B10WH

The morality and fair play is a corner-stone of each business. Anyone who has been in business long enough can tell you than contracts does not worth even a dime without honesty. when we take a look at today’s web hosting industry however, we will see that it is all about money. It is all about making a few more bugs. Greed is one of the worst things in todays hosting market. It drives one of the most negative trends – “unlimited”! I though that there are a very few people who think this way. Of course I might be wrong, I don’t know actually how many are they, but here is one of them!

Douglas, a Web Hosting Talk member with more than 2000 posts within the forums opened a very interesting thread titled “An open letter to VPS “providers” and VPS Customers”.

“I’ve been involved in the hosting industry in one facet or another since 1999. During that time, I’ve worked for three companies (my own business and two others). I’ve been a part of WHT for nearly 6 years now, and it absolutely sickens me with the amount of “companies” I’ve seen come and go”, says Douglas.

He says that the hosting industry is “plagued by individuals that have a few hundred bucks burning a hole in their pocket, and they see web hosting as a way to make fast cash”. Douglas explains that anyone can get a mid-range server, to install OpenVZ on it and “suddenly, they’re the world’s greatest host”.

They’re driven by dollar signs. They’re driven by greed. They figure that they can do this part time and make full time money. News flash: IT DOES NOT WORK THIS WAY!, this is what Douglas said to WHT members.

He shared his view about web hosting and said that being in this industry is beyond a full time commitment. Those who own smaller hosting companies are obliged to work 12-18 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

“This isn’t something that can be done when you get home from school and in between homework and eating din-din. When you get into this industry, you forsake your entire life, as you know it. If people are giving you their money, they expect that their services will be available, no matter what time it is”, explains Douglas.

He says that he’s no longer shocked when see that some “company” is here today, gone tomorrow, “leaving their customers up a roaring river without any instruments to bail themselves out”.

“It may only be a few hundred bucks for these types of “hosts”, however, it’s a customers lifeline, blood, sweat and tears”, writes the members who has a “Community Liaison” status within the forums.

Get Out Of the Industry!

“To all of these people that don’t know what the heck they are doing… stop. Get out of the industry. It’s painfully obvious that you have absolutely no clue as to what you are doing, and for some of your customers, your actions could make or break their livelihood. I’ve seen several cases of Mom and Pop type businesses go belly up because you didn’t care enough to plan your “business” out for the long term. If you’re in this business to get rich quick, then you’re in the wrong industry, period. Do us all a favor and go away. Permanently”, this is the message Douglas sent to those who see web hosting as a get-quick-reach scheme.

The author of the “open letter” says that the web is an “extremely dangerous tool for educated Internet junkies that know how to do their homework”.

“You also share some of the burden for not doing your research as heavily as you should have. And if you don’t have backups, that falls on no one but yourself”, warns Douglas consumers and adds that he doesn’t like to take a tone like this with anyone, but after a decade of experience, my number one rule about backups is – “No matter if your hosting provider offers backups or not, you *must* make sure that you have your OWN backups”!

“When your online business literally makes $1 – $2K an hour, you better have multiple backups, just so that there is a fail-safe copy somewhere”, is the advice of WHT member.

Something That I Disagree With

Dougla’s article is briliant and I share most of the things he says. But I disagree with him on thing he said about start-up hosting companies. The reason is that he presumes that most start-up web hosts does not have a good plan how to develop and manage their business. See what Douglas says: “There are start ups and smaller operations that are absolutely fantastic, but then again, they’ve got a good business plan in place and long term goals. Most new hosting “providers” can’t even see past the end of their noses; a GOOD provider will have a 1-2 year plan lined up.

“It saddens me that 90% of start ups (rough estimate, not fact) in the hosting industry end up failing within the first year of business, though most falter within 3-6 months”, says Douglas and makes a conclusion which is not true. Most new web hosts who are owned by anyone who is capable enough to manage their servers and at the same time offer standardized service, always succeed in hosting business.

At the end of his thread Douglas appeals to web hsting customers by saying them “please start doing your homework”. He also urged “extreme caution” for those who providing unrealistic hosting plans for “dirt cheap prices”. He mentioned an exception, something that I also disagree with, but I must admit that his suggestion is correct.

“Always read the fine print in any provider’s Terms of Service, in particular their cancellation policies, refund policies and service level agreements”, finishes Douglas his thread.