I posted an article the other day about a web hosting company, not a host offering dedicated hosting but a virtual private server (VPS) hosting company, that lost 100,000 websites overnight. The attack was a result of a security hole in the virtualization application that the host company was using, an application called HyperVM from LXLabs.

The vulnerability is a bit of a surprise - not that it existed, but that it wasn’t patched by a company that should have the resources to do so, and more importantly, can’t really afford that kind of vulnerability. What also struck me about the article was the fact that 50% of these customers were unmanaged, which means they had no data backup, and may never recover any of their data. Many of these users would have had their data backed up, but those that didn’t will likely look at it more closely next time around (probably while they’re looking for a new host!).

Does this kind of report make you more likely to consider a managed hosting solution for your company?

Well, I’m not sure how much I’ll actually use the account, but I thought it was important to get on Twitter and make sure no one else got my alias. Having started looking at Twitter for Superb, it only made sense to look at it for myself, too. Although I won’t be talking about dedicated servers and managed hosting as much on my account, I hope I can tweet something worth following!

@JayAndSilentRob

Doing contract work for a hosting company, I realize the difficulties in targeting quality traffic. It’s a competitive market, meaning companies are not only able to outspend each other, they are constantly looking to get an edge or advantage. With something like dedicated servers and managed hosting, this is especially true. An article on targeting social networks for sales was recently released on Website Magazine, and it provides some interesting points, demographics, and general info about leveraging social platforms for sales.