The 16th of August was a landmark day for Atomia in Switzerland, now one of our largest markets. On this day Swisscom took their new, Atomia powered, hosting platform into production and started accepting new customers.
Swiss web host and domain giant Switchplus has made a rather unorthodox move and opened a retail store on a prime location in Zurich. We were happy to be invited to the opening night and here are some of our impressions.
The web hosting industry is thriving. Server infrastructure is better and more affordable than ever before and the market keeps growing. This also means there is a lot of competition out there, so if you’re running a hosting business you’ll want to maximize your chances of long-term success. One way is to aim for a global audience, and another is to minimize the resources you need for day-to-day operations.
Sometimes it’s easy to miss progress that is slow but steady. One of the more prominent examples of this is the field of technology. We get used to advancements so quickly. Just think about it; we already take for granted that we’re walking around with tiny, highly capable computers in our pockets, connected to a worldwide network of information and services that we can access from anywhere, at any time. Science fiction has turned into science fact.
The hosting industry is obviously tied directly to the success and evolution of the Internet and its user base. We are, however, entering an inflection point of what kind of cloud services are viable to provide. The limits are disappearing.
I recently had the opportunity to deliver a keynote at WorldHostingDays, a popular hosting industry event, so I decided to speak about the business and marketing aspects of launching a new product online. Our product of choice would be a cloud service, but this advice applies to almost any kind of hosting venture or web service.
With awareness of mass surveillance and data privacy issues on the rise, the market for local, secure private clouds has never been more attractive. This is especially true for companies wanting to lease external computing power and storage. Who can they trust with their data?
Cloud hosting is currently a $20 billion-a-year industry, and it just keeps growing. There is a lot of money to be made and the technology to sell cloud hosting services is already here, right at your fingertips, ready for launch.
This is why we here at Atomia have put so much weight behind our OpenStack integration. OpenStack has become the de-facto standard for cloud hosting software, and can act as the basis for many different kinds of cloud hosting services. It’s a true powerhouse. We love what OpenStack brings to the table.
If you’ve looked at OpenStack, you’re probably in love with the power it gives you for creating both private and public clouds. However, if you want to run a business you also need an easy way to sell those cloud services to end users; OpenStack doesn’t include a billing system. This is where Atomia comes in.
