Web Hosting News

Day three of Layered Tech’s third annual LT PACT started bright and early at 8:30 a.m. (perhaps a little too early considering it’s Vegas, according to a few of the attendees) with a keynote by Tier 1 Research’s founder Andy Schroepfer, someone we haven’t seen as much of at hosting events as of late. But, as always, he was an absolute pleasure to listen to.

Insightful, engaging and well-spoken, Schroepfer’s presentation “The $1.2 Billion Dollar Bet Against Hosting” took a look at the state of the declining American economy in general versus rising oil prices and how much of a game changer that has been for the IT industry.

Schroepfer talked about how rising oil prices affected business on the Web and encouraged a digital economy. What this translates to is the more expensive gas gets, the less people will want to go OUT shopping. Thus, they will be more inclined to turn to the Web to spend their money. So businesses need focus on being able to deliver their product or service effectively through the Internet.

The keynote also touched on one of the biggest topics throughout the event, cloud computing. Last year it was all about the grid, this year it’s all about the cloud. Schroepfer expects the cloud to become relevant to enterprise very soon - much sooner than James Staten’s projected timeline for when cloud computing would be embraced by the enterprise market - and believes it will eventually “kill” the dedicated market because end-users will be demanding a pay per play hosting model.

Other interesting highlights throughout the day included an interactive panel about the business of blogging (moderated by Aaron Phillips, VP of sales and marketing for FastServers and featuring Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, John Pozadzides, CMO for Layered Tech and Lorelle VanFossen, a woman who was blogging about blogging before blogging was called blogging. Say that three times fast!) and The Nutbra. I’m not even kidding. It somehow pertains to intellectual property. But you quite possibly had to be there to believe it.

The event wrapped up with Layered Tech’s annual Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament (which, I admittedly did quite poorly on) BUT WHIRtv producer/videographer Matt did the WHIR team some justice by placing in 6th!!

Check out the pics from the event from our Flickr page here.

Although Thursday was the first day with actual sessions, it was technically the second day of the event, so don’t worry. You didn’t miss a re-cap of Day 1 because there really wasn’t conferencing, per se, that happened on Day 1. Except for a cocktail party, which you can read about here.

Day 2 kicked off with an opening presentation by LayeredTech’s new CEO Jack Finlayson, where he took us though on all the MAJOR changes that have been going on at LayeredTech, like the new additions to the executive team (including himself, of course), the consistent financial growth (he said around five percent growth month-to-month), new offerings to customers through deepened partner relationships, like the recent Hyper-V announcement with Microsoft, and of course, the strategy behind the FastServers.net acquisition and what they brought to the table for LayeredTech’s customer-base.

A snapshot of Jack Finlayson, LayeredTech CEO, during his opening presentation.

He also pointed out the new logo and name to the audience. I’m still trying to get a hold of a good image to give you an accurate understanding of what I’ve been describing. But I’ll post one as soon as I get it! I did want to elaborate a bit on my previous description though (a stylized “L” and “T” put together to form a blue square on top of black line layers) by adding that the “black line layers” are supposed to be a stack of servers.

As for why the company decided to make this change now? Jack says it happened particularly because of the FastServers acquisition and wanting to develop a logo that not only embraced what both LayeredTech and FastServers were about, but to portray an image that was more professional and would reflect its dedication to managed hosting, an area of the industry Jack says the company will be moving towards more and more, with a particular interest on the enterprise market. Not to say the company won’t continue to be focused on its current customer-base of SMBs, but it seems focusing on managed services for the enterprise market is a theme that has permeated quite a few of the sessions today…

Although I don’t usually comment on how entertaining or yawn-worthy a session was, I believe Jack’s presentation deserves a bit of attention, simply because it was effectively engaging even though it was at eight in the morning. Jack is a pretty funny man. Like Billy Crystal, dry-humor funny. He also wasn’t afraid to poke fun at himself, which is always appreciated as a member of the audience. It was also interesting that he took his presentation to an “analog” level at one point by literally getting out a white board and using a red marker to draw a diagram to support his discussion on the three areas companies try to compete on: technology, quality and support and price. And the fact that he peppered his discussion with amusing little anecdotes along the way made it particularly memorable.

Jack had much more to say on his vision for LayeredTech, which we got in a video interview with him on WHIRtv, so look for that in the coming weeks.

A snapshot of James Staten, Principal Analyst - Forrester Research, during his keynote presentation, “Cloud/Grid Computing: A Classic Disruptive Technology.”

I won’t get too in depth with the keynote on Cloud Computing as a Disruptive Technology made by James Staten, the analyst from Forrester Research, but I will say he had a LOT of interesting things to say around the idea of cloud computing, why it was a disruptive technology, who was using it and how (since Enterprise IT, the primary market, has been reluctant to embrace it), and where he saw it heading in the next three to five years. We asked him to discuss all this in a WHIRtv interview as well, which we will be bringing you soon.

Day 3 of LT Pact continues tomorrow so stay tuned for more thoughts from the event in the coming days.

In the meantime though, check out some of the pics Candice has been taking at the event. More to come on that front as well!

Late last week, we brought you some feedback from the exhibitors and attendees we met in Houston from cPanel’s third annual partner conference, gaining some insight into their thoughts about attending the event and the value they found in being there.

We also sat down with Eric Gregory, “The Swiss Army Knife” of cPanel and discussed how he thought the third conference turned out . Naturally, I had to question him about the unique job description I assumed would be associated with that title.

After a good chuckle, Gregory explained that he’s responsible for performing such a wide variety of tasks at cPanel, that the best possible job title for him is that of “The Swiss Army Knife.” And considering he was the man behind the scenes responsible for organizing most of the event - while taking care of marketing and communications, amongst other things, on a normal day-to-day basis - this man certainly seems like a “tool” of ultimate utility

You're looking to start hosting a website.  This could be for yourself, you family, friends or as a full on business.  With all the choices out there, where to begin can be a bit daunting (even more than a bit).  Not too long ago, I was faced with this very thing.  I had been hosting my own website at home for a while and a collegue was in need of the same.  I was able to make a deal with a local data center, picked up a 1U server and started the madness that has ensued since.  The rest of this is going to be directed towards setting up a web/email hosting system as a business, for the sake of making money.  Not all of the software is going to be free.  I'll touch on setting up a totally free version in the next post.

I knew I wanted to go with a Linux OS and that was about it.  I started with Fedora, then tried OpenSuse (then shortly tried SLES), followed by Debian and then OpenBSD (not a flavour of linux, but i tried it anyhow).  Why no Windows server?  Well, for me it is simple, I want to be able to dig deeper than Windows will allow me to do should the need arise.  I did finally decide on an OS and the rest of the pieces.  They are:

• CentOS (now running the latest version 5)
• Apache (webserver)
• MySQL (database server)
• AtMail (Web based email system)

               Exim (mail/SMTP server)   
               Courier (POP/IMAP server)   
               Spamassassin (anti-spam software)   
               ClamAV (anti-virus software)

CentOS — (CentOS Home) –  I'm a fan of RedHat based systems.  I find they are easy to set up, maintain, secure and if I need to assist someone else with a problem, I've found easiest for someone less familair with Linux than me to grok.  With the size of hard drives today, I have no issue installing an X window system and a GUI (gnome/kde) for management.  these have come a long way in recent years and work well.  Utilities can be installed via RPM (RedHat Package Manager) or using YUM (Yellowdog Updater Modifier).  The other reason I like CentOS is it is almost a straight accross clone of RHEL.  If I get into a situation where a customer needs to use a version of Linux that has some sort of corporate support, they can use RHEL and it will behave almost exactly the same.  This can come in really handy as you grow and have hardware needs that require some sort of commercial hardware that only has drivers for either RHEL (RedHat Enterprise Linux) or SLES (Suse Linux Enterprise Server).  A recent issue with Emulux drivers and a SAN (Storage Area Network) device comes to mind as an example.

Apache — (Apache Home)  In my opinion there is no other web server to use.  Apache has been around since people have been serving web pages on a regular basis, there are a tremendous number of modules available for any sort of web based application you may want to build.  It is easy to secure manage and maintain.

MySQL — (MySQL Home)  I really like MySQL for all database intensive jobs.  I work with it daily and have found I like it more and more the more I use it.

Exim — (Exim Home)  I choose Exim for a couple of reasons.  First I am familliar with it and Second it is available in another package that provides a web based configuration utility.  I'll touch more on this later.

Courier — (Courier IMAP Home) Again, familiarity and inclusion with AtMail

Spamassassin — (Spamassassin Home) Spamassassin is the leading open source anti-spam software out there.  There are so many modules available for it, I would have to start two new blog posts to list them.  It really does a good job.

ClamAV — (ClamAV Home) Similar to Spamassassin, Clam is the leading open source anti-virus software on the market.  They have become so popular and received so many requests for a commercial version, they now have one.  A fantastic piece of software.

AtMail  — (AtMail Home) OK, the version of AtMail I am recommending isn't free.  They do have an open source version, but if your looking at setting up a system for profit, quickly and easily, I recommend their commercial version.  If your using CentOS, have GCC (Gnu C Compiler) installed and are connected to the web, the AtMail installation utility will tell you what you need for dependancies and if you agree, fetch and install them for you (using YUM).  This includes installing the dependencies for Exim, Courier, Spamassassin and ClamAV (as well as building and installing these for you). It has a nice web based admin panel as well as a nice web based mail client on top of these other packages.

OK, a couple of things you should know about my choices.  I have been working with the AtMail software package for about six years.  for the last 3.5 - 4 years, I have been contracting directly for them.  My opinion is almost certainly biased in this direction.  That being said, I wouldn't have come on board with them after working with them as a reseller if I didn't feel as strongly about what I was doing as I do.  All of these choices are my personal choices and what I recommend most of the time for clients of mine as well as clients of AtMail.  I have played with most of the other software package available that are in this same class (cost money and offer commercial support) and this is still my first recommendation.  Please remember, the entire focus of this post is convenience.  This convenience is a balancing act at best.  How can one set up a solution easily, securely and with the highest probability of success. All of this while at the same time allowing it to grow! I do think there is a better way to go about things, a way that is by far less convenient, costs no money (for the software end of things anyhow) and in my opinion is more secure.  This will be the focus of my next full post and would be what I would be recommending if my client told me they wanted it done right, from the ground up and security was the focus over convenience.

I know this is a bit to absorb in a blog post, I'll answer any questions posted in the form of a comment and you are welcome to email me directly with questions or just to tell me my methods are wrong because you have a better one….  I'm not afraid :-)  -> jason at mailtps dot com

 JB

Last week theWHIR was at cPanel’s third annual partner conference at the Westin Oaks Galleria in Houston. Here’s a written recap of my thoughts from the event as well as some pictures from the various activities throughout the three days.

We also bring you some feedback from the exhibitors and attendees we met in Houston, where we gained some insight into the value they found in attending this particular annual event.

I just want to make sure WHIR readers are informed about all that theWHIR has to offer. In case you were not aware the Web Host Industry Review (thewhir.com) provides a wealth of information on Green IT over at GreenDataCenterInfo.com featuring news, features, articles, videos and whitepapers that are relevant to the Green IT movement. It is regularly updated with information from various sources. When you have a moment you may want to check that out and let us know what you think, we welcome your thoughts and suggestions. I also want to thank our sponsors Glowhost and SoftLayer for their support. Our latest issue of WHIR Magazine is also our first Green Issue and you can read the digital edition online now or subscribe to the free publication.

Snap shot of GreenDataCenterInfo.com.

If that is not enough, you can also find current Web hosting jobs over at Webhostingjobs.com, the official job board for the web hosting industry. You can post and search for jobs all for free, subscribe to the job rss feed and more. Current jobs are also listed on theWHIR blogs section of our website to ensure maximum visibility for your job listing. As always your thoughts and suggestions are also welcome.

Snap shot of WebHostingJobs.com.