I mean some people host their sites on their own PCs at home. Isn't that kind of scary for any hosting company ? Ok, at present that is still difficult to configure and not very reliable. Most homes don`t have a permanent IP and having a PC on all night costs probably more than just getting a hosting account... But what if there is better hard and software in 5 years ? Couldn't it happen that everyone hosts themselves at home and the hosting industry dies ??

How long is it going to take ??

Exactly my concern thomas.smith.

I heard Comcast plans to start installing fiber optic lines into residential areas in the next few years. (At very fast speeds).

What happens when the internet begins getting flooded with users @ 100mbps download speeds? Oh my....

I just hope that it will take like 6 or 7 years and that I will be a millionaire until then...because otherwise... :(

I just hope they will not invent something that is easier to administrate then Apache for many years because most users could not configure that themselves. But once that is all automated I think it looks kind of bad...

I still think there will be a big demand for hosting. Many companies will want to have the secure building, raised flooring, secure network etc... I know quite a few people who host from home and their sites always change, sometimes go off line and they dont bother with them for a month or so.

It will get easier to host from home but for business I think all will be ok.

Lines will get faster... but hardware will also get quicker and better on servers and things should go up in scale. When their lines are faster, so will the DC's lines be faster etc...

I did read on the internet that they are planning a new internet which will run side by side working a different way so that when the old one (current one) phases out all should be seamless and the new will be able to cope with the demands that is being put on it. I will need to search for the news article. It was quite interesting though.

Actually its quite easy - a company I know hosts from a spare room and have done so for a number of years - just requires a small leased line, IP addresses and a server with web server software and thats it.

It wasn't long ago when anyone could setup a ISP business by installing the right equipment and provide internet access from home as well.

If you know what you are doing its easily possible

I think we will see permanent IPs for businesses rather than homes then maybe companies host there own sites etc

It can be done today

Originally posted by thomas.smith
I just hope that it will take like 6 or 7 years and that I will be a millionaire until then...because otherwise... :(

I just hope they will not invent something that is easier to administrate then Apache for many years because most users could not configure that themselves. But once that is all automated I think it looks kind of bad...

There are still a lot of people who will struggle to configure it or even set it up even if it is automated. When I have provided support to computer users in the past I struggle to get people to understand what the Start button is in Windows. I have to go to the point of explaining that they look at the monitor (television to make them understand) and right on the corner of the glass where it meets the plastic surrounding it says Start on the screen.

So even if it is made easier (Which I am sure it will be) there will still be those who do not have a clue. Businesses will not want to run a business from their own PC. We may loose small home users who are technically minded but I dont see a total stop or much of a difference. I estimate the demand will continue to increase. It's a big market.

Originally posted by davidkm
Actually its quite easy - a company I know hosts from a spare room and have done so for a number of years - just requires a small leased line, IP addresses and a server with web server software and thats it.

It wasn't long ago when anyone could setup a ISP business by installing the right equipment and provide internet access from home as well.

If you know what you are doing its easily possible

I think we will see permanent IPs for businesses rather than homes then maybe companies host there own sites etc

It can be done today

Yes, I think companies will host themselves before private people... Especially because most private people are not very experienced and don't know how to set up their own server. But my fear is that everything will get so easy that even usual people know how to do it :(

Originally posted by Stormhosts
There are still a lot of people who will struggle to configure it or even set it up even if it is automated. When I have provided support to computer users in the past I struggle to get people to understand what the Start button is in Windows. I have to go to the point of explaining that they look at the monitor (television to make them understand) and right on the corner of the glass where it meets the plastic surrounding it says Start on the screen.

So even if it is made easier (Which I am sure it will be) there will still be those who do not have a clue. Businesses will not want to run a business from their own PC. We may loose small home users who are technically minded but I dont see a total stop or much of a difference. I estimate the demand will continue to increase. It's a big market.

Well, ok that is true... I have made similar experiences providing support for home users. These people might never be able to set up their own servers even if automated. I hope you are right.

Originally posted by thomas.smith
Well, ok that is true... I have made similar experiences providing support for home users. These people might never be able to set up their own servers even if automated. I hope you are right.

Something to get you more worried...

I found some software for my Pocket PC which can make it run as a web server. Now if I connect via BlueTooth to my phone and then on to the internet using GPRS then theoretically I could give you a test domain and I can serve you web pages from my pocket while on a train. LOL.

I am going to have to download it and config a test page off my pocket PC for you to try. Unfortunatly I dont have it with me.

It asks the question though... If a pocket pc can serve web pages remotly then so can a mobile phone if software was made to do that and with the introduction of higher speed mobile networks introduced over the past 2 years (3G) it makes me wonder what will be available in the future.

If you look at the file sharing that goes on - you can see private people effectively already do alot of web file hosting of a kind so a move across isn't that much more difficult

I think we are safe as most people realise the benefit of a DC based host rather than the spare room business.

Do people want accounts and support in there homes or will they setup a virtual office environment with a network of people working from home providing services - I know many have done this. Factor the practical stuff in and it becomes less likely for the majority

I am sure some will do it and I think we will see new forms of IT support and online backup services etc

Maybe when pocketpc's have 2.8ghz processors and 2gigs of ram :)
AND a few hundred gigs of space.

I'm entertaining a thought of building a little mini datacenter, in my new home that I'm building. I might even toy with the idea of using that to go after the local hosting market (finally! :D).

That would be pretty cool, having a few racks in the office, where folks could drop by and visit etc. "Yes, your domain will go on this server, or if you like, I could put it on the pink one." :D

Ok, nothing mission critical of course, but it could serve the local scene well, and would be fun to setup. :)

Originally posted by starlux
Maybe when pocketpc's have 2.8ghz processors and 2gigs of ram :)
AND a few hundred gigs of space.

What if pocket PCs have 500 MB of space and enough RAM and everybody has one and they are all connected to the internet ? That would be a danger, wouldn't it ?

I guess I should drop my hosting business and get into the pocket PC server selling business LOL

Originally posted by Aussie Bob
I'm entertaining a thought of building a little mini datacenter, in my new home that I'm building. I might even toy with the idea of using that to go after the local hosting market (finally! :D).

That would be pretty cool, having a few racks in the office, where folks could drop by and visit etc. "Yes, your domain will go on this server, or if you like, I could put it on the pink one." :D

Ok, nothing mission critical of course, but it could serve the local scene well, and would be fun to setup. :)

I think you just want to be able to say you own a pink server. :D

I have thought of a small setup also mainly for testing and to practise on which may server a few non critical sites.

I think it would be a fun experience to setup your own little mini-datacenter. Hmmm....

I wouldn't worry most professional Companies like there sites to be hosting by professional people with a professional infrastruture etc ,so there will always be a market out there for the right company.

there is One issue about hosting at home. it brakes most Terms of Service. so as long as it stays that way we are ok. Comcast is going to start blocking port 80 soon. One of my good friends is a comcast tech and he has found apache setup on a lot of home systems. and the users are wondering why there upload is slow :)

Originally posted by davidkm


I think we will see permanent IPs for businesses rather than homes then maybe companies host there own sites etc

It can be done today

That was the exact thing that Cobalt was trying to do when they started out. The had a Cube/Qube that included a webserver/email etc, designed for the SOHO market.

Chris

We are probably going to see two key divisions in web sites - personal web vs business web. The consumer / techie web's will likely gravitate towards: home server, PDA server, etc.

The future for the family / geneology / personal market may have a shorter life-span for hosting providers. But, I think there will always be a key demand for "outsourcing" a non-competency in the commercial market.

Convenience is a great product to sell. Oil change - for example, it has been many years since I have changed oil in any of my personal vehicles. The convenience value is worth paying $18.95 (or whatever).

Question to ponder: for what uses will the "general consumer" need a IP / web site? Will it take the place of a phone book listing ( ie . www.501-555-1212.com). Are there firms out there selling domain names based on someones phone number or street address?

The populus at large is increasing in its technical savvyness, but there will always be a desire to outsource what you "don't enjoy". As long as we provide a price-value point for convenience that the market is comfortable with. . . I think we will continue to have a market. Its going to morph a great deal over the next 3 - 5 years, and those that keep up with the morph and offer the services in response to changing wants/needs. . .keeping selling !

Don't be a generalist. . get focused. Find a niche and serve it well.

Personally I think the business market will die much sooner because business will be able to set up their own servers and operate them much sooner. For a business it is no problem to have a PC working 24/7. But 90% of individuals really don`t know anything about computers and would you have your PC run 24/7 if you were hosting a site about your cat ? No, you'd rather order a hosting package for $3 a month and save the costs for that PC running all day.

My concern is something like organizers with self configuring self updating servers beeing connected to the internet 24/7 and using few power while running + making no noise. But I guess it will take at least 10 years until that happens. I can not imagine we will have that before 2010.

Your not in the UK - it takes most companies forever to do things and that will just not happen ;)

I think we may see more localised Datacentres serving each town and local persoanl/business community it must be more effective that way than a comapny bringing it all in house

we shall see

I think the business would need hosting longer than personal sites. Personal sites can be hosted from home with minimal bandwidth usage. As a car dealership for example, would you rather pay someone full time to keep a company site up and running, buy all the hardware/connections, or simply pay $20/month and have it taken care of? It's cheaper and easier, and you know it's in good hands.

Originally posted by Amdac
I think the business would need hosting longer than personal sites. Personal sites can be hosted from home with minimal bandwidth usage. As a car dealership for example, would you rather pay someone full time to keep a company site up and running, buy all the hardware/connections, or simply pay $20/month and have it taken care of? It's cheaper and easier, and you know it's in good hands.

Yes, but personal site hosting is also cheaper. For example I just charge $3 a month. Now if you have your home PC on 24/7 the power bill alone will cost much more than $3 and you have more work and a less professional account + can't use your PC for downloads anymore since this would slow down your website.
Also since many home users don't even know what FTP is how could they set up a webserver ? It is more likely that someone in a company will know how to do that. Companies do also have more budget. And if you pay like $30 a month for a business account operating your own server might pay off. If you just pay $3 it never pays off to operate your own webserver... Even having an organizer on 24/7 would probably cost more for the energy it consumes.

Originally posted by Amdac
I think you just want to be able to say you own a pink server. :D
Yes, they would all be different colors. :D

If you were a pizza shop, would you worry about people buying frozen pizza from super stores and do it themselves?

Just because something can be done technically, you shouldn't think it would be a commercially vialble solution for everyone.

There might be many businesses hosting their own website, but there will still many more who simply don't want the hassle and opt for the cheaper and more reliable option, which is "hosting with a hosting company".

Why is the webhosting business always compared to the pizza business...LOL :D Hey, I love pizza, too.

Originally posted by Stormhosts


I did read on the internet that they are planning a new internet which will run side by side working a different way so that when the old one (current one) phases out all should be seamless and the new will be able to cope with the demands that is being put on it. I will need to search for the news article. It was quite interesting though. [/B]

It is called internet 2. It has been around since at least 1997. I did a report on it in 1998. I am still watch the development closely. Mostly it is just for universtitys and govermenet agencies like when the first internet came out.

Originally posted by mcncyo
It is called internet 2. It has been around since at least 1997. I did a report on it in 1998. I am still watch the development closely. Mostly it is just for universtitys and govermenet agencies like when the first internet came out.

What is the difference to the internet as we know it ?? I really can`t imagine how it can be different...

to the normal user they can't tell the defernce but behind the curtins.

What i understand of it, is that it will make voip, video, and thoese have more prority over email, which means insteady of getting email sent instantly there might be a small delay of maybe a few seconds to a couple of minitues longer to reach you, but voip and other things like that will get to you faster. They also have faster pipes for example they sent 859 gigabytes of data in less than 17 minutes across 16,000 kilometers.

You can find more information at http://www.internet2.org/

Will today's hosting companies be able to provide hosting services for the internet 2 or is that something only very large communication companies can do ? They mentioned that you could download 5 GB of data in 30 seconds on internet2... I mean will usual PCs be able to provide that amount of data ?? I hope the internet 2 will not kill the hosting business...

What do you think ?

As I said earlier, it's not always the technology that drives the industry. You would need to consider many other factors that would make somthing commercially viable.

For many businesses, it will still make much more sense to host with a hosting company rather than spending time on hosting their own web site which is not what they should be focusing on.

It's great that the technology is there or will be there. The bigger question is, will people know how to use it. Majority of people duck for cover when they see a CLI, let alone configuring a server for web hosting.

I still see most people and businesses heading to a reliable provider and letting them do the work.