Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : Business Plan

[jsrobotnics]

I am currently working on a business plan for my hosting.

I want to offer shared hosting without overselling.

What I got is following:

Hosting Company, dedicated server with unmeterd traffic 100MBs,
Raid 1 Backup etc.

Support by Logicsupport

Domainregistrar with good prices

But I cannot decied for a hosting panel... as I would like to go on something mulitiserver support, which stops me taking Cpanel but on the other hand I got hardly finding support for others then Cpanel maybe Parallels but they are quit expensive and so on.

How should I solve this problem and ideas, appreciate any remarks...

[dren]

Well there is at least several reasonably reputable control panels, e.g.
webmin
directadmin
ispmanager
plesk8
and of course...
cpanel

[dollar]

Depending on how "multiserver" you want to go cPanel and Directadmin are pretty much out.

You could take a look at http://interworx.com/ which appears to be an affordable multi-server solution, and there's always HSphere (now owned by Parallels) which has been cluster based for quite some time.

I applaud you for doing a business plan but I think you're getting into it with less research then you probably should do. What type of client are you actually looking at hosing? I see you're looking at a 100mbit unmetered machine which seems to say budget clients with oversold accounts (just a guess).

[jsrobotnics]

I propably have done just a little research but I dont think I am getting trouble so far as I didnt start yet.

Unmeterd, could be shared but I also considered VPS.

LXLabs are quit interesting but the support is very expensive.

And finally yes I am looking to open a new overseller but I want to make it still reliable, which means, I need options to trafer accounts to balance them and so on.

Low offers will save time and nervs of customers.

I have experince with two small hosting companies and one freehoster, has over 31k users on 6 dedicated machines... which means he is overselling as he offers 5 GBs ADs free no hosting for posting and so on.

But I made the experience you can make your client be happy with his stuff as long as both keep up some basic rules...

Example:

Unlimited Storage*

* Local laws of physics may apply

This is of course a quote, allmydata.com if you want to check out.

1 of 500 customers needs 10GB or more, considering small hosting offers.
But he still thinks he needs Dreamhost, Bluehost etc.

If he checks them out and gets angry because of timeouts or different stories we know what we are talking about he looks on other places.

I dont think overselling is bad you just have to know how to keep it "ethical".

jsr

PS: Nice interworx have been looking at it... but I dont know if I can manage it alone.

IS there any managment option for it , like PSM for Cpanel or so?

[dollar]

Oh I wasn't trying to say overselling was a bad thing or a good thing, it all of course depends on your business model, the reason I brought that up is it appears you're looking for a clustered system which is going to be expensive generally speaking.

That said in general a host that targets the 100gb/1000gb type of customer plans on making money by a large amount of customers with a small profit per customer compared to a few customers at a high profit (just the name of the game). That's the reason I brought up what type of client you were targeting.

When you are dealing with budget clients I would say it's not worth it to invest the money in a large clustered setup as it's not something they expect and they certainly won't want to pay more for it (just my experience). On the other hand if you were hosting corporate type accounts they would certainly pay the extra money to know they were on a clustered setup with failovers in place.

If I was looking to setup a budget host I would stick with the tried and true cPanel or DirectAdmin as the control panel. It may not have the quick scalability of something like HSphere, but it does have the advantage of brand recognition by the customer and affordability (in addition to the big communities around both for self-help support).