The business plan of a hosting company takes into account that the basis for creating this business is the server, since to open a company you first need to decide on it. The server is very powerful computer, which is constantly connected to the Internet, so the site that is located on it will always be freely accessible, which leads to the fact that it will be visible in search engines. You can choose any suitable server, since there are a huge number of them. However, it is best to pay attention to well-known servers that charge quite high prices for services, but work smoothly.
Reselling hosting
Any entrepreneur who wants to create a hosting company must remember that to open it you need to do resellers. It consists of providing services on behalf of the hosting. This is where the company should indicate its main partners and even users.
It should be remembered that doing business on the Internet is a serious matter that requires constant change, updating information and tools, as well as quality service. It is necessary to set normal and high-quality prices for services, and also for the proper operation of the company it is necessary to periodically perform Maintenance. Various financial questions which must be promptly resolved. It is not recommended to pay attention to partnership programs, since reseller is a more profitable process that will bring good income to the entrepreneur.
Every person who decides to start this business must remember that, even though it is located on the Internet, it requires constant monitoring, without which it will not be possible to make a profit. It should be remembered that a hosting company requires a fairly large investment of money, so in order to pay off and earn money, you need to devote the same amount of time to this business as to any other work.
Organizational issues of hosting business
The business plan of a hosting company proves that first you need to create your own website, and this can be done by the entrepreneur himself if he has the necessary knowledge, or this work can be ordered from specialists. After its creation, you need to invest money in its promotion, filling it with content, as well as promotion so that the site becomes famous, interesting and visited. Most often, this issue is dealt with by hired specialists who specialize in the creation of electronic resources and their promotion.
Since the head of the hosting company will communicate with clients himself, he must be a competent, polite and knowledgeable person who can get in touch with clients at any time. However, it is simply impossible for one person to be online all day long, so even at the first stage of work it is necessary to hire people who will be on the site and communicate with clients. Recruitment should be done responsibly, as employees must be polite and intelligent, and responsible, as the company manager must rely on them.
Hosting Company Highlights
The most important thing that a novice entrepreneur should think about when opening a hosting company is the server, which must be stable and reliable, since its performance, as well as the popularity and demand for the hosting itself, depend on this.
We must not forget about control panel, which significantly facilitates the work of people who are administrators of the company. This is due to the fact that this panel hides many unnecessary items that interfere with normal, efficient and convenient management. Additionally, it provides many other important functions and capabilities, and they are provided not only to the managers of the hosting company, but also to clients.
An important part of the hosting business is the billing system, which is necessary to receive money from clients for services provided. We must not forget about redundancy, as well as backups, since these tools ensure the safety of data received from clients, thanks to which the hosting company will always have reliable information about each client.
We should not forget about the correct and constant promotion of the site, since it should not only be interesting, but also understandable for users, easy to manage, and should also offer only reliable and relevant information. It should have a twist and be different from many other sites on the Internet. It is best to study the electronic resources of other hosting companies and understand their advantages and disadvantages.
It is best to register a hosting company in special systems electronic payments, since then it will be very convenient and easy to receive funds from the company’s work, directly to the entrepreneur’s personal account.
Hosting company advertising
Budget and profitability of a hosting company business plan
To open a hosting company you need to spend some money.
Initial costs:
- Business registration – 2,000 rubles;
- Website creation and promotion – 35,000 rubles;
- Salary to employees – 40,000 rubles;
- Server fee and other expenses – 30,000 rubles.
All costs are recouped if the business is run correctly within 3 months, and the net profit can amount to 70,000 rubles.
We talked about reselling domains and SSL certificates. The second material describes the launch virtual hosting: what equipment and software to use, how to configure it. It will help you launch your business quickly and without high costs.
Important! We recommend starting not with technical implementation, but with the business model and legal side of the issue. Define target audience and ways to attract it, develop a profitable one for yourself and your clients pricing policy. Learn the legal and accounting framework. Only after this do you proceed to implement the plan.
What you need to get started
First, let's understand the concepts.
Virtual or shared hosting is when many websites are located on one web server. It is suitable for hosting small projects: business card websites, welcome pages for companies or events. It is not suitable for sites with high traffic.
Virtual hosting can be started without your own equipment. To do this you will need:
- two servers (virtual or dedicated),
- software for website hosting (hosting and IP addresses control panel),
- billing platform for payment processing
- agreement with the payment system,
- website for selling services.
Two servers are needed for greater stability of virtual hosting: one for running the BILLmanager billing platform, the second for hosting client sites. Both servers can be virtual, the first is less powerful, the second is more powerful or dedicated.
Required Software
ISPmanager Business created specifically for organizing virtual hosting. It allows you to manage several servers from a single interface, allocate resources between users, and track statistics.
BILLmanager automates the work of hosting: client registration, ordering and processing of services, generation of invoices for payment, contracts, certificates of completed work. Billing can support multiple projects and legal entities.
IPmanager designed to store information about networks and IP addresses. IP addresses are not needed to create shared hosting, but IPmanager is required for the integration of ISPmanager and BILLmanager.
DNSmanager will help you set up name servers and host client domains on them. Basic versions of IPmanager and DNSmanager are available without purchasing a license. Using BILLmanager is free for up to 50 clients. To install ISPmanager Business you need to buy a license.
Basic versions of IPmanager and DNSmanager are available without purchasing a license. Using BILLmanager is free for up to 50 clients. To install ISPmanager Business you need.
Software installation
Each server must have CentOS 7 x64 installed. Please note that BILLmanager and ISPmanager Business must be installed on different servers. Install IPmanager and DNSmanager on the same server as BILLmanager.
Installation process software described in detail in the documentation:
Setting up panels and interaction between them
After installing all panels you will need additional customization. Start with the auxiliary panels. Please note that all ISPsystem panels are closely integrated with each other, so it is important to connect them in a certain sequence.
DNSmanager and IPmanager
DNSmanager and IPmanager are installed on the same server, so the order of their configuration will be as follows:
ISPmanager
Before setting up ISPmanager, decide on the tariffs you want to create. Define a constraint random access memory, disk space, processor power, number of sites, traffic, databases and mailboxes.
Setting procedure:
To expand the panel's ability to share resources between users, as well as improve the stability, security and performance of the server, you can connect the module.
BILLmanager
After installation, perform the initial setup: select the interface language, fill out information about the company, add your logo, etc. Next, set up the integration of BILLmanager with IPmanager and DNSmanager.
In order for the client to receive the service and access to the web server control panel immediately after paying for the order in billing, it is necessary to connect ISPmanager Business to BILLmanager. Also at the ISPmanager connection stage, you can create tariffs.
Over time, business gradually moves from the real world to the virtual world, where vast new opportunities open up. Today, there are already a decent number of ways to make money via the Internet, and the maximum return can be obtained if you open your own hosting. However, this is not entertainment, so you should approach opening hosting extremely seriously, understanding all aspects and drawing up a detailed business plan. Otherwise, you risk simply losing all your invested money.
What is hosting
To answer the question: “How to open your own hosting?”, you need to understand what hosting is in general. It’s quite simple to explain, because every person has already visited many sites.
But these sites do not exist on their own - they are based somewhere on the Internet, and their base is precisely various hosting services. Hosting is the provision of space on a server to the client where he can create his own Internet page.
Most often, hosting already includes various Additional services, such as a file server for data storage, mail service, and databases.
Hosting as a type of service
If you are thinking about how to open your own hosting, then you need to understand that you are not just creating your own business - you will be providing full-fledged services. Naturally, in such a matter such things as equipment, technical components, software, and so on are important. It is worth noting that any company that is going to open its own server is simply obliged to have high-quality equipment and everything related to technical side question.
Therefore, it is the quality of services that can play a decisive role in competition. The way you treat clients, what additional functions you provide for free, how you react to problems that arise, how quickly you fix them - all this will affect the popularity of your company and, accordingly, the number of your customers and their loyalty to you.
Two types of hosting rental
Of primary importance in deciding how to open your own hosting is determining the way in which you are going to open your business in this area.
The easiest and cheapest way is to rent part of a server from a large hosting company. In this case, you become a reseller, spend a minimum of money and effort, but also receive extremely limited opportunities.
The second way is to rent an entire server from a large hosting company. You'll have to invest more money, but you'll get more power, be able to install your own hardware and software, reboot your server, and so on.
Buying hosting
But if you decide to purchase your own hosting so as not to depend on larger representatives, then you will have to spend significantly more money. But this is the only negative, because everything else is a complete plus: you will be able to buy your own equipment and software, arrange hosting at your discretion, and most importantly, you will not have to pay large sums for rent.
Therefore, purchasing hosting for permanent use seems to be the most reasonable decision in the long term. But such a task will require more impressive preparation, so you need to become more familiar with what you will need in the future.
Opening a company and business plan
It is unlikely that you would think of buying hosting as a individual, so the first step is to open your own company. You can register any form of enterprise at your discretion.
Much more important here is the business plan of the hosting company, within which you will need to calculate in detail what your funds will be spent on. Considering the fact that opening and running such a business will necessarily involve the use of high technology, you need to prepare for the acquisition of high-quality equipment, personnel who will service it, and many other expense items.
There are enough nuances here that you should pay close attention to in order to avoid making serious mistakes that could lead to adverse consequences. A well-written business plan is the key to the success of any enterprise, including a hosting company. It is also worth considering that before starting the activity you must obtain all the documents.
Select a legal form and register an LLC or individual entrepreneur, and also visit the tax office and add the company to the list of taxpayers. These are the main legal points that must not be forgotten for the official conduct of business. Without them, you will face fines.
Basic expenses
Hosting as a business can bring impressive profits, but you need to wait and achieve it. Therefore, first you need to prepare for the fact that various investments await you, which will not pay off right away.
First of all, you will have to spend money on registering a business, since this process also costs money. Then you will need to choose an office that you will rent - here you can save money by choosing a small and inexpensive space if you do not plan to hire many people on staff.
However, how to open your own server without the support of other specialists? Still, you will have to hire several people, since you definitely won’t be able to do absolutely everything. It’s definitely not worth saving on this point, since the quality of the services you are going to provide will directly depend on the quality of your employees’ work.
And the last of the most important expense items is the purchase of equipment. As in the case of employees, it is not recommended to skimp on equipment, since the quality of your server will depend on it. In total, you will need to spend about two million rubles to successfully start doing business. The profitability of such projects is very high. In a year, cash turnover can reach sixty million, so you won’t have to wait long for profit.
If you are obsessed with the idea of opening a hosting company, it is advisable to answer a few questions first.
- Are you a good marketer?
- Are you ready to work in conditions of fierce competition?
- Do you have a customer base?
If even one answer is negative, it is better not to start this business. For those who are stubborn, you can try to resell virtual bytes (the capital investment is minimal - from $8). Or open a small data processing center (you will need from $1,500, which, if a successful combination of circumstances, will pay for itself in a year), but in a very narrow niche.
Mini and maxi
There are several ways to sell hosting services. The simplest and cheapest is the so-called reseller(from English reseller- reseller). It is enough to rent a dedicated server (virtual or physical, depending on your needs) from a hosting company (hoster). Or enter into a contract for the maintenance of your server and resell hosting services to the end consumer.
It is theoretically possible to rent virtual bytes both in Ukraine and abroad. However, according to Sergei Ryabchuk, development manager at HostPro, if you rent a foreign server, website availability (download speed and quality) will be worse. Users connected to leading providers will not notice this, but on the periphery, where there are still many home networks with weak foreign channels, access problems will be noticeable. And the loading speed of the site and its geographical location affect its search engine optimization (SEO).
In addition, a Ukrainian hoster can accept a reseller’s server for service, provide it with technical support in Russian, prompt communication with it, and, if necessary, let it go to the work site. An important advantage is any form of payment for services, while foreign ones accept payment only through credit card or Webmoney systems. When purchasing resellers in Ukraine, you can count on a discount when registering domain names in Ukrainian domain zones, notes Evgeniy Sherman, head of FREEhost.com.ua. But reselling is often a related business for website developers or small web studios that oversee up to hundreds of online resources for their clients.
Another way to sell hosting services is to open an independent data center ( Data center or data center). However, today it is advisable to do this, as Sergei Ryabchuk claims, in a clearly defined niche. It makes sense to create hosting offers for individual CMS systems that are developing and gaining momentum. Python hosting is in demand (for a programming language alternative to the popular PHP), notes Mr. Ryabchuk.
A full-fledged hosting company, as a rule, operates on its own equipment in a separate room. There are no special requirements or permits for its opening in Ukraine. Just register entity, create a website and purchase appropriate equipment based on the size of the budget. Those wishing to create a large data center must be prepared for a lengthy procedure for obtaining the necessary permits.
When building premises for a large data center, many standard permitting documents will be required. The owners of such centers also focus on the requirements international standard TIA/EIA-942, which are also used in Ukraine,” says Irina Stelmakh, head of the sales department for corporate subscribers at the Volya data center. This will facilitate the work of such a center and ensure high quality services provided. However, building a data center on its own is justified only for a very large company. Small businesses will have to look for a partner. There are certain risks to consider here.
You can hire a specialized management company, engaged specifically in the construction of data centers. However, these do not exist in Ukraine, which means that you will have to look for a foreign partner, for example in neighboring Russia. You can also hire a company to build a data center - system integrator. But such enterprises are focused on several suppliers of IT equipment, whose products will be imposed on the customer, and they also do not have builders on staff, so the involvement of third-party construction contractors cannot be avoided.
In addition, when creating a data center, you have to solve both IT problems and infrastructure difficulties. For example, incorrect layout of a facility can lead to either overheating or system failure, or even to the unviability of the entire data center. Accordingly, the requirements for the qualifications of personnel involved in the design, implementation, and operation of data centers are constantly growing. However, no one trains these specialists in Ukraine today; they gain experience through trial and error.
For medium-sized data centers, premises are usually rented, and their communication channels have limited throughput. Small data centers provide a minimum of services because they use low-power equipment and operate, as a rule, in poorly equipped premises.
International standards define four levels of hoster reliability, that is, uninterrupted operation: from the lowest (Tier 1) to the highest (Tier 4). For competitive hosting, it is enough to focus on the Tier 3 standard. At a minimum, this means that the data center has several connection channels to the provider, all equipment is connected to two independent power networks, air conditioners are used, there are two independent power generators and a UPS, explains Sergey Ryabchuk.
However, according to Evgeniy Sherman, in fact in Ukraine there is not a single commercial data center that fully complies with the Tier 3 standard. Some companies declare compliance this standard, but this is not true. For example, our company does not mislead customers and honestly declares that it complies with the Tier 2+ standard. Plus in this case means that we significantly exceed standard 2: currently we have 90% of all main nodes reserved,” says Mr. Sherman.
Start price
For a reselling startup, it is enough to buy a package of services from a hoster (100-200 UAH per month) and develop a website ($400-1000 depending on complexity). We offer a Tasty tariff starting from $8 per month, where you can host up to 10 full-fledged websites with independent control panels. It will pay off after selling hosting for two sites for $4,” estimates the development manager at HostPro. Renting a separate server on which you can host hundreds of small client sites will cost less than $100 per month. Buying your own server will require from $1000, and payment for its hosting and maintenance will cost from $80/month. Payback period is a year.
To open a small competitive hosting company, according to Evgeniy Sherman, you need from $ 40 thousand. This is at least five to six servers (25 thousand UAH each), several switches, a staff of five to six people, an office. Minimum required software: company website, hosting control panel ($2.5 thousand), billing panel (sometimes combined with a control panel, but it is better to order its development for yourself). The payback period, taking into account subsequent investments in the purchase of equipment, software development and employee salaries, is about five years, says Mr. Sherman.
The cost of building a medium-scale and capable data center in Ukraine, according to Irina Stelmakh, is measured millions conventional units, and its payback, according to various estimates, at least three years.
Quality Standards
Small hosting providers, as a rule, place their equipment in specialized data centers, at least at the start of their business. Because building a data center that meets all the conditions for uninterrupted operation requires a lot of expense and effort. At a certain stage in the development of our company, we felt that it was difficult to maintain such a number of our servers in various data centers, not to mention installing new ones. Therefore, over the course of three years, we built an appropriate premises for ourselves,” says the head of the company FREEhost.com.ua.
Proximity to main communication channels is not the only requirement for the location of a future data center. Irina Stelmakh draws attention to the fact that the room should be without windows, but not below ground level. At the same time, there should be no pipelines and drainage systems, and there should be no working areas nearby (elevator shafts, staircases, ventilation chambers, etc.), they will not allow expansion in the future. The size of the room is selected depending on the serviced working area and the number of necessary equipment, taking into account that for its installation and maintenance in the future, a certain space will also be required. According to the TIA/EIA-942 standard, the minimum size of a server room must be at least 14 square meters. m. The ceiling height is from 2.44 m, says Mrs. Stelmakh.
Human resources
To operate a reseller, one person on staff is enough to serve as an administrator and programmer. Several people will be needed to operate the data center. Minimum - one administrator and three to four employees technical support to work in shifts around the clock. The number of staff is different for each hoster and depends on its specialization. For example, if many websites are hosted on one server, then such hosting requires more people working in customer support. If one server is divided into a number of dedicated virtual servers“We need more powerful technical support and administrators,” notes Mr. Ryabchuk.
For the full operation of a large data center, specialized departments will be needed. First of all, this is the technical support service - the largest structural unit, whose employees respond to customer requests, monitor all support systems and are link between other departments. Network engineers are responsible for the operation of the network and routing equipment. Administrators - for setting up, operating, repairing and completing equipment. Programmers ensure the operation of billing and other programs. Power systems engineers are responsible for the operation of air conditioners, fire suppression systems, and power supplies. The number of employees is determined by the rule: each specialist should have one shift, or better yet two, recommends Irina Stelmakh.
Basic requirements for data center premises (DPC)
The data center must have:
- Several independent power inputs from different substations.
- Uninterruptable power source.
- Diesel generator.
- Conditioning.
- At least two independent optical inputs from different providers, several international access channels.
- Gas fire extinguishing to avoid damage to equipment in case of fire extinguishing.
- Video surveillance, monitoring and access control system.
Based on materials: Economic news
If your business revolves around web development, providing hosting for clients will be logical additional service. With this we kill two birds with one stone - a small additional income and fewer problems with crookedly configured client hosting. We will always configure our server so that our programs run on it without problems.
So, what do you need to know and be able to do to open your own web hosting business?
1.Server
To get started, one dedicated server is enough. Unix or Windows - it's up to you. We needed support for both ASP and PHP, so we had to use it for Windows.
When the number of clients on the server reaches a certain critical value (100-250 clients, depending on many parameters), take another server, etc.
If you have several providers in mind, sign up for their mailing list. They have some interesting sales. For example, we took a server with prepayment and a small monthly payment, which has already paid off.
2. Control panel
The beauty of web hosting lies in a control panel such as Plesk, Helm or DirectAdmin. The panel makes life easier for the administrator by hiding most unnecessary details from him. In addition, it provides an interface for end users, where they can set up FTP, email, protect directories with a password, etc.
We chose Plesk and were pleased. Everything is quite simple and intuitive.
3. Billing
To collect money from clients on a regular basis, you need a billing system. We first installed ModernBill, but it turned out to be unbearably buggy. Neither we nor the specialists from their technical support were able to launch it. We lost two months on this and switched to WHMCS. It has fewer features, but everything works and is much easier to configure. Moreover, for just a few pennies, their technical support installed and configured everything on our server. I highly recommend it.
Just as in the case of choosing a hoster, it makes sense to read the section on WebHostingTalk dedicated to choosing a billing system.
4. Backups and redundancy
You can't afford to lose customer data. There are several strategies, the best results are achieved by combining them.
Using a RAID controller you can protect yourself from damage hard drive. It is unlikely that both disks will fail at the same time. Automatic backups will save you from physical destruction of data, say, in the event of a fire or as a result of a virus. For backup software, I recommend looking at Acronis True Image. Plesk has support for it.
5. Website
Everything is simple here. A suitable template is found on OSWD and modified with a file.
Here's the original template. This is what came out.
6.Accepting payments
If this is not your first day of doing business online, this is not a question for you. Accept payments in all ways available to your customers and you will be happy. Don't forget to make sure your billing system supports all of these payment methods.
As an experiment, I opened a full-fledged merchant account for this business and made some big shots. The main points are:
you need to be prepared to provide a bunch of documents and financial statements of the company.
if you have several websites or areas of activity, each of them may require its own merchant account. I recommend that you indicate your main website and type of activity when opening
Merchant account companies may have their own rules that may not meet the needs of your business. For example, my provider requires that all services and goods be provided within 90 days. This makes it impossible for me to sell services such as one year technical support through them.
7. User support
We only provide hosting to those who have already purchased one of our programs. Thus, we have few hosting clients and they are loyal. Questions about hosting are sent to the main technical support queue and answered along with other questions.
If you are planning web hosting as an independent business, you need to approach the issue of technical support more seriously. Most web hosting clients expect a response and solution to their problem within a few minutes or hours, 24x7.
8. Promotion
It is difficult to promote a general hosting company; the competition is great. Since we promote hosting only among existing clients, the following methods are used:
mention in newsletter
signature “Ask me about our web hosting special” in answers to user questions
We offer service to clients who have problems with existing hosting
a button in the program that allows you to upload the generated application to the server in one click. This works, of course, only for clients of our hosting, since in addition to the actual downloading, some actions are barely performed on the server
A little later we will add a hosting offer at a reduced price to the checkout process.
Actually that's all. The initial costs for purchasing software and renting a server were approximately $2,500. Now there are several dozen clients who are quite satisfied with the service. When we finish the run-in, we will promote the service more aggressively.
Go for it, and you will be lucky too!
Sergey Kornilov
