Hi,

What's the major benefit to having your own data center for your hosting business?

Control over quality and service level?

Cost savings?

Something else?


Moreover, how does one deal with all the additional hats required to run a data center -- with all that entails -- in addition to what's required for running a hosting company?

At what point would it be appropriate for a hosting company to seriously consider having their own data center?

What are the resources required? I know this varies, of course...what might be typical?

What are the key staffing and skill set concerns?

Would it be best to build one from scratch or buy one that currently exist? Why?

What are the biggest surprises (good or bad) likely to be for the host that starts operating from their own data center?


Thank you very much for sharing,

Louis

Advantage= serious network solutions outsourced from large companies, ie-banks, MNCs. One client can be worth as much as $150,000/mth.

Shared webhosting is not where the money is.... its in the big clients.

You wont be able to have such clients if you resell off of another Service Provider.

It depends on the range of products you are offering, and also on how many servers you have. For example if you offer virtual and dedicated hosting, and have less than 50 servers, co-location is probably the best way to go.

Regarding control and reliability, if you choose a good data center, that really should not be an issue. In fact, if you're a relatively small host (less than 50 servers) and have your own data center, reliability may very well be less because you probably won't be able to afford the sort of backup lines and protection against DoS attacks that big data centers such as NAC can afford to implement.

Hi Cephren,

I see your point.

Can you give me an example of a "package" like you describe in your post where some company outsources their networking/infrustructure for $150,000 or whatever per month?

What kind of "package of goods/services/support" would one need to provide for that?

Thank you,

Louis