This Month We Interview Ted Beckwith from Easy CGI

What is the single most challenging aspect of running a successful hosting web business?

Keeping ahead of the competition in both our product offerings and support quality. We feel that the most important part of our business model is our ability to dynamically adapt to fit the needs of our customers.

You offer a full range of hosting services from shared hosting to co-location. What sector is the fastest growing part of your business?

We project that the shared hosting sector will continue to grow very rapidly for at least the next 5 years. Colocation remains a strong segment as well, but caters to a much smaller customer base.

As a follow-up, which segment do you see having the largest growth potential in the future?

Our international customer base has experienced tremendous growth over the last 12 months. We expect to see this growth trend continue as the international Internet economy continues to expand. Another area with strong potential for future growth is the managed hosting segment, especially virtual servers. Currently, we do not have any managed server products, simply because, right now, the demand is not at a level that makes sense for us. When this segment of the market strengthens up a little more, we definitely see ourselves going "all in".

A lot of companies and industries are downgrading their forecasts for the second half of this year. How do you think the web hosting industry will fair in general and what growth are you forecasting for Easy CGI?

Since our inception in 1999, we have yet to experience a quarter that has not seen double digit growth over the previous quarter. Our projections show that this trend will continue for at least the next 2 years, and quite possibly beyond. As the hosting industry becomes more competitive, we will continue to be one step ahead.

How would you describe the working atmosphere at Easy CGI and how does it contribute to your success?

We take great pride in promoting a relaxed working environment for our staff. Leisure features such as an on-site gym, a park-like setting surrounding our office complex, video games and bean bags can usually take the edge off a rough day. Relaxed and appreciated employees have much greater company loyalty, and are much more willing to go the extra mile in ensuring that the customer remains happy.

In the competitive business of web hosting how do you distinguish yourself from the competition?

Our quality of customer support is the keystone of our business. You can host your website with a thousand different companies, but what make the difference is the level of customer support you will receive when you really need it.

You recently upgraded your hosting packages with 3000% more features. How can you afford to do this?

We spent a great deal of time on cost analysis for this package upgrade. Disk space and bandwidth are two of the core components that virtually all customers look for when making the decision to choose a web hosting provider. Hard drives continue to get bigger, faster and cheaper at an extraordinary pace, and bandwidth costs continue to become less and less expensive. These 2 facts actually made it a very easy decision to update our packages.

Earlier this year you moved into a new data center. This had to be a stressful time. How did the move go and how are you settling into your new space?

The first 6 months of 2004 were spent planning every detail of the move to ensure that no unforeseen problems would occur during the actual data center transfer. The time spent was well worth it - over 2 weekend nights in June, our entire data center was transferred to our new facility in 8 separate segments. Splitting up our network into smaller pieces allowed us to ensure that no single system was down for more than 2 hours. Our new office and data center allow us to plan for future growth in ways that were simply not possible at our old location.

Can you tell us a little about your background and how that contributes to your success?

Easy CGI President, Dan Richfield, and I, have over 8 years of experience in the Internet industry. From 1996 to 2000, we owned and operated a regional ISP, SpyralNet. Starting an ISP from the ground up in the early days of the Internet proved to be a challenge, and gave us a head start with the technologies that have become so commonplace today.