Hosting Technical Organization
Last time I talked about how you do not need to build the organizational part of the hosting . Now I will talk about how you can organize technical.
There are six things that any hosting provider relies on: Server, Panel, Domains, Bookkeeping, Support, Legal organization. Now I will tell you the main options.
Four options:
Reselling - inexpensive, no need to configure the server. But you depend on a higher hoster more than in other cases. Everywhere except cpanel you can’t create sub-resellers (I don’t envy such customers). Quality reselling usually costs between $ 10-15 per gigabyte.
VDS or Virtual Dedicated Server - you need to configure the server, complete freedom of choice, what and how to do. If you break something, you have to fix it yourself. In addition, there is a slight dependence on the owner of the VDS node. Cost from $ 30 for VDS with 368 MB RAM (You can’t do anything less, pity customers)
Dedicated server for rent- The same advantages as VDS, but if something freezes, you cannot reboot or quickly rearrange it through a convenient socket. True, reboot panels are sometimes provided. The cost is highly dependent on the country.
Dedicated server on colocation - Almost the same as the previous item, but cheaper monthly fee, you can quickly pick up and put in another place. If the iron breaks, no one will deliver a new one for free. Server price - from two thousand dollars, placement per month - from two thousand rubles per unit.
Rental prices are very different from the country.
Russia - the maximum speed from Russia, but more expensive than everywhere. Ping to the server from Moscow to Moscow no more than 10 ms.
Germany - good speed and low prices. Ping from Moscow about 60 ms.
USA - inexpensive, speed of about 100-200 Kb / s. Ping from Moscow about 150 MS (Ocean after all).
Holland - average prices, speed about 300 Kb / s, ping 60-80. I really like something.
You also need to make a panel selection.
cPanel - Monster, there are many functions thrown into a heap and sometimes made illogical. Honey, it requires 512 MB of RAM for VDS. If the client part is more or less convenient, then the administrator and reseller requires a function search each time. Good for working through SSH. Russification is, but it is terrible.
DirectAdmin - It looks good, the functions are conveniently and logically structured. It does not have all the cpanel functions and is supported by a slightly smaller number of billing panels. There is no official Russification.
ISPManager- A fairly young panel, it looks beautiful, there are no some functions. Foreign billing is not supported, but Russification is already included. When I used it, it was quite buggy.
It is better to take the panel from the one who is hosting the server, since internal licenses are much cheaper. DA has a Code 500 ($ 5) and cPanel has an internal license for around $ 20. ISPManager has gold partners who sell licenses almost half the price.
Sooner or later, the client will want to register a domain with you. There are many registrars who offer reseller programs. Now the situation has changed a lot, so I can’t say anything. A year ago, it was possible to get reselling domains at a price of 120 - 150 rubles apiece without any problems.
There are two rules here - always register a domain for a client and look for billing compatible with the registrar.
There are several Russified systems.
bPanel - Panel from AdvantA.org hosting. Due to the rather low price, it costs most hosters in the CIS. If you redo the template and rewrite the language files - it can look decent.
ClientExec or Russian version of CEpanel - Panel, Russified by MIRhosting.com hoster. It is inexpensive, but inside it was not very convenient, although quite logical.
WHMCS ( Russian version ) - A cool thing, but it's expensive. If the high price does not deter you - you can take it.
rootpanel - The good thing is that many have an open source version. I haven’t seen her for a long time, so I can’t say anything.
E-mail - simple, cheap, inconvenient.
ICQ is not a good idea if you have more than one person. History synchronization has not yet been invented, ICQ is easily hijacked and sometimes there are problems with AOL.
A ticket case is a gizmo that will process incoming letters and convert them into tickets that can be answered by any employee. There are free and paid, somehow I will write a review. Some billing has built-in.
Live-chat - an employee sits either in a web application or in a program for a computer. When a client clicks a button on a site, he can consult with an employee. For serious issues, they are usually sent by e-mail anyway.
It is illegal to say nothing about yourself, not to have a legal entity. Many people act this way; I didn’t know of cases when such people were imprisoned. People are not very good at such because of the potential low reliability.
Legal entity without a license - Make a legal entity, but do not issue a license. Or a tricky agreement is drawn up (If hosting is provided for free, then a license is not needed. If you are a design studio and maintain websites, everything should be fine. Some provide “consulting services”).
Legal entity with a license- Dear and painful way. The server should be only Dedicated and only in Russia (You can put servers in another country and one in Russia). You also need to draw up a communication center. All together will take about six months and 100 thousand rubles in the company. Ready company costs 250 - 400 thousand.
By agreement - You can enter into a partnership agreement with a larger company. They have a license, and you sell their hosting. I was not interested in that, frankly, so I can’t say anything.
That seems to be all. In the comments I answer any questions.
There are six things that any hosting provider relies on: Server, Panel, Domains, Bookkeeping, Support, Legal organization. Now I will tell you the main options.
Server.
Four options:
Reselling - inexpensive, no need to configure the server. But you depend on a higher hoster more than in other cases. Everywhere except cpanel you can’t create sub-resellers (I don’t envy such customers). Quality reselling usually costs between $ 10-15 per gigabyte.
VDS or Virtual Dedicated Server - you need to configure the server, complete freedom of choice, what and how to do. If you break something, you have to fix it yourself. In addition, there is a slight dependence on the owner of the VDS node. Cost from $ 30 for VDS with 368 MB RAM (You can’t do anything less, pity customers)
Dedicated server for rent- The same advantages as VDS, but if something freezes, you cannot reboot or quickly rearrange it through a convenient socket. True, reboot panels are sometimes provided. The cost is highly dependent on the country.
Dedicated server on colocation - Almost the same as the previous item, but cheaper monthly fee, you can quickly pick up and put in another place. If the iron breaks, no one will deliver a new one for free. Server price - from two thousand dollars, placement per month - from two thousand rubles per unit.
Rental prices are very different from the country.
Russia - the maximum speed from Russia, but more expensive than everywhere. Ping to the server from Moscow to Moscow no more than 10 ms.
Germany - good speed and low prices. Ping from Moscow about 60 ms.
USA - inexpensive, speed of about 100-200 Kb / s. Ping from Moscow about 150 MS (Ocean after all).
Holland - average prices, speed about 300 Kb / s, ping 60-80. I really like something.
You also need to make a panel selection.
cPanel - Monster, there are many functions thrown into a heap and sometimes made illogical. Honey, it requires 512 MB of RAM for VDS. If the client part is more or less convenient, then the administrator and reseller requires a function search each time. Good for working through SSH. Russification is, but it is terrible.
DirectAdmin - It looks good, the functions are conveniently and logically structured. It does not have all the cpanel functions and is supported by a slightly smaller number of billing panels. There is no official Russification.
ISPManager- A fairly young panel, it looks beautiful, there are no some functions. Foreign billing is not supported, but Russification is already included. When I used it, it was quite buggy.
It is better to take the panel from the one who is hosting the server, since internal licenses are much cheaper. DA has a Code 500 ($ 5) and cPanel has an internal license for around $ 20. ISPManager has gold partners who sell licenses almost half the price.
Domains
Sooner or later, the client will want to register a domain with you. There are many registrars who offer reseller programs. Now the situation has changed a lot, so I can’t say anything. A year ago, it was possible to get reselling domains at a price of 120 - 150 rubles apiece without any problems.
There are two rules here - always register a domain for a client and look for billing compatible with the registrar.
Billing
There are several Russified systems.
bPanel - Panel from AdvantA.org hosting. Due to the rather low price, it costs most hosters in the CIS. If you redo the template and rewrite the language files - it can look decent.
ClientExec or Russian version of CEpanel - Panel, Russified by MIRhosting.com hoster. It is inexpensive, but inside it was not very convenient, although quite logical.
WHMCS ( Russian version ) - A cool thing, but it's expensive. If the high price does not deter you - you can take it.
rootpanel - The good thing is that many have an open source version. I haven’t seen her for a long time, so I can’t say anything.
Support
E-mail - simple, cheap, inconvenient.
ICQ is not a good idea if you have more than one person. History synchronization has not yet been invented, ICQ is easily hijacked and sometimes there are problems with AOL.
A ticket case is a gizmo that will process incoming letters and convert them into tickets that can be answered by any employee. There are free and paid, somehow I will write a review. Some billing has built-in.
Live-chat - an employee sits either in a web application or in a program for a computer. When a client clicks a button on a site, he can consult with an employee. For serious issues, they are usually sent by e-mail anyway.
Business Form
It is illegal to say nothing about yourself, not to have a legal entity. Many people act this way; I didn’t know of cases when such people were imprisoned. People are not very good at such because of the potential low reliability.
Legal entity without a license - Make a legal entity, but do not issue a license. Or a tricky agreement is drawn up (If hosting is provided for free, then a license is not needed. If you are a design studio and maintain websites, everything should be fine. Some provide “consulting services”).
Legal entity with a license- Dear and painful way. The server should be only Dedicated and only in Russia (You can put servers in another country and one in Russia). You also need to draw up a communication center. All together will take about six months and 100 thousand rubles in the company. Ready company costs 250 - 400 thousand.
By agreement - You can enter into a partnership agreement with a larger company. They have a license, and you sell their hosting. I was not interested in that, frankly, so I can’t say anything.
That seems to be all. In the comments I answer any questions.