I operate a Telco/ISP data center located in the US. It is on a redundant BGP peered fiber backhaul. I plan to enter the VDS/VPS market within the next few weeks. I am curious as to where I would need to be as far as price to be competitive. I plan to offer unmanaged and managed along with most OS installs.
okay this is what i would say only offer one choice managed or unmanaged standardize all your servers need a catchy name and theme (also one trick is to buy an aged hosting domain) second partner with several shared hosting providers. simplify the os to 3 most popular linux and one windows(windows wait for later maybe one year into the business use it) get cpanel and pelsk add ons never oversell or lie to customers is it hard yes ... everything in life is hard. vps is a hard business to be in. it will take you almost up to 2 - 3 years to be profitable remember never to give up.
Good,since it's highly competitive,you should focus on some points.I mean developing your sole advantage.The promotion is especially important.As to the service you provide,I think you'd better be clear of your market goal and then determine linux or windows to be your leading service.Well,it's hard for you to do well in both area since you just start your business.
You should rent a server at DC so that you can eliminate middle man charge. Or you can buy dedicated server than separated it to VPS such as theplanet.
This is good info. Thanks for your input. I realize it is a crowded market...but I feel what will put me ahead is the reliability of my data center. I think allot of these "VDS resellers" are just that "Resellers" They do not own the servers they are virtualizing or the data center, I would say a large majority are small time and probably paying a high price for coLo or a dedicated server...etc. So i don't believe they can offer the level of support and reliability that I can. And I am hoping to be able to enter the market at around $30mo for unmanaged. Are these reasonable assumptions...or am I way off base?
by the way no one offers unmanned servers any more ... so that might be a good place to start also have an addon for management like extra 15 bucks a month.
iloveunicorns you mentioned partnering with a shared hosting provider. Can you explain this in a little more detail. Thanks for all the great suggestions!