Interview with Hostdepartment.com

Basic Company Information

Host Department LLC
501 Silverside Rd, Suite 105
Wilmington, DE 19809
United States
1 866 887 HOST (4678)

General Questions

Who is your targeted audience?

Our targeted audience is small to medium enterprises which are looking to establish their online presence and get noticed by people who are looking for their services.

Where do you see your company two years from now?

We would be offering the most unique dedicated hosting business through a whole new approach. We will be expanding to Canada, UK, Australia, and the Asia. We would be offering multi lingual services mainly English, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese language. Our existing shared and reseller hosting solutions will always still be the most unique one in the industry.

What significant changes have you seen in the web hosting marketplace over the last 12 months?

I see that with the advancement of technology most providers would be able to provide much more to the marketplace with a much lower cost.

How did you come to choose your company name?

Well, my wife picked out the name :) I simply can't wait to start the business, so I asked her to pick out one.

What advice do you have for someone who is just starting a hosting company?

I would say they have to find their niche. Focus on it, back when I started the business in 98, it still make sense to offer web hosting in general to all audiences. But today, there are simply too many players out there. What I would suggest including to our resellers, they would have to find their own unique market. For example provide hosting to musicians, just to them. There are so many to choose, such as lawyers, doctors, teachers, pastors, etc. You should choose ones that relates most to your own field. This way we can also provide our customers with a "specific approach and contents for them" which only YOU can provide. No one else can.

In the next five years, where do you see the web hosting industry taking us?

Well, the sky is the limit. I would say in the next five years, technology advancement would be so rapid, I would think every website will be in full blown out multi-media, streaming, fully interactive. We as the host provider just have to make sure that we keep up with the technology advancements, so that our customers can always express them selves with the up to date technologies.

You And The Competition

What are your company's three key success factors?

To tell you the truth, I am a strong believer, so whatever success we have is the one given from above, not of our own achievement. Just make sure we do the business right, won't compromise with anything that is not right. Do it with passion and excitement, not for the money or to reap high profit instantly. So the three success factors would be to do the work passionately, honestly, and creatively, one last thing, never forget to "give back" for what you have been given.

How has your company kept up with changing technology?

We always try to keep up with the rapid advancement of technology. We believe that our customers must be able to utilize the latest technology available. We are constantly utilizing technology improvement. The latest is the implementation of our SAN network through iSCSI technology by using Dell EMC line of SAN servers. Our latest line of servers are already using the latest Dual - Dual Core Xeon processors from Intel (two processors with at least 4 GB of RAM)

How are your services and pricing levels better than those of your competitors?

You have to see it for your self, no one can compete with our uniqueness!

Your Hosting Plans

What do your lower price point hosting solutions include and at what price?

It includes unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth and so many features to enhance your website. It also includes a fresh content for your website which you can choose to match your website contents. A free domain registration and renewal for live, and 6 months free promo! It's all for $3.95/Mo.

What do your higher price point hosting solutions include and at what price?

It includes a whole package to start your own web hosting company, just like Host Department. You will have your own corporate website which we will provide, your own hosting plans, billing system, fully branded control panel for your customers using your own brand. You will be able to sell both Windows based and UNIX based accounts along with domain registrations and sells all the features which we sell!

If you offer user control panels, for which platform(s)? Briefly describe their functionality.

We offer user control panel for both Windows and UNIX platform. You can do so many things with it. Simply go to our website and click on the control panel demo links which you can see on the "list all features" page for a particular plan.

Connectivity & Data Center Specs

Describe your back-up and emergency power systems.

We backup our servers in a daily basis using UltraBAC disaster recovery system. Our power systems are managed through our Collocation facility which is Hurricane Electric and NAP West.

What types of servers do you use for your virtual Windows hosting clients?

The previous ones are dual xeon processors using at least 2 or 4 GB of RAM. The latest ones are using 2 x Dual Core Xeon Processors with at least 4 GB of RAM. We are also using Intel Blade Servers at NAP West. All line of web and database servers we have are all using SCSI connected drives, either through iSCSI or direct SCSI drives.

Support & Customer Service

List the types of support your organization offers (e-mail, telephone, chat, trouble tickets, etc...).

Chats, trouble tickets, emails, and telephone.

Interview done by
Jimmy R Tanzil
Chairman & CTO
Host Department LLC
To host and to serve