Web hosting is an interesting, but complicated, business to run. Starting a web hosting business takes a lot of persistence and requires you to have a wide spectrum of technical computer knowledge. Whereas it’s possible to run a web hosting service using control panels, if you really want to be successful and not risk having anything going wrong with your servers without your being able to detect it, you should be well trained.

There are different types of web hosting services and the kind of service you choose to launch into will have different requirements. Client hosting needs also vary and your choice of specialty will depend on your interests; you could for instance choose to specialize in providing enterprise hosting solutions for big data clients. All these needs should be addressed in your business plan to help you stay on course.

Before you even start on your business plan, ask yourself the questions below to be sure you want to provide a hosting service:

1.     What amount of time is required to run a hosting service, and do I have that time?

Customers only subscribe to services that will give them 24 hour customer and technical support every day of the week. If you know you cannot be on call for every hour of the day, you have to hire one or two people to assist you with the barrage of queries you will receive from your customers.

When you get clients who want to sign up for your service, do not give them a reason to leave. There are many alternative hosting services available and migrating to those hosting sites is so easy that you could actually lose all your customers in one day if you are not available to give support.

Until you are sure you can provide service when it’s needed, do not launch your hosting service.

2.     Have you performed sufficient research?

You have to do sufficient research on the existing market needs. You also have to find out everything that a web hosting service provider needs to run a successful hosting business.

Familiarize yourself with the software requirements, hardware needs and the security features that you need to have in place in order to provide a good service. 

3.     Financial Investment

You will need to make an initial investment. The amount of money you use to start your hosting company will depend on the scale of service you intend to offer. It will also depend on the caliber of customers you want to attract.

Servers and software cost a lot of money and you should be prepared to spend quite a bit. If you want to minimize complaints, invest on the best hardware so that your service runs without a hitch from the moment you go live.

A cheap alternative you could go for is to get a lease for a dedicated server with a lot of bandwidth. You can start off by hosting your clients on that server, then slowly migrate to your own servers as your business grows.

However, if you opt for this option, be double sure the company that owns the servers has installed the necessary redundancies to deal with power outages, server crashes and network fluctuations and outages. If these are not in place, you will have a lot of disappointed customers who will not hesitate to give you a negative review on your website and other customer review sites.

4.     Can you fulfill the necessary manpower needs?

Dealing with customers can be time consuming and will drain your energy. Assess your skills objectively and then decide which area requires you to hire immediately. Be conservative with your hiring requirements at first and increase the number of employees as you go.

 

Cloud web-hosting could be the way to target big data customers

Having assessed the above, one area that you might want to venture into for a start is a cloud hosting service.

Web hosting on the cloud is fast becoming a cost effective alternative compared to the more conventional method of hosting. The scalable quality of web hosting on the cloud is a real attraction especially for large companies who would otherwise have to spend a lot of money in servers that will satisfy their storage needs.

There are several benefits that cloud hosting promises its users. They include:

·         Scalability:

You can hold a lot of data on cloud servers without having to spend more money or investing in other resources. To make your cloud hosting service scalable, you have to invest in sufficient infrastructure to handle the data load.

·         Easy to manage:

Cloud computing is very centralized hence very easy to manage. This makes it easy to ensure great performance without compromising on quality.

·         Cost-effective:

Most users are drawn to cloud hosting because they find it cost effective. Customers do not have to pay for dedicated services that they will not use, and this can help you control your server space and bandwidth.

This makes running a cloud hosting service cost effective for you as well.

·         Expandable Storage:

Companies that handle a lot of data find the cloud useful as they can get enough bandwidth to manage large quantities of information. 

It’s an issue of great concern for most website owners to pay for a service only to have it deliver limited space.

·         Easy to set up:

Companies have found that deploying a cloud hosting service is less complex and less costly than deploying a server hosting solution on site. Customers don’t have to worry about having to license software and invest in a lot of hardware.

Additionally, the process is fast, and in today’s business environment where every second counts when it comes to making decisions, this is of great benefit.

·         Reallocation of resources:

Website owners and companies know that by outsourcing their hosting to other parties, they free up resources to be used in other areas of the business. All companies today, regardless of size, are looking for ways to cut costs, and if they can outsource, they welcome the opportunity.

As cloud services continue to improve in their security standards, more businesses are feeling confident about taking advantage of their cost effectiveness.  

·         Support:

Customer support and the absence of downtime are some of the favored qualities of cloud web hosting. As a service provider, you should be able to provide these with the least effort.

About the author

Ezekiel Passamani is a technology blogger. Some of the articles he has written for the last 7 years are on web hosting services. You can read more to see some great web hosting services that he recommends on https://inexpensivewebhosting.reviews.