Web Hosting Predictions for 2009

2008 was another busy year for the web hosting industry. Virtualization ascended another notch in popularity while affiliate sign ups were at an all time high. What does the web hosting industry have in store for 2009? Will the struggling economy have an impact? Here are some predictions for the year at hand.

Virtualization and the Cloud Still Reign

While they certainly made a splash year, look for virtualization and cloud technology to remain hot topics in 2009. Both can deliver significant benefits to small and medium sized businesses with the need to outsource their IT tasks. The opportunities now exist for most hosting companies to leverage these emerging technologies and combine them with managed services to cater to the specific needs of the customer. Tremendous benefits are up for grabs as hosts can work more efficiently in terms of labor while optimizing storage and data center utilization. This in turn, will allow more customers to benefit from enhanced performance and greater price value.

Many experts are predicting that cloud computing will continue to drive the sale of dedicated server packages. These solutions are more accessible to hosting providers and their expertise opposed to in-house IT staffs. This factor alone will open more customers up to the idea of outsourcing and help boost dedicated server sales at the same time. Large companies will continue to thrive but the presence of mini-clouds will allow smaller providers to gather some momentum as well.

The Crisis Will Be Felt

Industries across the board took a severe blow in 2008 and the web hosting industry is not immune. This doesn’t mean that the market will suffer huge losses, but more like hosting companies will simply have to do more with less. For most providers, this translates into optimizing data center space and utilizing technologies such as virtualization to increase investments and enable a greater level of automation. In the end, this will lead to an enriched experience for the customer who is also looking to do more with less while still getting an excellent value.

Times are certainly tough but the hosting industry is in great shape to cut IT costs. Hosts who are currently struggling to purchase servers and the necessary software components will seriously evaluate their predicament in attempts to provide for their infrastructure without long-term commitments or huge upfront investments. Large companies will likely have an easier time but as we all know, many of the smaller companies are just as savvy and resilient. The existing model of the hosting industry has become even more significant during this economic crisis.

Innovation Guaranteed

In the end, the year 2009 will be all about taking care of the customer while maximizing the return on investment. 2008 was full of surprises so look for technological advancements in products and services all across the board. Shared hosting, dedicated servers, reseller packages and even simple domain registration are likely to give a little something extra this year. These additions will maintain customer satisfaction and ultimately bring in more new sign ups than last year.

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