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  1. #1
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    cloud hosting reseller standard practice

    I was interested in adding the cloud service to our hosting features. I have poked around a bit but it seems the standard practice (just like it is with windows hosting) is that you have to buy as a reseller before you can offer the feature.

    I dont need an extra payment every month if cloud sales are going to take a while to get started, doing that leaves me in the red right from the start and we cant afford that right now.

    Maybe at some point we can afford to pay prior to sales but not now.

    Question: Is this standard practice or are there cloud reseller programs out there that are set up so that when we get business they get business. And we can order the product as we get clients.

    Thanks.

  2. #2
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    Most reseller solutions need you to have an account, and some basic integration (like a hostbill or whmcs module, or API work).

    So there typically is a baseline cost.

    but, being cloud you should be able to scale up on demand only as you make sales

  3. #3
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    Yes thanks i already have WHMCS and intergration with that would be nice. Thanks i will keep shopping, for lack of a better term hopfully i can find a "startup" contract

  4. #4
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    Well so far i found what appeared to be a good deal, but sadly when i did my due diligence i found a long history of employees that were not happy, very high attrition rates due to managements outrite abusive treatment of employees, as well as a history of upper's sweeping issues under the rug.

    As attractive as the package was im not doing business with anyone with that sort of review.

    I also found another great company but they require a min of 50 clients and i got the impression if you dont meet sales projections they pull your contract. Again even if i had 50 clients i wont be subject to someone cracking the whip on sales. I put enough pressure on sales as it is and whip cracking leads to not doing what is best for the client in my book.

    You would think with cloud hosting and all of its benefits that most companies would allow you to just plugin right into their reseller program, its not like they have huge setup fees, its all a cloud..

  5. #5
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    Resellers and partners are reciprocal arrangements. The provider needs to have a reason to give you discounts and perks.

  6. #6
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    Starting a Cloud Hosting Solution can be expensive out the door if you are building it from the ground up and fully under your control. You need the virtualized software (VMWare, OnApp, Xen, etc.) as your software layer, you'll need hypervisors (Dedicated servers with at least a OS drive), SAN storage (if you want true High Availability (HA), and in some instances an management server (though you can host this level in another cloud solution to ensure N+1 across all aspects of your cloud enviroment).

    With all this the prices can climb and climb and it could take some time to see a turn around on your revenue. So to get into this kind of offering you really need to nail down WHAT you want to sell your clients. Do you want to offer them Shared/Reseller hosting in a Cloud enviroment to promote uptime and reliability, or Cloud emailing services to ensure email is always working, or provide Virtual Machines (VM) for your customers use as they please.

    For a start up, you could simply start with a Cloud VM with a reputable provider and setup your own hosting enviroment within it and use that as your spring board into the product and grow your VM as your customer base grows and then you can transition into multiple VMs, and when your revenue stream deems worthy enough to make the plunge into your own physical enviroment.

  7. #7
    Cloud Hosting is to much expensive but you need a better integration across all aspects for cloud enviroment

  8. #8
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    I have a meeting (phone) monday with a company that looks very promising, they allow me to use their whitelable cloud services to add cloud hosting to my features and brand it as mine. They also require no minimum, no upfront or monthly costs, they get paid when i make a sale, and provide full integration. We will see how the meeting goes...

  9. #9
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    @durangod, Good luck with the meeting!
    I'm looking for a similar solution. Please keep us posted.

  10. #10
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    Sorry i have not updated this till now, i have not been able to meet with them as of yet due to my current schedule. When i do i will update this...

  11. #11
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    I can't see how they could provide any kind of integration. There is no way a provider is going to allow your WHMCS to integrate with their cloud and allow you to setup VMs when you make a sale. You need a private cloud for that.

    You would have to handle it the way hosting companies handle dedicated server sales. You get the sale, then you order the service, then you provide your client with the service.
    Laurence Flynn @ HostNEXUS.com
    Managed WordPress Hosting Solutions
    Focused on speed. Obsessed with security.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by NexDog View Post
    I can't see how they could provide any kind of integration. There is no way a provider is going to allow your WHMCS to integrate with their cloud and allow you to setup VMs when you make a sale. You need a private cloud for that.

    You would have to handle it the way hosting companies handle dedicated server sales. You get the sale, then you order the service, then you provide your client with the service.
    Usually providers don't allow their resellers to integrate directly with their cloud infrastructure but they have an API that acts as a layer between the two. This allows the reseller to setup cloud servers on demand, handle upgrade/downgrade requests, and it's all done automatically through the API.

  13. #13
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    I had the meeting today with them and they are sending me a partner agreement to look over. Basically yes that is how it works, we tell them basically what we think we need, then when a client orders cloud hosting we sell it at a small profit, keep the profit and pay the company for the service.

    He did not know if they were integrated with WHMCS so that tells me that they prob are not. We will have to set up a new resellable item in WHMCS for cloud hosting and just do it that way.

    Just FYI and i didnt want to say this before because i wanted to be sure they sounded lagit and talk to them first. But the company is

    awesomecloud.com/
    I will let you know more when i get and read the partner program docs they are sending me..

  14. #14
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    If there is no WHMCS integration needed, how's that any different to any partner/reseller program where you simply sign up once you actually have a sale? (confused)

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by dediserve View Post
    If there is no WHMCS integration needed, how's that any different to any partner/reseller program where you simply sign up once you actually have a sale? (confused)
    Well there is no difference, if you compare apples to apples. But that was my point from the beginning, i checked numerous reseller programs and they all wanted a monthly fee sale or no sale. We cannot afford to go thru what we did with windows hosting and pay for a year of service and no sales.

    So yes you are correct there is no difference, but this was the one company we found that allows us to offer the cloud hosting and says there is no upfront cost or monthly fee or any fees until you make a sale. All the others we looked at had some kind of account fee attached to the process. Again i will need to read their partner agreement to be sure.

  16. #16
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    Then why not just sign up as a reseller once you have some sales?

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by dediserve View Post
    Then why not just sign up as a reseller once you have some sales?
    Because that would be putting the cart before the horse as they say, i would have no idea what to advertise regarding specs or costs. And i feel i would be tripping over myself trying to then package something up after the fact and i feel when you practice cricis management like that, mistakes are made and guess who usually has to pay for those, we do.

    That is much like having a car lot with no cars until you get a customer and then going out and buying a car for them for resale. This is not the way i want to do business.

  18. #18
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    I was reading a partnership agreement and part of it says that we or the end user should provide insurance to cover any damages.

    Other than normal business liability insurance are they referencing some kind of insurance specifally for cloud hosting? Is there cloud hosting insurance? This is the first agreement i have seen that references that we or the end user must have insurance.
    Last edited by durangod; 12-11-2013 at 12:33 AM.

  19. #19
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    What insurance you need will be defined by the terms and conditions you sell to your clients under, and the jurisdiction you sell from.

  20. #20
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    I understand that the specific legal Geo location requirements come into play but i guess im not understanding what this insurance is suppose to cover.

    So Maybe a better question is what is this insurance suppose to cover? Data loss, loss of revenue due to extended down time, contractual issue?

    Also from one of the agreements i have read, it requires us to set up a contractual agreement between us and the end user. Unlike standard hosting TOS, they ask that an actual E-Signed agreement be drafted that contain no less requirements than our contract with them. This is also a new requirement we have not yet had to do.

  21. #21
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    All sounds very (overly) complex and onerous.

    Unless you are selling to large corporations, such legal overhead should not be required.

  22. #22
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    Yes agreed

    One agreement we have been looking at recently is 14 pages. Most of it is general TOS that you might find on any host provider site. And some of the other items i do understand such as being required to market their service in the same fashion as you do your own, and training staff on their service as you do your own products. That is all good and well because it is only fair in order to get sales.

    Some of the other stuff i have alittle issue with... Such as being required to offer tier 1 service on this product. Which in itself is not bad, but when you put that together with it is up to us to totally support this product not the vendor, they will provide docs and such but they will not offer any support personnel, that part is all up to us to support the product fully tech wise... Which in just getting started in the cloud feature offering is a bit of a pill to swallow.

    Another thing is that they have full right to term the contract with notice at any time and if that occurs they will automatically take control of our End Users and those End users automatically become their customers. I believe this is why they want us to establish the contract with the end user in the event that happens.

    No guarentee of service reliability and restrictions on what we can do in that event. (i need to actually read the feature item specs so maybe the guarentee is in that doc, we will see)
    Last edited by durangod; 12-11-2013 at 07:26 AM.

  23. #23
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    Sounds like it's all good - for the provider, and all at your risk for you.

    My advice would be just buy some resources / become a partner of an IAAS type offer, where you just rent kit at preferential rates, no big contracts, no onerous clauses, no risk the cloud will take your clients if you are late with a bill!

  24. #24
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    The challenge is AC is all windows based. I can probably work it in. we will see what happens.

  25. #25
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    What is AC?

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