth” if you sign up right away.
From a business perspective, it can do a lot of damage to your product and your brand. It cheapens your product by revaluing it and ostensibly charges your current clients a “loyalty tax”.
You’re getting something as a new guy they wouldn’t give to a customer who’s been supporting the company for years. How will you feel when YOU are the old customer? Would you rather have a host that spends every day trying to make their whole server farm more robust and powerful — and enjoying the benefits of that investment in infrastructure — or would you rather jump from sign-up deal to sign-up deal, knowing you’re always getting a great price for service at a company that’s clearly spending most of its money acquiring new customers, rather than investing in their business?
Like many of you, I’m ‘value’ conscious. I don’t need the best price, but I do want the best deal. I do want to know that I am not paying too much for too little. And I’d rather not go with a company who has me constantly looking over my shoulder, lest I be left behind.
Sale type #5: The Spaghetti Sale
I throw everything at the wall to see what sticks
We really want your business, so what’s it gonna take? Try it for $1? 50% off? How about baseball tickets?
Baseball tickets!?!?
How is that in any way relevant to what I’m looking for?
Anybody who has ever signed up for a sub-$10 a month hosting package knows that this tactic is rampant in hosting. As far as freebies and add-ons go, they throw the proverbial kitchen sink at you. But how much attention do they pay to your needs? How much attention can they realistically pay to you when it’s clear their number one priority is finding the one thing — or the 15 different things — they need to do to just get you in the door?
Ask yourself: are you buying hosting in order to run a business, or in order to go to the ball game?
It’s easy to become a bit jaded when analyzing these tactics. But there’s some good out there too! Now that we have the negatives out of the way, what is an example of a positive sale? A sale that doesn’t dilute the value of a product, and also doesn’t leave customers old and new out in the dust. I found an example in the most unlikely of places.
Sale type #6: The Up and Up
I have confidence in my product and I want to entice you to try it
I’m not defending the often reckless and underhanded marketing that some gyms are famous for. Please don’t mistake this for an endorsement of gym marketing tactics in general.
But, if you ignore the industry baggage, the ad above is actually a great example of what I think the best type of sale or discount is. It’s a temporary discount – something to encourage people to walk through the door and try things out. If you are confident in your product, and you treat your customers well, it’s the best type of sale out there.
We price our product according to what we believe it’s worth. To get to that number, we take a lot of factors into consideration. What physical resources does this product need? What about power and cooling, how much time does this product require of our staff and how much support, on average, does that product require? That’s a gross over-simplification, of course, but by and large we price our products at a rate that we believe is competitive, fair, and sustainable for our business.
When we do run sales here at ServInt, these kinds of enticement discounts are the only kind I completely approve of. Our sales generally discount the first month or two of service, to help ease people into moving in to our hosting service. We understand that transferring can be time consuming and expensive, and you might even need to pay two places for a little while. We try to help when we can. We’ve actually got a promo like that going right now! Contact our sales department for details! ;^)
What our sales don’t do is discount a select group forever just for signing up at the right time. In fact, when we released the Solo Express a few months ago, we had only intended it to be a limited-quantity promotional product. We never thought it would be as successful as it was, so when we launched it along with a $20 off lifetime promo code and things really took off, we were overwhelmed by the response. A server of that caliber at that price point was truly unique and compelling, and so we decided to eliminate the coupon code, drop the price formally (along with other price drops in the Solo Enterprise line), and bring the Solo Express into regular rotation.
We try to treat all customers fairly, that ensure we have happy clients who stay and grow with ServInt.
Ultimately, we have confidence in our products and our price points, knowing what our service is worth as well as what it costs to offer. We know what investments in service, support, stability and reliability are required to offer top-notch service and we aren’t willing to sacrifice that to try to create false ‘bargains’. If things are a little more expensive than our competitor’s temporary “sale” price, you can be sure they’re worth it.
What we make from our products, we reinvest in making them better. It’s that commitment to bettering our products and services that makes us who we are, and it’s why I’m proud to work here.
- Christian
Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments, on Facebook, or on Twitter.
The 5 Worst Sales In Webhosting – Part 1 of 2
We’ve already told you about the 5 worst products in webhosting, here is part 1 of a 2 part series on the 5 worst sales in webhosting.
Everybody loves a sale. The other day I was shopping for birdseed at Lowe’s, a home improvement and hardware store here in the states. As I perused the store, I noticed a sale that just blew me away.
Brace yourself for it — it’s a big one.
WOW! A whole penny off!
The 5 Worst Products In Webhosting
I was talking to a colleague yesterday, and he used the word ‘bulletproof’ to describe the robustness of our services. I responded with “That word doesn’t mean what you think it means.” It got me thinking about buzzwords we use for hosting that sound good but aren’t. I’ve tried to crack the code on a few of those phrases below.
1) Bulletproof hosting
Photo by amayu
What the customer is meant to assume: “I don’t want my sites to go down no matter what happens. So I want them to be bulletproof, right?”
Cracking the code: The host is a haven for criminals. Are you one?
Want to SPAM, distribute warez, pirate Avatar, or stream child porn on your servers? Go nuts!
You can be as illegal as you want and they won’t pull the plug. They’ll hide from the authorities so you don’t have to!
The bottom line: A respectable business doesn’t want “bulletproof” hosting. Period.
2) Unlimited hosting
Photo by Erica Marshall of muddyboots.org
What the customer is meant to assume: ” I don’t want limits on my hosting! Who wants limits on their hosting? Of course I want my hosting to be unlimited!!111″
Cracking the code: I’ve made my feelings on Unlimited Hosting well known.
In the context of these providers, “Unlimited” really means “We’re not going to tell you how well your systems are going to be able to scale, so good luck growing!” These providers bet on the majority of their users simply not using that many resources to compensate for those that do. But believe me, there’s a limit, a responsible provider will simply boot any abuser off their network if they start taking the term “unlimited” literally.
Contrast this with a provider like us who tells you precisely what you’re getting for your hard earn money and I think you’ll agree we have the better business model.
It’s a lazy, lying marketing game to call a hosting product unlimited and I am still disgusted that otherwise respectable hosts use it.
The bottom line: If you want to set yourself up for surprise failure, buy into the hype – go unlimited.
3) Cheap hosting
Photo by ecastro
What the customer is meant to assume: “These guys are amazing! I’ve never heard of them but they say they can host my whole business and give me 100% uptime and rock solid support for a few bucks a month. Of course I want to save the money and get me some cheap hosting!”
Cracking the code: If it’s too good to be true, it is. We’ve been around for over 15 years, and we’ve seen more dead, failed, shuttered hosts than you can imagine.
Many of them were hot for a while before they up and died. Most lie about their infrastructure and experience to get you to pull the trigger.
Experience matters. Transparency matters too.
Learn about who you are trusting your business to, and figure out what you’re giving up when hunting for a bargain.
The bottom line: Going out of business is not cheap. Stay away from cheap hosting.
4) Free hosting
Photo by Lori Spindler
What the customer is meant to assume: “I get to put up anything I want and you won’t charge me anything? Where do I sign up? Of course I want free hosting!”
Cracking the code: Somebody else gets to make money off of the efforts you put in. Somebody else gets to exert control over you if they want to, whether you are doing something illegal or not. Somebody else is deciding what resources you need to grow. And they are getting a big cut of the fruits of your labor, which isn’t very ‘free’ at the end of the day.
Whether they are selling ads based on your content, or whether they are simply taking a cut of your revenue or of the traffic that you attract, that’s money you’re not getting. With a provider like ServInt, you know exactly what you’re getting.
The bottom line: TANSTAAFL. There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Know what you’re giving up to get a free resource. If you are popular in the least, I’ll bet it’s far more than what you could gain by taking control yourself.
5) Windows hosting
Photo by Justin Marty
What the customer is meant to assume: “I’ll get the same level of usability, security, performance, and reliability that I get on my Windows desktop! Of course I want Windows hosting!”
Cracking the code: You’ll get the same level of usability, security, performance, and reliability that you get on your Windows desktop! Yikes!
The bottom line: Ok ok, that was mostly a joke. Windows hosting does indeed do some things really well.
But as a general rule, the infrastructure that supports the bulk of the Internet is Open Source and the vast majority of server related applications, and the innovation guiding them, is based on free and open software.
In general, steer clear of Windows hosting unless you absolutely need it for a specific technological reason.
Cracking the code,
Christian
Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments, on Twitter, or on our Facebook page!
Photo credits: amayu, Erica Marshall, ecastro, Lori Spindler, Justin Marty.
What Can Buzz Lightyear Teach Us About Backing Up?
If your data is your livelihood, watch this and learn about the time Toy Story 2 disappeared:
It’s a teaser for a longer story on the Toy Story 2 DVD, which I watched with my son this weekend. It starts:
“When making a film like Toy Story 2, we use a bunch of UNIX and Linux machines. On those kinds of machines there’s a command, RM*, that removes everything on the filesystem as fast as it can.”
“Somebody had run RM* on the drive where all the Toy Story 2 files were kept, and things just started to disappear.”
After the teaser, the story goes on to describe how their backups for the past two months had been corrupt, and that the work on the film from the past two years was just gone. Freaking out, they started putting together a plan to push the film back an entire year to try to keep from having to scrap it altogether.
But Galyn Susman, visual arts director at Pixar, came to the rescue. She had just had a baby, and in order to spend time with her newborn had set up a system she could work on from home. She brought with her a copy of the film. The ONLY copy of the film.
My wife calls this story a lesson about how cool new moms are. I say it’s a reminder that if your data is important you can never have enough backups.
Imagine that for moment. Imagine everything you had worked for, months even years worth of data, literally disappearing in front of you. This happens to countless people everyday and it really underscores the fragility of our data. A few unfortunate keystrokes and Pixar, one of the most respected and lucrative animation studios in the world, nearly lost a Golden Globe winning film to the ether.
At ServInt we back up our clients’ files for free, automatically, on every product we sell on our website. Our backup service is awesome – it is reliable and robust and I think it’s an Industry-leading service. But if anybody tells you that ANY backup is 100% reliable 100% of the time, call them a liar and run away from them immediately.
If your data is critical to your livelihood, you can NEVER have enough backups. Go ask Pixar. Then go watch Toy Story 2 or some other Pixar movie. They are all awesome – and at least one survived to be seen because of backups.
Green Retrofitting: Corporate Responsibility That Makes Sense
Challenges Are Catalysts for Innovation
Yesterday, I wrote about a new direction for ServInt’s social media outreach. Basically, I explained that a lot of companies, ServInt included, spend too much time talking about themselves and not enough time talking about their customers. I made a new rule saying that we’d talk more about you .
So, naturally, I’m going to kick that off by talking about us .
Earth Week 2010 is coming to a close and as such I thought it appropriate to reflect on a few of our specific accomplishments in green technology. In our more than 15 year history, we’ve been relatively silent trailblazers. We are pioneers in dedicated and VPS hosting and we were one of the first hosts to actively work on improving inefficient and environmentally troubling urban infrastructure. With that being said, there are some unique challenges that we face precisely because of our status as trailblazers.
No One Follows the Dull: The Case For Good Social Media
Being loud AND boring in one direction
OK, friends – time for some blogging about why we’re blogging!
The other day I discovered that Verizon had been over-billing me for months – an extra cable box and the ‘Filipino package’, neither of which I ever requested. I thought about jumping onto Twitter to complain in public. I didn’t. Instead I started thinking about why and how we use social media, and a light bulb went off. Now I think I have some answers, and I’m ready to share.
I’ll tell you why ServInt got on Twitter in particular – because people were talking about us, and we wanted to be part of the conversation. It was an opportunity to engage with clients who were talking about us anyway – generally because they were particularly happy or particularly not happy with the service they received.
