Anyone care to comment on how MSP's will affect hosts? I've read Exodus etc are losing out to NOCs offering managed service (MSP = managed service provider) - which at this point are the big boys (in general). I don't know I'm convinced MSPs are the logical progression for hosting - to me it sounds like really nice control panel stuff. I think the CP market will continue to mature and very large sites may opt for MSP hosts, but with 80% of small businesses still lacking a web presence, are we screwed? I don't think so in the 1-3 yr forecast, but I know many of us want to be here in the 7-10 yr timeframe. Without fortune telling of course, anyone think hosting will change considerably outside of the natural services progression (bigger better nice CPs) I do see a move to load balancing and clustering as a way to actually provide those 9's so many hosts slap on their uptime. But I see this as part of the progression and no significant cost to us as hosts. I see the market solidifying behind a couple of competing technologies with peripheral crap (CDNs etc) I also see budget hosts (> $5 month) falling (before flaming, I make no claims as to your quality of service individually). Anyone else with a view here?

I posted a post here about 3 months ago about MSP's.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=7332

In regards to that the industry is headed down that road. MSP's will be the future, as people are spending a ton of money on support when it is cheaper to outsource it, in this case at least.

I think overall innovation will keep companies around now, around tommorow. Constant solution partnerships and adding value added services, will keep clients coming in your doors.

Overall with the market saturated as it is, you need to able to say well there a great company but they dont offer this, and we do.

Just my opinion.

Joe

It will be interesting to see how this turns out. ASP (Application Service Provider) was suppose to also take over and we all know what happened there. The idea is a great concept but the truth is most people still like the fact that they can have complete control over their systems. Support is one the problem with outsourcing. People and companies are demanding more each day. Let's face it, we will all like instant response and instant solutions to our problems but it doesn't happen that way. People these days are not patient where if you complete a request in an hour it's still considered bad.

The one thing I've found out is that bad support is due to bad communications!!! If you take the time to explain things to people they tend to settle down a little.