New bandwidth providers added to network.

The SharkSpace network added additional bandwidth providers and increased the amount of bandwidth that can be transferred through existing carriers. The SharkSpace network is currently using the following carrier/bandwidth providers:

Internap
SAVVIS
Global Crossing
Verio
AboveNet

The addition of Global Crossing, will help increase speeds to countries outside the United States.

Reseller web hosting, what is it?

If you are new to hosting or just don’t know what reseller web hosting is, don’t worry you will now. Reseller hosting is simply buying in bulk and reselling for a profit. For example if you purchase 4 GB of storage space and 40 GB of bandwidth you could sell 40 accounts using 100 MB and 1 GB of bandwidth or in any other combination. Say if you charge $5 for the package having the resource allotment of 100 MB/ 1 GB you could bring in $200/month gross, while the reseller account would cost you less than $20/month. That comes out to be $180 profit a month. Not bad at all.

Ok, now that you understand the economics of reseller web hosting I will explain how it works system wise. The server owner manages the server and maintains upgrades/software/hardware etc. The server owner then sells off the web space to you the owner of the reseller account. The majority of servers have a control panel for you to manage all the accounts you create or resell. In SharkSpace’s case we use Cpanel with WHM (the reseller side of Cpanel) You can demo it here: http://www.sharkspace.com/info/whm.html

So basically reseller web hosting is like having a dedicated server without all the responsibility of keeping it up and maintaining upgrades. It is an easy way to manage large numbers of personal accounts or a great way to get you started as a web host for a very small investment.

Plesk web hosting? DirectAdmin web hosting?

SharkSpace currently offers the leading control panel Cpanel, but what about second and third in line Plesk and DirectAdmin? Currently neither are supported by SharkSpace, but they are in serious consideration. The user demand for Plesk and DirectAdmin is currently no where near that of Cpanel. Perhaps when they both reach the development stage that Cpanel is in, then there will be a good chance that SharkSpace will offer product lines featuring them.

Why not offer them now?
If SharkSpace offered them now, we would need to hire a specialty staff that is trained in their use. This would not be cheap, but would be manageable if there was high demand for the products. The problem is there demand is not currently that high.

Another reason is Plesk is more expensive than Cpanel, but has less features. I’m not sure how many clients would go on a more expensive package to have less.

The waiting game.
SharkSpace will someday offer all the leading control panels so every user can take advantage of the great service SharkSpace offers, but when that time will be is controlled by the product development and user demand.