Hosting Automation Theory

[2039 Internetwork]

Hi, I own the web hosting company 2039 Internetwork (http://www.2039.com/). Just want some feedback from other web hosts and people out there. How do you feel about "Hosting Automation Software"? I feel automated web hosting is really the future. It allows us to spend more time with the custoers, and less time setting things up. Another think I like about automation software, is billing and account cancellation itself being automated. If this software ties directly into your billing department, it eliminates the many complaints I have seen on the internet about "I cancelled and they still bill me". I am a software engineer and the ownwer of the 2039 Internetwork and I wrote some custom user end software for the 2039 Internetwork. It takes care off all thoes things, and even organizes support. Give me some feedback on what you think? Thanks Much!

Chris Obsniuk
2039 Internetwork
1.248.679.8734
http://www.2039.com
Experience, Business, Simplicity, Integration -- 2039 Internetwork Web Hosting, Web Design, Custom Programming.

[sorted]

Automation is great until the need arrises to "get under the hood" after something goes wrong. It ultimately leads to a lot of people running Web Servers and Mail Servers without the faintest idea how to fix or troubleshoot them if they go wrong.

A better and more interesting poll for this Forum would be, how many Owners of Web Hosting Companies would know how to configure Web Services if they didn't have a Control Panel? How many could actually troubleshoot a problem with a machine? How many actually understand how DNS works?

Hosting Automation is useful, but you've still got to have people on hand who understand what goes on under the hood. If you wrote your own software then clearly you do, but there are others out their who depend on automation software and control panels to keep their business running whilst they go galavanting off somewhere else.

[ServerChange]

Originally Posted by sorted

Automation is great until the need arrises to "get under the hood" after something goes wrong. It ultimately leads to a lot of people running Web Servers and Mail Servers without the faintest idea how to fix or troubleshoot them if they go wrong.

I disagree. When it's done right, and not by children, it's a very powerful solution to staff hours, especially when you're doing heavy advertising. Credit cards and check-by-phone hosting automation is wonderful when used on the right site.

Originally Posted by sorted

A better and more interesting poll for this Forum would be, how many Owners of Web Hosting Companies would know how to configure Web Services if they didn't have a Control Panel? How many could actually troubleshoot a problem with a machine? How many actually understand how DNS works?

I don't think you should be allowed to offer services on software you have no knowledge of. From httpd.conf to RBL'ing Sendmail, to pfw hardware firewalls, these are very common terms in the hosting industry. If the first thing that comes to mind is "WHM" or "PSA," you're a liablity to your clients, IMHO.

Originally Posted by sorted

Hosting Automation is useful, but you've still got to have people on hand who understand what goes on under the hood. If you wrote your own software then clearly you do, but there are others out their who depend on automation software and control panels to keep their business running whilst they go galavanting off somewhere else.

Exactly. I agree with you there.

[sorted]

Well you agree with and disagree with me on pretty much the same point.

Automation is great. But you still need people who can get under-the-hood and troubleshoot problems at the server level. About a year ago I remember a string of posts from members who were setting up their own servers wanting to know which control panel they should use because they weren't familiar with the Linux or Windows OS.

Recipe for disaster!

[hostbreak]

Automation is a must for any industry. It is not specific with Web Hosting. Automation is always good and preferred approach because:

1. It makes the process faster
2. It makes the process less error pron
3. It reduces the learning curve and training period for staff
4. It helps you enhance offerings because you can manage them easily in less time.

In short, I think without automation you are living in stone age.

my 2 cents...

[sorted]

Originally Posted by hostbreak

In short, I think without automation you are living in stone age.

I agree, but it has a tendancy to lead to companies been staffed by trained monkey's, you need people within any organisation who are capable of investigating and troubleshooting problems that an automated system gone wrong creates!

[NCL Hosting]

My 2 cents worth...

I think automation is a great thing, however, if it goes too far it can take away from the human interaction with your clients.

There is nothing worse than trying to get in contact with someone and getting automated script after script in response.

In order to keep a client happy you actually need to speak to them from time to time! Do that and they'll be more than happy with the automation.

[hostlander]

Hosting automation is beneficial especially at high traffic times and signups.It saves you time.

[Highland]

Im my opinion, hosting automation is the way forward. I can't see how a host can survive against another one who's fully automated and offering instant account setup.

[Andy Rixon]

Shared Hosting - automation is essential to be cost effective.

Dedicated Hosting - personal help is needed with the high dollar products.

Ultimately, I'd always suggest having a personal option as well as automation as this will help the newbies to the hosting world find what they want and get setup.

[webguru72]

Originally Posted by Andy Rixon

Shared Hosting - automation is essential to be cost effective.

Dedicated Hosting - personal help is needed with the high dollar products.

Ultimately, I'd always suggest having a personal option as well as automation as this will help the newbies to the hosting world find what they want and get setup.

I second that 100% well said

[dasp]

Automating as much as you can is important to have a scalable hosting business. If everything is done manually, you cannot scale the business because you will need more and more staff, which is a huge chunk of your operating budget.

Using canned off the shelf hosting automation software is a quick way to enter the market but you will be dependent on the third party vendor for product enhancements. Most of the companies that I've seen using canned software are more "marketing" companies than "technology" companies, as the staff do not even know how their backend works. Also, many of the hosts that use these hosting automation system look the same - so it is more difficult to differentiate yourself and easier for the customer to move from host to host.

Building your own hosting automation system allows the host to demonstrate their technical expertise and will help attract those that find this technical expertise to be important. If the host has dedicatd R&D/developer staff they will be faster in adopting new technologies. For some hosting customers, being on the bleeding edge is important.

But, on the flip side, I've also seen homegrown hosting automation systems and control panels that are awful, slow, not secure ...etc. In this case a canned hosting automation system would probably much more preferable to their customers.

All in all, it is entirely the host's business decision and about who their target market is. Each host will need to figure out how they want to differentiate themselves.