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What is your name and position with SimplyWebHosting.com? |
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Andrew Kinney, CTO/President of SimpleWebHosting.com
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What is the history of SimplyWebHosting.com? |
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SimplyWebHosting.com is a brand of Advantagecom Networks, Inc. The company began in 1996 as a sole proprietorship selling retail products online. By mid-1998, the founder knew more about web hosting than many of the hosting companies he''d done business with. He saw it as an opportunity to provide better service to hosting customers and began his own hosting services in July 1998. He started out as a reseller, but after only two months, it was apparent that he needed more control over the server and network to set his services apart from those of the competition. In October 1998, he colocated 3 servers at PSINet and began providing hosting services from those servers. The founders incorporated the operation in July 1999. In September 1999, the company began the negotiations necessary to open the company''s own hosting facility since the company was rapidly outgrowing the colocation at PSINet with nearly 40 servers. By December 2000, the negotiations were complete and all equipment was moved from the colocation facility to Advantagecom''s own facility. The company has been operating exclusively from its own facilities ever since. The SimplyWebHosting.com brand was introduced in September 2002 as a way to provide a more memorable name for Advantagecom''s web hosting services.
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What is it that makes SimplyWebHosting.com a competitive company in the hosting industry? |
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SimplyWebHosting.com''s primary competitive benefit is our ability to solve almost any hosting problem quickly and with minimal hassle to the customer. Rather than deny that problems can happen, we make every effort to prevent them in the first place. If a customer comes to us with a problem, we take them seriously and assume they are competent. If the problem is determined not to be within our control, we inform the customer on the proper actions to take to resolve the problem. In addition, everything we do is tempered with common sense and a ''customer comes first'' attitude.
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How has SimplyWebHosting.com done in accordance to the recent economic conditions? |
There is good and bad news on that topic.
The bad news is that from July 2002 to March 2003, we''d been hit pretty hard. The hosting industry tends to see the effects of economic recession later than other industries. I believe that is primarily due to prepaid services and the tendency to hold onto web sites, even if the business behind the web site is failing. Then, later, when that web site is finally canceled, the web hosting company finally feels the effect.
The good news is that since March 2003, we’ve been breaking our own internal all-time sales records on a regular basis. We have experience handling large amounts of growth and we have all the infrastructure in place to grow without it being a detriment to the customer experience. This growth is due in large part to our excellent customer service during a time when many hosting companies are failing or cutting back on staff.
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Where do you see SimplyWebHosting.com and the web hosting industry in two-three years? |
At the present time, we''re just beginning to break above a plateau in our growth that has stymied our efforts over the last three years. We''re back on a growth curve that resembles what it did back in 1998 when we began our hosting services. So, in two to three years, I expect that the company will be near to double its current size. Some people might be concerned that becoming a large company might affect the quality of service, but we have specific plans in place to make sure we don''t lose that ''small company feel'' that so many of our current customers have grown to love.
As far as the hosting industry in general, I believe it will continue to become more of a mainstream commodity service, much like Internet access has become. That has its benefits and its drawbacks. Technology will always push business people to rethink offerings and pricing, but I think the winners in the hosting industry will be those that understand how customers want to be treated and know how to create true innovation that attracts customers.
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How many customers do you currently have? |
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As of September 30, 2003, we had 869 active customers. Of course, we add more every day. Those 869 customers are responsible for approximately 6500 domains on our servers. Many of our customers are resellers.
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Who are you your more famous clients? |
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We do have some semi-famous customers and some of our resellers have some famous customers, but we''d be in hot water with all parties involved if we disclosed their identities. We have a very strict policy about keeping specific customer information confidential.
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Do you own your own Datacenter? |
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Yes and no. We do have our own datacenter, but the building that we''re in is leased to us. We don''t own the building, but we have renovated it to meet our needs. We have plans to build our own facility nearby within the next few years, but, for now, the building we''re leasing suits our needs well.
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Where is your datacenter located? |
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Walla Walla, WA
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What kind of Back up power do you have? |
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Battery backup and generator backup.
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Do you have Multiple Backbone Connections? |
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Yes.
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What connections do you have? |
Our primary backbone connection is one DS-3 to NewEdge Networks, a regional tier 1 carrier. NewEdge is peered primarily with Level 3 and Shaw. Our additional capacity serves the dual purpose of backup connectivity and fastest path routing. We have two T-1s to NorthWest Microwave in the form of a single 3Mbit link. NorthWest Microwave is also a regional tier 1 carrier and they peer with XO and Time Warner Telecom. We also have a T-1 to Qwest, a national tier 1 carrier that peers with just about every other major backbone. As our usage of our primary backbone connection increases, we add additional backup connectivity to ensure we never have a capacity shortage even if the primary link goes down. The backup connectivity we purchase comes from diverse sources to facilitate additional fastest path routing.
With our three current backbone providers, there are three distinctly different physical paths that connect us to the rest of the world. Also, NorthWest Microwave utilizes licensed wireless spectrum so not even a complete cable cut can cause a total outage for our network.
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Do you offer 24/7 support? |
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Yes. For guaranteed responses, this is done by pager after business hours. Some plans also provide 24/7 cell phone access to a personal account manager. There is also a web based forum that we often answer questions on outside of business hours, but it isn''t guaranteed we''ll respond on the forum outside of business hours.
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Do you have technicians present 24/7 or 9-5 M-F? |
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Technicians are in the office 9AM to 5PM Pacific time, Monday through Friday, excluding major national holidays. Of course, our monitoring system is active 24/7 and alerts a technician by pager if any part of our network or any services on any of our services are having trouble. That technician will do whatever is necessary at whatever time is required to resolve issues found by our monitoring system.
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What is your average turn-around time on a support ticket? |
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Obviously, this depends a lot on the amount of information provided to us by the customer about a problem and the depth of any necessary explanations we provide to the customer. For issues in which the customer provides us enough information to solve the problem, the turn-around time from receipt to resolution is often just a few minutes. If I had to give an overall average, including those issues in which we received incomplete information from the customer, I would estimate the average time from receipt to resolution is around 4 hours, not including weekends or questions asked outside of business hours. As is customary, we prioritize all incoming issues. For instance, bounced email at a domain we host will always receive a higher priority than troubleshooting someone''s first ''Hello world!'' PERL script.
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Do you charge your clients for support? |
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If so please explain. It depends on the service the customer has purchased. Most plans we offer include free technical support during business hours by toll-free phone, email, and web based forum. Some high-end plans also include free 24/7 access to a personal account manager by cell phone. Colocation plans only include basic network support, but general technical support can be purchased for an additional fee.
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Do you offer Money Back Guarantee? |
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Yes. As is standard industry practice, we have a 30 day money back guarantee. One of our high-end VPS services has a 90 day money back guarantee.
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Thank You! |
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FindMyHost.com
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