The hosting industry is consolidating with incredible speed, and the service our industry provides is becoming commoditized just as quickly. How can small-to-medium-sized hosts thrive and prosper in a market where huge cloud infrastructure players threaten to crush us on price? The answer is to find your niche by playing to our historic strength in providing market-specific, high-touch service. This can mean many things, from creating custom-tailored hosting solutions for industry vertical VARs and integrators, to serving as a thought leader and advocate on social and regulatory issues that affect your customers, to forming strategic partnerships with vendors seeking to launch game-changing technologies. At this eye-opening session, ServInt COO Christian Dawson will share real-world, actionable tips and suggestions for keeping your business viable in a rapidly changing – and potentially threatening – industry landscape.

1. be interesting.

2. What being small FEELS like
The big guys
You

3. what being small LOOKS like
The big guys
You

4. most customers don’t understand
hosting well enough to distinguish
between large and small hosts,
cloud and non-cloud hosts, shared
and managed hosts... etc.

5. this works for you and against you
for you for me, it’s down to
amazon, rackspace,
softlayer and...
tinyhost.com.
amazon, rackspace,
softlayer,
tinyhost.com...
which one is against you
cheapest?

6. battles you can’t win
• You probably can’t beat the big guys
on price.
• You probably can’t beat the big guys
on perceived quality of service.
• You almost certainly can’t beat the big
guys in terms of ad spend and mass
awareness.

7. battles you can’t lose
• you can be more responsive than the
big guys.
• you can be more nimble than the big
guys.
• you can be more market-targeted than
the big guys.
• you can be more INTERESTING than
the big guys.

8. sameness + smallness = invisibility
cloud
hosting vps
low-cost 24/7/365
customer
dedicated support
free migration
cloud
high uptime
hosting vps
low-cost 24/7/365
customer
dedicated support
free migration
high uptime
big guy you

9. invisibility = loss of brand control
secure
proven safe
pedigreed failure-
strong tolerant
well-resourced
trustworthy not
big guy you

10. how do you fight invisibility when...
• you can’t outspend the big guys
• your products aren’t really very
different from the big guys’
• people think -- at best -- that you offer
the same type and quality of service as
the big guys
• THE ANSWER IS...

11. be interesting.

12. be this. not this.

13. be this. not this.

14. be this. not this.

15. be this. not this.

16. being interesting
• pick a subset of the hosting
marketplace and be the hsp for that
community
• it’s better to have 90% of a loyal, small community than
2% of a fickle, huge one
• take a leadership position in something
that reinforces your brand -- whether
or not it has anything to do with
hosting
• traffic to ServInt’s web site jumped 80% during our
SOPA/PIPA activity

17. being interesting
• partner with technology companies
that are young, smart and doing
amazing things
• trust your instincts
• most of all...
• have the courage to be yourself

18. QUESTIONS...
for you!
for you!

19. I can answer
ANY question you may
have about being
interesting!
Come on... try me!
QUESTIONS...
for me?