Look out Alabanza ö Here Come the Flying Pigs

Look out Alabanza ö Here Come the Flying Pigs!

Web Hosting-Volume 1 Number 5

‹Pigs are cute,ä explains Franc Nemanic of Hostopia‰s choice of mascot.æ And flying pigs are a symbol of the company‰s ‹zero-gravity solutionä and the hosting utopia Nemanic and his crew are working to create.

Conceived by Nemanic in July 1999, Hostopia‰s mission is to power the backend infrastructure that enables ISPs, telcos and other interested companies to enter the hosting business instantly- and scale up as rapidly as need be- with minimal initial investments.æ Its business model is a 50/50 profit sharing plan to which Hostopia contributes its technology, data-center facilities, servers and bandwidth, which relying on its partners to take responsibility for sales, billing and front-line tech support.

The centerpiece of Hostopia‰s platform is WebsiteOS, a site-management tool which functions like hosting automation software from Sphera or Plesk, or in-house provisioning systems used by Verio or Concentric.æ Nemanic says that WebsiteOS allows for the highest customers density per server in the industry.æ More than 70 partners have signed with Hostopia since this January; Nemanic‰s goal is to build a billion-dollar company within five years.

When asked about Hostopia‰s competition, Nemanic says Alabanza has the most similar offerings.æ One advantage he feels Hostopia has is the company‰s commitment to being the ‹invisible man of wholesale presence.äæ As Hostopia is 100 percent removed from any interaction with the end user, partners maintain full ownership and control of their customer base, an arrangment that Nemanic says increases the value of his partners‰ businesses.æ In contrast, Alabanza‰s farther-reaching solution includes automated billing services.æ The downside for the greater convenience is that it gives Alabanza access to its customers‰ client lists.æ Alabanza‰s web site indicates it has 200 virtual hosting customers.

But Hostopia‰s true potential lies not in the company‰s technology or ‹invisible manä strategy, but in its international outlook.æ The United States and Canada currently account for 80 percent of Hostopia‰s business, but Nemanic expects Europe and Asia to contribute upwards of 60 percent to the company‰s future revenues.æ He has assembled a multicultural team of 40-plus whose members can be deployed to major markets around the world as the company expands.æ In addition, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese interfaces and documentation for WebsiteOS are in the final stages of development.æ Last, but not least, Nemanic is involving Hostopia in United Nations forums and establishing relationships with government officials to build the groundwork for entering developing economies such as former Soviet Republics, Eastern Europe and South Africa.