The promise of cloud computing is huge and many of us in the hosting industry have solutions or ideas on what the hosting future looks like. The only fact that remains constant is the constant amount of change that moves through this industry.

It is our belief that hosting providers and datacenters need the right set of tools to manage the increasing complex computing configurations customers demand. CloudLinux was created for just this purpose. As we look to the future, there are some themes we at Cloud Linux think are important to consider when thinking about what lies ahead.

Space
For hosting providers, space is a big deal. Whether it is space on a shared server or space in your datacenter, space costs money. There was a time when bigger was better – the more servers you had, the more important you must be. But that may be changing. With the cost of datacenter space, electricity and cooling on the rise, it is time to reconsider this idea. There just is no such thing as infinite datacenter space or unlimited dollars to cover management costs.  So how do you maximize the space you have? Density and stability are the keys to solving the growing space issues. Improving server stability and therefore increasing density helps hosting providers do more with the same amount of infrastructure.

Security
Another key theme for the future is security. Headlines are filled with cyber threats and identity theft. Consumers, enterprises and small businesses alike are increasingly concerned about security.  Because of this dynamic they will continue to put pressure on their service providers to improve security and protect their data, identities and networks.

Efficiency
As the complexity of computing grows, we need to take efficiency to the next level. To keeping servers running efficiently as well as making our technical staff manage more and more complex solutions, it becomes increasingly important to maximize the efficiency of  operations. At Cloud Linux, our solutions are purposely built with this goal in mind.

We plan to discuss some of these themes with other hosting industry leaders during a panel discussion on technology and trends in the hosting market.  We’ll discuss recent developments and future indicators with other industry leaders such as Michael Jaffe from Microsoft, Doug Toombs of Tier 1, George Karidis from SoftLayer, Ditlev Bredahl from UK2 Group, and Jack Zubarev from Parallels. HostingCon will take place at the Austin Convention Center from July 19 – 21, 2010.

Make sure you mark you calendars and join the discussion. Share your thoughts on these themes and learn what tomorrow brings.

Igor Seletskiy is the Founder and CEO of CloudLinux (http://www.cloudlinux.com).

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HostingCon Registration – On-Site and Online

To register online, visit the HostingCon 2010 Registration page.

To register at the door, simply visit the registration desk within the Austin Convention Center during any of the following registration dates and times:

• Sunday, July 18: 12:00pm – 5:00pm
• Monday, July 19: 8:00am – 5:00pm
• Tuesday, July 20: 7:30am – 6:00pm
• Wednesday, July 21: 8:00am – 4:00pm

You can register on-site using credit card, cash, or check. All major credit cards and PayPal are accepted if you register online today!

The registration desk is located in the 4th Level Foyer of the Austin Convention Center facility, just outside the keynote and luncheon rooms. You will see signs directing you to the registration desk at multiple points throughout the Austin Convention Center.

Upgrading Your Registration

If you want to upgrade your registration you can do so at the registration desk. The registration desk will be staffed during the hours listed above.

Getting Around the Conference

The HostingCon event team will have signage throughout the Austin Convention Center to help get you where you need to be. The conference occurs across two floors. Escalators and elevators are available across each floor. The show guide and signage will point you in the right direction.

Exhibit Hall Hours

The exhibit hall is open during the following times:

• Tuesday, July 20: 11:00am – 6:30pm
• Wednesday, July 21: 11:00am – 4:00pm

HostingCon Show Schedule

You can download a PDF of the HostingCon show schedule to review the sessions and mark the ones you want to attend!

You will also receive a show guide during registration that contains the show schedule along with other conference details and exhibitor information.

HostingCon Mobile Site

We’ve partnered with dotMobi to provide attendees with an easily accessible mobile site where you can access the conference schedule, exhibitors, weather, Twitter and more on-the-go. You can view the HostingCon 2010 schedule and entire mobile site on your Internet capable phone by going to http://www.hostingcon.mobi. In a rush and forget the .mobi? No worries. We’ll redirect you from HostingCon.com and give you the option to switch between the two.

Twitter at HostingCon 2010

The official Twitter hashtag for HostingCon 2010 is #HostingCon. Be sure to use it! We’ll have a live Twitter feed up on the TV monitors outside the registration/keynote and session areas so you can keep up with the latest commentary from the show.

mbers of the HostingCon event staff will be posting updates to Twitter from the conference, so be sure to follow @HostingCon to keep up with official announcements and useful information. You can also @ or DM HostingCon from the show with anything you’d like the event staff to know.

Photos & Flickr at HostingCon

Taking pictures at the show? Upload them to Flickr! The official Flickr tag for this year’s show is hostingcon2010. Be sure to add it to any and all photos you take at the conference so everyone can see them on the HostingCon website!

Daily Feedback Surveys

After the end of each day, conference attendees will receive a link via email to take a short survey about the conference that day. The survey is optimized for mobile browsers and should take less than 5 minutes to complete. Want to give us feedback before the end of the day? @ or DM HostingCon on Twitter or head to http://www.hostingcon.com/survey (active starting on July 19) to let us know what’s on your mind.

HostingCon 2010 is set to be the industry event of the year. We hope you enjoy your conference experience while piloting into the cloud and setting a course for the future!

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry

In fact, there are more mobile phones in the world than PCs and TVs combined.

With numbers like that, it’s obvious: any company that offers Web services and doesn’t have a mobile strategy in place is falling behind the curve — and missing revenue opportunities.

To help HostingCon 2010 attendees start thinking about mobile, HostingCon is proud to welcome dotMobi as our official mobile partner.

One way that dotMobi is helping all attendees is with the new http://hostingcon.mobi site.

Built with dotMobi’s new goMobi service, the hostingcon.mobi site works great on any mobile phone — not just iPhones and Androids. The site will help you easily navigate all the activities at HostingCon 2010 with a full event schedule, exhibitor list and floorplan, access to HostingCon’s Twitter and Facebook feeds for up-to-the-minute additions, and plenty of information on getting around Austin.

If you like what you see, be sure to visit dotMobi in booth #535 to learn more about how you can integrate goMobi into your offerings.

In case you haven’t previously met dotMobi, the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Afilias Ltd. Founded in 2005 and based in Dublin, dotMobi is a worldwide leader in enabling the development & discovery of quality mobile content through innovative services, in turn helping businesses and individuals reach the world’s billions of mobile phone users. dotMobi spurs innovation by giving content providers the tools they need to ensure the Web will work on mobile phones with speed, accuracy and relevant content.

dotMobi was founded by 14 visionary mobile operators, network & device manufacturers, and Internet content providers, including Ericsson, Google, GSM Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefónica Móviles, Telecom Italia, Visa and Vodafone.

You can learn more about dotMobi at http://blog.mobi.

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry

To most, the cloud is simply computing at someone else’s data center. To the astute, cloud computing is a sophisticated infrastructure platform powered by software that can automatically scale a growing number of workloads up and down on-demand. Such a solution is unsurprisingly of interest to businesses of all sizes. Most businesses are attracted solely for the economic appeal of a minimal commitment, unlimited scalability platform that only incurs fees based on actual usage.

Unfortunately, the “cloud” is not yet a sole solution for all workloads, especially not the right platform for applications with advanced security needs or those with compliance requirements. This is why Rackspace refers to the cloud as “for everyone, but not everything.” Every business should be using the cloud, but not putting every application on cloud infrastructure, so that’s when businesses can turn to a hybrid computing approach.

Today, utilizing both requires two separate sets of application code that speaks to these two disparate computing platforms. In the near future, a single application code base will be able to leverage these two disparate infrastructure platforms as dictated by user traffic. Trying to determine when to utilize public cloud versus private cloud versus traditional hosting can be confusing and complicated and it’s a conversation we’re used to having to drive our customers down the right path. Some questions we ask include the importance of flexibility and costs, and mapping each customer’s unique needs to find the right tool for the job. And after we get all the answers to our questions, many times the ideal solution is not solely cloud or managed, but rather a hybrid hosting approach.

In my session at HostingCon, I will discuss examples of how companies such as Freshbooks and Glam Media have leveraged a hybrid hosting approach to accomplish their goals. Any company with an internal data center that wishes to leverage a cloud platform as a hybrid compliment can establish a hybrid computing approach. In the end, hybrid computing is about making 1+1=3 or more.

Cloud computing platforms will one day be able to accomplish all application needs, but until they do, hybrid hosting is the approach that your business can embark on today!

Register for HostingCon 2010 Now and attend this session!

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Successful companies use financials and various operating metrics as a key way to manage their businesses and increase value. The “Adding Value to Your Business With Financial & Operating Metrics” panel (9am, Monday July 19th) looks at the operating metrics and financial results that can add meaningful value to everyday hosters in operating, growing and exiting a hosting business. The panel will take a practical look not just at the metrics but also real world examples from hosters on how they do it on a day-today basis. The panel is made up of hosters from across the major segments of the industry (shared, dedicated and co-location) talking about what works for them, how they do it and methods the attendees can use in their own businesses. Please join us.

Panelists include; Hari Ravichandran – President of Endurance International Group, Zak Boca – President of SingleHop, Inc, Jay Sinder – CFO of Corelink Data Centers, Doug Erwin – CEO of The Planet, Francis Stiff – President of Cheval Capital, Inc. and moderator David Snead – Attorney,

About Cheval Capital

Cheval Capital (http://www.chevalcap.com) is a boutique investment bank that specializes in mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance. Over the past decade, Cheval has represented a number of Hosting companies, including The Endurance International Group, NTT/Verio, and Rackspace Managed Hosting, in over 165 successful web hosting and ISP M&A transactions. Cheval Capital is a Broker-Dealer and member of FINRA.

Register for HostingCon 2010 Now and attend this session!

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry

One of the most compelling new features in V4 is storage of backup data based on retention policies, resulting in a better and more consistent behavior during restore over a long period. Also, backup accounts will sustain a more even level of data storage usage over time. BackupAgent V4 comes with a redesign of the management console to allow faster and more consistent monitoring of backup accounts and running backups, resulting in a significant reduction in required monitoring effort for administrators.

During the course of 2010 and 2011 BackupAgent will also add more cloud-related features as part of BackupAgent V4. The software will support cloud storage protocols natively in the near future and will open more parts of the software as API or SDK for integration with other services.

So….do you offer SaaS services to your customers as an alternative to on-premise software applications? An important service often overlooked for small, medium and enterprise businesses is hosted backup. Next to announcing Version 4, during my session I will highlight for you the key discoveries in the online backup market. You will also learn the best practices for online backup service providers in today’s market, such as how to reach your customers and how to build a reliable and scalable infrastructure.

About Roland Sars

Roland Sars is co-founder of BackupAgent in 2004. Roland is a genuine entrepreneur; born with a truly commercial instinct and vision on business growth. Roland is responsible for all marketing activities and is the public face of BackupAgent. Roland’s power lies in listening and reviewing new market movements closely and anticipating on those by developing new product-market combinations and business opportunities in many regions and segments. Roland holds a Master degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry

Buying or selling a hosting company can be a complex process with a lot of inter-related factors that affect the price and risk a buyer or seller takes on. This panel (2pm, Tuesday July 20th) is comprised of some of the industry’s most successful and knowledgeable acquirors as well as one of the industry’s top bankers talking frankly about how they look at acquisitions. The panelists will take a down to earth look at different parts of the acquisition process including how they determine value, what risk means to the purchase price, features that can add or reduce prices and other practical, real world advice for sellers and other prospective buyers. The panel will also talk about pricing and other current trends in the market. Please come join us.

Current panelists include; Colin Campbell, CEO of Hostopia; Ditlev Bredal, CEO of UK2 Group; Joe Bardeheier, SVP of Endurance International; Michael Platner, M&A Attorney & Co-Founder of LayeredTech; and Hillary Stiff of Cheval Capital.

About Cheval Capital:

Cheval Capital (http://www.chevalcap.com) is a boutique investment bank that specializes in mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance. Over the past decade, Cheval has represented a number of Hosting companies, including The Endurance International Group, NTT/Verio, and Rackspace Managed Hosting, in over 165 successful web hosting and ISP M&A transactions. Cheval Capital is a Broker-Dealer and member of FINRA.

Register for HostingCon 2010 Now and attend this session!

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry

The SaaS (Software as a Service) or Software On-Demand, revolution is in full swing now. There is no denying that the majority of software will be delivered through the Web. Hosting providers stand to benefit from this revolution in bigger numbers than ever before. Gartner predicts that the SaaS market will reach $8.8 billion in 2010 http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1385813

Whether the ISV/SaaS provider and their end-customers select traditional managed dedicated hosting or managed cloud services, ISVs are looking for guidance. Hoster’s need to provide assistance to ISVs in this transition whether the assistance includes architectural guidance (Single Tenant, Multi-Instance, Multi-Tenant), Network and Application layer security, monitoring and metering, billing or much more. On top of all the technical aspects of the transition, ISVs are faced with the business and financial challenge of moving from on-premise, perpetually licensed software agreements to recurring agreements with SLAs.

What are you doing as a host or a vendor to the hosting industry, to be a part of SaaS transition?

HostingCon 2010 looks to be not only biggest year yet, but the highest quality in terms of the topic and speaker agenda they have put together. I am privileged to have been able to bring together many of the leading SaaS experts and a NaviSite customer for a panel where we will discuss the state of SaaS and the Hosting Industry and the opportunity for hoster’s in the coming years.

Joining myself -William Toll, Sr. Director of Marketing, NaviSite, – http://www.navisite.com are Alex Davis, CTO – WorkPlace Systems (A leading SaaS Application and NaviSite Hosting Customer) http://www.workplacesystems.com/ Anders Trolle-Schultz – http://www.saas-it.net/ , Trina Horner – Microsoft Strategy/Channel Development, ISV Hosting Partner, Channel Communications Sector US http://www.microsoft.com/hosting/en/us/programs/incubationcenter.aspx Jeff Kaplan http://www.thinkstrategies.com/ Lincoln Murphy Managing Director, http://sixteenventures.com/blog/ Justin Pirie, SasS Analyst and Blogger http://www.justinpirie.com/

Register for HostingCon 2010 Now and attend this session!

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The Hosting Industry is going through a stage of consolidation and is maturing at a fast pace. Post the Y2K bust, people feared jumping into any business related to the Internet. However the Hosting Industry has changed all that. With the low cost of starting a hosting business and the innovative trends, plans and pricing wars, it has resulted in creating a very competitive yet high volume business with immense potential to grow.

Over the past few years, I have seen a lot of hosting companies mushroom and have seen many of them close down or end up being acquired.Some that have had their foundations laid well have continued to grow.

Outsourcing support whether to offshore or onshore support teams have always been a trial and error approach. This is primarily because any new hosting company owner approaches support just like he would go to shop in a market.
The vendor who offers the cheapest tomatoes or potatoes ends up being the winner. However only later does the customer realize that it has ended up rotting from within while for some it has been like a lottery win. We spend hundreds of dollars to get the best hardware, best NOC, bug free control panels and yet when it comes to the guy who is the face of your company on a daily basis, you look for the cheapest available option.

Bobcares believes outsourcing support should never end up being a cross to bear because of our shortsightedness on the TOS (Terms of Service) we should keep in mind. As a hosting services provider your best bet to compete with the giants in the Industry is to leverage the cost effectiveness of Outsourcing but it should be done with proper monitoring systems in place whether legal or technical. If done the right way, outsourcing your Human Resource requirements helps you focus on your core competency, i.e., marketing and selling your hosting services while your customer gets the best deal.

About Lijoe Antony:

Lijoe Antony is an Executive Member at Bobcares (http://bobcares.com) ,and presently oversees Information Security aspects at Bobcares. He also manages Human Resource Recrutiments as well as Mergers and Acquisitions interests of Bobcares. He joined Bobcares in 2002. He can be contacted at lijoe[at]bobcares.com.

Register for HostingCon 2010 Now and attend this session!

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OK so you have heard the hype; maybe even got excited and dipped your toes into the “Social Media” waters. You thought that Social Media was going to rock your world; boost sales, improve customer relations, manage your reputation online but ….either you never found the time or somehow it has failed to meet your expectations. Why?

For many companies, it is that Social Media is just marketing hype or the latest buzzword; they do not believe that it can successfully drive their brand, help manage customer interactions and improve their bottom-line. Others simply do not do it right; they break all the rules. They do not get that communities are grown not built, that content is king and that there are certain “rules of engagement” in social media. Most of all they fail to realize that relationships come before sales.

On July 20th, at HostingCon a panel of Social Media experts will explore how companies and marketers can successfully implement social media programs that will succeed. During the session, “Optimizing Social Media to Drive Your Brand” panelists will examine how you can successfully execute your social media campaigns and avoid breaking these “rules engagement”.

Kevin Hazard, Web Hosting Evangelist with The Planet will be revealing some insider tips from The Planet’s social media playbook. During his presentation, he will share the genesis of The Planet’s #showmemyserver and #500club campaigns and get you thinking about ways you can meet your customer’s unspoken needs by engaging them in fresh, new ways and how Twitter can and should be a resource for every hosting provider. From support escalations to outage communications to building a customer community, there are limitless possibilities for a company getting its feet wet in social media. In fact, many companies are paralyzed by the possibilities. Utilizing the Twitter strategies that Kevin will be illustrating, attendees take away from the session how to successfully drive their Twitter efforts in order to meet expectations of the social media campaign goals.

Nick Longo from Rackspace will be demonstrating how Rackspace uses Twitter, Facebook Fan pages and blogging as well as other types of Social media to grow and develop new hosting relationships. As part of his presentation, he will examine how while other service business often see social media as an extension of support or customer interaction, for Rackspace social media is an extension of the Rackspace “Fanatical Experience”. Nick Longo will show why it is so critical that social media is about talking with the community; not to the community. He will reveal how successful Rackspace’s social media mantra of simply “Being Helpful”; by not trying to sell or promote but helping with any and all hosting questions whether or not they are a customer, has been for Rackspace.

Matthew Ballek from Resolution Media will be examining which companies/marketers have been successfully utilizing YouTube to promote their brand and how they did it? In his presentation he will demonstrate how to find and include the right keywords in the title, tags, descriptions, and captions of your video. and how to promote your YouTube & other related types of videos via other social media
channels and how to build links by linking your video from other websites and blogs. His presentation will illustrate how and why videos are 50x more likely to get to the front page of Google and how to correctly use the YouTube keyword suggestion tool.

During this HostingCon session, attendees will come to understand that social media is about engagement; both with your target market and between your customers and potential customers. That social media is about independent, third party endorsements which at the end of the day are worth far more than any type of advertising. Panelists will illustrate clearly that social media is a marketing tool; not a sales tool and like all marketing, you need to make sure you have the right social media programs that suit your market. You need to find out first where your community hangs out, whether it is on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook or somewhere else; you need to be where they are. Most of all, you will learn that if you follow the rules of engagement, social media works.

About (Curtis) R. Curtis:

(Curtis) R. Curtis is SVP, Strategic Partnerships with UniversalBusinessListing.org. He has 20+ years experience in technology & is a recognized leader in the Internet, Hosting & Online Marketing industries and sits on the HostingCon Advisory Board. He will be speaking on Local Search and Optimizing Social Media at HostingCon.

Register for HostingCon 2010 Now and attend this session!

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry