Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : Choosing a NOC

[BrianF]

Hello everyone!

I'm seriously now considering starting up a webhosting company so I have been researching all the details like mad the past few days.

First things that I have looked at are the NOC's. Which one is the best, but which one is the CHEAPEST! I don't want to start with much overhead cost because I'm not sure how many signups I will get in the first months of business. VDI seems like a fair deal, I could handle the costs, but I'd prefer if there was a cheaper option available.

Also, how many signups can I expect in my first months from those of you that have had experience? After submitting to all the directories for hosts etc.

Thanks for any help!
Brian

[kwimberl]

You need to decide what you are looking for in a NOC. You mentioned VDI, so I"m assuming you are looking for a WHM/CPanel NOC. If so, I would highly recommend Burst.Net.

[CagedTornado]

Also, how many signups can I expect in my first months from those of you that have had experience? After submitting to all the directories for hosts etc.

Ummm... none. That is, if that's all you plan to do.

VDI seems like a fair deal, I could handle the costs, but I'd prefer if there was a cheaper option available.

Who's VDI?

[akashik]

Originally posted by CagedTornado
Who's VDI?

http://www.vdi.net/
Nasty looking site, but a well used company by quite a few hosts.

Greg Moroe

[CagedTornado]

<< please read the forum rules and do not advertise on the main boards.. you will be banned the next time you break the rules

- kunal >>

[BrianF]

That would not be enough. If I wanted to give each user 200 megs of disk space, and 5 gigs of transfer a month. They probably won't use all that, but even if they did that would mean that I could have only 7 users!

Burst.net sounds good, I'll look into that some more.

I also wouldn't just submit my site to host directorys! I would spend money on ad campaigns etc.

Any other noc's?

Brian

Btw... virtual dedicated, that makes no sense to me, why would I want a shared dedicated server? Or even if it isn't shared, where do you find a 2 gig hard drive these days?

[mkaufman]

I personally would not recommend BurstNET..they have many support issues and parts going bad (the UPS on the racks).

I recommend VDI though - I'm at their datacenter now

[JBIZ718]

I think there is alot more to hosting then just picking a NOC.

THere are alot of different technologies out there.

Ensim
Plesk
CPanel
and the new ones.

I mean having multiple NOC's is the way we went about it. Multiple points of hosting.

In regards to advertising, its good to get in every directory and then start a compaign.

I think the hosting world is more indepth then parking a server and starting up. Also if you like sleep, wrong business.

In regards to private servers, Multiple Dedicateds on 1 physical box, to some it makes alot of sense. They want to be on there own box, but dont want the overhead of alot of money a month.
Joe

[akashik]

Joe,

I'm sure you'll agree looking into a solid NOC is a good place to start though. Getting the hardware sorted right the first time is going to help a great deal compared to getting a nice juicy client base up, only find find your servers are hamster powered.

A great place to look for advertising is in your existing business, whatever that may be. Work friends, relatives, neighbours.. anyone to sign up to cover costs early. Soon as you're in the black, you're rolling. Getting a solid, happy client base of around 50 or so is the hard part. Beyond that it begins to feed itself with word of mouth and profit to plough into ads.

hehe, yeah, and all your sleep belong to us.

Greg Moore

[JBIZ718]

Good NOC's are important.

But there are many of those, just depends what your trying to do.


Joe

[BrianF]

I've actually heard great things about burst.net and for the price differential, 300 bucks a month, I could manage with minimal tech support, although I know for a fact that their tech support is pretty good.

Where can I find a list of noc's

All I have so far is

Alabanza
VDI
Blurst.net

Any others?

Brian

[JBIZ718]

There are many NOC's

Pegasus
Dtwebworks
Equinix,
Switch & Data
UUnet
Verio
Savvis
Cable and Wireless
Dialtone INternet
Aperian
Weiner Communications
Sprint
Colo.com
Datacolo
Nac
Yipes in CA
Genuity
st3

I imagine theres a ton more, in really depends what your defination of NOc's

If its the company that actually owns the datacenter, or are you looking for people that colo at a datacenter

Your call

[BrianF]

I'm looking for people like VDI or burst.net who provide the server with an alocated amount of traffic per month... etc etc. For around 300 bucks monthly.

Brian

[JBIZ718]

SO overall your looking for a dedicated server

<<EDIT>>

Joe

[BurstNET]

<< parts going bad (the UPS on the racks) >>

mkaufman: Don't even try an make that sound like our fault.
Parts go bad...no matter what...even if you are Verio or Exodus.
We do not manufacture the hardware...and it's not like it happens all the time.
We had one incident almost two months ago where a shipment of UPS systems failed, and took out two racks.
We replaced them VERY quickly, and there have been no further problems.
All in all we feel the situation was handled very well.

I would love to see a new NOC open up, and have them order in a ton of new hardware, and not have a single piece of defective hardware shipped to them.....it's not going to happen...defective hardware is part of the business...What is more important, is how fast it is replaced, and the situation dealt with, if it does occur...and to that we performed pretty darn well considering the situation.

And as far as support...check out the recent posts about our satisfied dedicated server clients...
We feel currect client opnions are more important than a comment from someone who is not a client, and is doing business with a rival NOC.

Sean R.
BurstNET