Host Interview - Rack64.com
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Our Interview with - Tim Hawkins, Owner Rack64.com |
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Tell us about your company and
services:
Rack64.com was created in 2003 when I setup a small data center in Fayetteville,
AR. It was to address performance. I formed it to have a hosting business that's
scalable and will last in the long-term. I have made mistakes before, all people
have. Rack64.com is the service that formed on experience and performance to
improve on other services I've been apart of. We offer E-Commerce Hosting, Shared
Hosting, Domain Registration, etc. We plan to offer Virtual Servers, Dedicated
servers and Colocation services in the future. Colocation will come much later
though.
What are your target markets?
Budget Hosting. E-Commerce. High performance for a low price with limited support.
I have partners that offer high support hosting, programming and much more.
What makes you different from other web
hosting companies?
I got into this business because my former hosting provider took the money
and ran; I went and created something better. The performance is better. The
Prices are better. We have long term plans- we aren't going broke anytime soon.
We have a lot of support from our customers. We are honest people; we tell the
truth we don't hide stuff from you. We also own our own facilities and equipment.
About 60% of the hosting companies out there probably don't give you a phone
number to contact, that's not a thing customers want. Customers also prefer
you don't resell from someone like Ev1 to resell you services then they resell
from you.
What would you say is your company's
main strength?
I think there are 3 main strengths. I believe the main strength is that we
have a lot of support. Although we've all learned from our mistakes we've come
out with rack64.com stronger than ever. I think the experience we have is one
huge factor. I've been in the business since around 1999 and I have partners
that have been in the IT market since the 80s. I have customers that are willing
to help us out in anyway they can as well as renew their accounts earlier, that's
strong. When you have customers that try to help you succeed, that's just strong
right there. Performance. Since Rack64.com opened the servers have been up and
never have they been down. The only downtime we had was short (about 3 minutes
total) and that was because of maintenance as well as a spam issue which was
resolved. The systems are more closely monitored and kept up to date. I'd like
to see any company admit that, most of the try to hide all they can from you.
We aren't resellers; we own our own facilities and servers. We have physical
access. What are you going to tell those hosts that have a 80GB Hard Drive Limit
and all of a sudden your site stops working because they've maxed it out? What
if your remote provider only lets you have 1 hard drive? I think physical access
to the equipment is a huge plus. The scalability here is unlimited with Linux,
FreeBSD and Solaris (Coming soon).
In your opinion, what make great
hosting services?
This depends on what kind of user you are targeting. Rack64.com targets users
that don't require much support but when they need it they need it fast, with
a service like that I believe It would be performance and contact. Customers
need replies from the hosting company and without it they will not likely stay.
I've been in this field since around 1999 and I've learned from other companies
and my mistakes. Rack64.com was started at the end of 2003 to address better
performance. The main thing would be the performance issue. Users need their
websites available 24/7; they need a server that is fast (not on Celerons or
Durons) they need service that isn't down. They need uptime. Time is money.
They also need security. The service must be very secure. The facilities must
be secured as well as the software on the servers themselves. If they aren't
secured you'll get spam attacks and the like which will get you listed on blacklists
and possibly out of business. Price is a huge factor as well, if prices are
too high it either means you are trying to take advantage of the consumer or
you cannot manage a hosting business well. So, what makes a great hosting service
is 1) Availability 2) Performance 3) Security 4) Price.
Describe the support services that you
provide:
24/7 Support. Emergency Telephone Support. Ensure access and functionality
of your particular account. There are other companies I'm apart of that offer
managed support. I can also provide a pay per hour support option for anyone.
Where do you see the hosting industry
4-5 years from now?
I envision a lot of hosting companies popping up with smaller data centers
rather than in large hosts like EV1 (they had 2 fires didn't they? ;-) ) and
I think the people making most of the profit will be the hosting providers that
provide high support services or hosts that work on high volume. I expect the
price wars to continue greatly. I think the ISP's will increase their profit
as well. I think the market will shift a lot toward virtual servers. Huge servers
with hundreds of virtual servers per machine are one of the visions that I have.
It's possible now there's not many cost effective solutions that are very secure
right now that a lot of small providers can afford. I also see a lot of hosts
that try to beat the pricing of other companies and offer prices below their
operating costs, I think a lot of people will be angry and will be switching
to host to host. Hosting is one of the industries that I don't think can consolidate
as easily as businesses like computer hardware. There are definitely a lot of
opportunities out there that we are willing to help with. Sales & Strong
Marketing can always change what I envision the market will be like though.
Thank you
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