Hostopia's Dave Murphy on Web Hosting's Demise

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Hostopia marketing and business development vice president Dave Murphy deflated some of the hype from analysts have instilled into the hosting industry over the past few years in his Monday morning presentation, “The Demise of Hosting – And What's Replacing It,” at HostingCon 2010 in Austin, TX.

It was predicted earlier this decade that nearly all small businesses would have a website and four out of five would be using a third-party host. This reality has clearly not taken shape, and it's due to a variety of reasons.

The needs of small

Through looking at the needs of small and medium-sized businesses, Hostopia has found that what they are looking for is a variety of services, which functional hosting sites cannot offer. 

Hosting providers are able to use available technologies to be the one-stop provider for promotions (t-shirt printing, etc.), telephone services (via VoIP), automating the ordering process, the printing of  business cards, and online fax services, as well as establishing and managing the company's Web presence.

The one-stop provider is great

Being the one-stop provider is great, but this delivery mechanism does necessarily fit the mentality of a great deal of SMBs. According to Hostopia research, SMBs tend not to even know their budget -- they tend to spend less than $5,000 – and the majority like to do their own marketing, and take a hands-on approach. Transparency and self-customization is therefore also very important for these small businesses that are very hands-on with all the elements of their company. “You've got to see what's happening anytime you log in,” Murphy said.