Hello,
I'm a long time browser.. but I finally decided to register and make my posting debut ;)

OK here's the deal with my company.

Main Issue
We are a reseller of a company which we wish to leave.

Profit / Loss Products Status
Unix 50mb/3gb accounts:
9@$13 / month = $117(cost 9@$5/month = $45)

Unix 1000mb/20gb accounts:
3@$26/ month = $78 (cost 3@$10/month = $30)

Windows 50mb/3gb accounts:
1@$20/month (cost 1@$11/month)

Miva Merchant bundled Licences:
1@30/month (cost 1@$15/month)

Unlimited Nationwide Dialup accounts:
8@$13/month = $104 (cost 8@$9/month = $72)

Other costs:
Main Reseller account (cost $50/month)

Revenue Totals
Income: $349
Expenses: $223
Revenue: $126


Our current Providor allows us to provide all of the above services by purchasing our main account for $50 /month. This is why we have 1 windows account and one miva licence etc. This is also why we provide dialup. Our providor has a proprietary CP so we will be changing that as well.

Here's what we've got so far:
We own a 100 client version of ModernBill that we are using and wil continute to use. We are planning on moving to a dedicated server. We plan to use Cpanel as it seem to integrate with modernbill so well. Although we are not married to the modernbill / Cpanel idea as we don't have a lot of clients yet and would be willing to look at other options. We are using the integraded Enom mod for registrations which is working out nice. We are also happy with our merchant account providor, and SSL provodor.

Here are the issues:
If we get a Ded server from a provider such as ServerMatrix... how much "management" does each level really offer. I am not a Unix guru but have been learning as I go along. Can much of the issues that I will need to handle be admined by the Master CP? I have used SSH for basic tasks for items such as CSR generation. And I seem to be able to learn how to do basic tasks as needed. What type of items will I need to learn / pain admin to do if I have my own box?

We will also need a new provoder for dialup. We are looking at MegaPop as well as YourNetPlus. Any Suggestions on either of these. MegaPop will get the job done but YourNetPlus will allow us to sell DSL and Satilite service as well.

If we go to a ded server it will obviously be uinx. What options do we have for our windows account?

What's the deal with miva? we are currently leasing a bundle licence from our provoder for $15/ month. I read in another thread that miva now doesn't offer that. Any suggestions on what to do here? I think for further clients we may direct them to OScommerce as an alternative if we can't figure out how to offer Miva effectively.

More about us:
We do a lot of web design work and are looking to get more into the service market. As you can see we are currently offering a lot of products and may offer even more. As you can see we don't have a big revenue stream... but we want to have all of our providors in place before we start to market our products. The basic business plan is to offer many great products at reasonable prices that will sell well in a local market. We have found that when you treat your clients right it is easy to sell them other services. Which is why we have a broad portfolio and may make it even greater.

Conclusion
Put yourself in our shoes. If you had it to do over again and were in our stage what would you do. I have been very honest in this post and I hope for honest answers. Please do not flame this post... I'm looking for constructive advise.

Thank you for all the info on these boards. It has been so helpful thus far.

Regards,
Logical J

I think you have to decide what part "hosting" plays in your future plans. Is it a core service or is it supposed to be a profit center? Does hosting support your business or does your business support your hosting?

If you're making more money on design and you use hosting as a customer-contact point, you might want to move up to a fully managed reseller or semi/dedicated server. There are shared reseller programs out there that offer Miva -- I'm not sure why, with your customer load, you are looking to commit to a fully dedicated server.

Still, if you do justify the dedicated server option, you might check this thread:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=212757

It's long but it gets into the distinction of unmanaged, semi managed and fully managed dedicated server vendors. It's a good place to start.

rockcommerce<
As far as profit centers. The design end is definately paying the bills. But.. we really want to make the hosting and dialup a bigger part of our revenue stream. I guess that's why I opted to go to dedicated. I am also afraid to not go to dedicated as I do not want to migrate my clinets a 2nd time in a few months when we have more clients. But I suppose If I choose a host that uses Cpanel it would be less of a move for my clients. The second time. I'll check out that thread.

Anyone else got any comments on my situation? I may have mistitled this thread :(

It all depends on how much you are going to grow that hosting part of your business.

If growth is going to be tremendeous, go for dedicated server and I would get the managed service that do all security patches and upgrades for you.

If growth is not much then I would suggest a good reseller plan that allows for growth.

Though I am pretty capable of managing a server, I still prefer to leave that to a server admin and have good sleep. I prefer good sleep than saving a little money.

You might want to take a look at getting an h sphere reseller account or dedicated server. It has all the features you are looking for and you don't need to pay for modernbill or anything else as a separate piece of software.

A fully managed H Sphere dedicated server would give you all the features and automation that you are looking for.

H Sphere also has os commerce integrated so it is a snap to install for a customers site.

After further research I am thinking of going VPS... this will give me the best of both worlds right? Any Opinions on DedicatedNow.com's VPS? It seems to be somewhat managed and more economical than going full dedicated.

Can I buy 1 miva bundle licence to put on my VPS or is that not possible? Also doesn anyone have any suggestion for my windows account? I suppose I will either need to sell the account or buy more space somewhere else.

Any comments on the dial-up provodors I mentioned?? I know dial-up is not the thing here but I'm sure some of you are provoding it.

Get H Sphere on a VPS :) Most hosts don't offer it but there are some that do.

Like I said I currently have ModernBill and may need to keep it as I also offer Dial-up and I don't know if you can bill for other services on H Shpere. Plus I've been reading the huge H-sphere / c-panel thread and I think I like the items seporate. I don't know manbe not.. is there a Hsphere demo somewhere?

There is a demo on psofts site http://www.psoft.net but its not very clear for first timers

You can bill for any non h sphere related services easily as well.

Hmm... I took 10 min and looked at the software... it's nice that it's got everything integrated but man... it doesn't seem too user friendly. I'm not sure what it is but it just seems awkward.

The admin area is a bit awkward at first but it begins to make sense after you move around in it.

The end user area is real nice though, looks basically like cpanel.

They are releasing 2.4 soon which has XML integration so there will be easier ways to ontegrate new skins and features. Should be exciting.