Stayin' Alive
By Jim Jagielski
Not long ago, almost all the Internet industry "experts" predicted that small ISPs would be forced out of the market. They would either be swallowed up by larger ISPs, or would simply close shop of their own accord. You probably heard negative prophecies from industry voices, "Except for possibly in rural locations, the small mom-and-pop shops are doomed."
Contrary to such predictions, the small ISP market continues to thrive in disparate regions, suburban and city alike. Reports of their deaths, to paraphrase Mark Twain, have been greatly exaggerated.
Now, a slightly different yet familiar refrain can be heard. Some say the small Web hosting companies (WHCs) can't compare with the so-called industrial-strength Web hosting companies with network operations centers (NOCs) like Fort Knox! According to these naysayers, specialty shops are doomed.
Rubbish.
Although today's market demands that all Web hosting companies provide far more reliability and service than before, smaller WHCs can easily meet these challenges. New technologies and deeper dedication to customized services enable these smaller businesses to hold their own in the market. Any instances of failure in small WHCs are more likely to spring from lack of business experience than poor-quality servers and services. For example, MassLinux—a defunct Web hosting company that specialized in low-cost and open-source project hosting—had problems handling accounts payable and receivable issues but was on solid technical footing. We see similar outages at the sites of major industry names as well, outages that affect some of the most popular sites on the Net today, such as eBay and E-Trade.
