Customer: Other Images
Industry: Ecommerce, Photography
Challenges: Originally, Other Images simply required a small volume of image banks housed within a single server. But when they begin to grow rapidly, their needs quickly expanded.
Solution: Storage Management
Originally, Other Images simply required a small volume of image banks housed within a single server. But when they begin to grow rapidly, their needs quickly expanded.
Business Outcome: Currently, Other Images adds approximately 10,000-15,000 images per month to image banks now hosted on eight high performance managed servers.
Hostway, Other Images taps into a consultative approach to customer service and technical support. Not only has Hostway set up each new server individually, but Hostway’s support technicians have also recommended new software to transfer the large repository of image files from one managed server to another. Other Images is currently moving 1.2 million images in three different sizes for a total of 3.6 million files.
With Hostway’s assistance, the recommended software, and Hostway’s ongoing support, Other Images avoids the delays often associated with large file-transfer projects. As Other Images’ president Carlos Angel noted, “This file transfer project was one of significant scale and complexity. Hostway’s advice on software and their support throughout the process meant it went smoothly for us and was unnoticed by our customers.”
To best serve its customers, Other Images requires the fast upload of high-resolution photographs. With their Latin American presence, proximity to their wires in order to transfer images at rapid speed was essential. Hostway’s Tampa data center offers both the bandwidth and the relative proximity needed to fully serve Other Images’ requirements.
Another challenge unique to Other Images is the need to physically move hard drives from Latin America to the Tampa hosting facility on a monthly basis. Most hosting providers were not capable of assisting Other Images with this task. Hostway, however, offers support in shipping and receiving as well as handling issues that may arise with customs.
Originally, when founded in 2004, Other Images simply required a small volume of image banks housed within a single managed server. With rapid growth, their needs quickly expanded to three high performance managed servers to store their fast growing repository of high-resolution images. Currently, Other Images adds approximately 10,000-15,000 images per month to image banks now hosted on eight high performance managed servers.
As Other Images concentrates on growing its business, Hostway stays focused on smooth operations for Other Images’ hosting infrastructure. Using both Hostway and another hosting provider concurrently has proven to Other Images that Hostway is a premium hosting provider. As a result of this comparison, Other Images is now in the process of transferring all of their hosting to Hostway.
Customer: ACH Federal
Industry: Financial
Challenges: ACH Federal has started with three Managed servers with Hostway and expects to grow.
Solution: CRM Infrastructure
When ACH Federal needed a CRM solution, they decided hosting the software in the cloud would be the most cost-effective solution.
Business Outcome: Hostway provides top quality services that ACH Federal relies on to run its systems.
ACH Federal needed a CRM solution for its business and turned to FrontRange Solutions, the makers of the GoldMine CRM Software Solution. ACH Federal decided with its FrontRange Business Partner, Anton Systems, Inc. (www.antonsystems.com), that hosting the software in the cloud was the best option for the company. Anton Systems recommended that Hostway do the hosting, and they provided the customization and database work for the project.
ACH Federal decided to outsource the hosting to conserve its cash as well as its IT resources. Additionally, it was the fastest way to get up and running. ACH Federal was attracted to Hostway because it is an industry leader withdata centers in 14 countries worldwide. While ACH Federal did its due diligence on Hostway, ensuring that it provides high-level security, world-class uptime, and excellent customer support, it also relied on its strategic relationship with Anton Systems and the trust which had been built between them.
ACH Federal has started with three managed servers with Hostway and expects to grow. Hostway’s systems are scalable, so the firm can easily add servers, racks, etc. without a problem. The set-up with Hostway provides ACH Federal with complete control over its systems without incurring the high cost of managing and maintaining them independently. Relying on Hostway’s industry experience and expertise, ACH Federal knows that Hostway can perform at its best by concentrating on its core business just as ACH Federal can do with its electronic payment processing services.
Customer: ShopVisible
Industry: E-commerce, SaaS
Solution: E-commerce, Compliance
ShopVisible’s growing customer base necessitated a robust, scalable hosting solution. Hostway provided a reliable, customized, PCI-compliant infrastructure, while also offering a service relationship that far exceeded ShopVisible’s expectations.
ShopVisible powers the commerce platform that enables world-class online retailers to run all aspects of their business in one place, from order management to returns. From initial site design or re-design, to multi-channel strategies, search engine optimization implementation, content management, order management, CRM, shipping, back office systems and analytics, ShopVisible is a complete e-commerce software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution.
ShopVisible has experienced steady client growth since its incorporation in 2006, and related data requirements rose in turn. Foreseeing the expense and inefficiency of managing the infrastructure for these services in-house, ShopVisible sought a third-party hosting provider.
ShopVisible powers the entire online commerce businesses for major retailers and brands, so uptime and stability are mission-critical. ShopVisible needed a provider with backup procedures and redundancies that would reduce potential interruptions that may be caused by hardware failures or even scheduled maintenance.
Any potential hosting partner also needed to comply with rigorous Payment Card Industry (PCI) standardssafeguarding the user information and credit card data that would pass through ShopVisible's system each day.
ShopVisible selected Hostway, with whom they had an existing relationship from a different project. Hostway was not only able to provide the backup procedures and redundancies that ShopVisible needed, but was able to build a custom infrastructure that could be integrated with ShopVisible's proprietary system.
In addition, Hostway helped ShopVisible meet PCI-compliance requirements, many of which were satisfied by Hostway's own internal compliance to stringent SSAE 16 credentials. ShopVisible could rest assured they were working with a vendor that understood the complex regulations involved.
Hostway Customizes Infrastructure for ShopVisible's Proprietary Systems
Hostway offered multiple value-added services for ShopVisible: Load-balancing optimizes resources and introduces redundancies by spreading requests to multiple servers; Hostway's managed Cisco Firewall solution protects its e-commerce clients without any disruption of traffic, with security managed by an advanced intrusion-detection solution.
But these add-ons would not work with ShopVisible's solution straight out of the box.
"We have a proprietary system – it works in a specific way," explained Jignesh Patel, ShopVisible Director of IT. "So everything we use at Hostway – from firewall and switches to load balancing and backup – the entire solution is customized for us."
What amazed Patel was not just the service provider's ability to customize the infrastructure, but also the fact that he doesn't have to remind them about the specifications when making updates and changes.
"I don't have to give Hostway specific instructions on how we need it to work," Patel said. "When I say ‘I need a web server,' they automatically customize it to work with our proprietary system – they know exactly how much RAM we need, and they customize it all for us."
ShopVisible Grows, Hostway Keeps Pace
In recent years, ShopVisible clients have experienced explosive growth, many of them more than doubling in size. The company was pleased to see that Hostway not only kept in step with them, but went above and beyond to clear the path for continued growth.
"The clients we support are quite different than when we signed on with Hostway, in terms of scale and needs," Patel said. "Hostway has proven equally fit at servicing ShopVisible in each stage of its evolution."
When ShopVisible decided to expand its infrastructure in step with its growth, Hostway worked closely with ShopVisible's internal IT – who visited Hostway's Austin data center in person – to design a scalable solution that would fit ShopVisible's changing needs. In addition, Hostway advised on a deployment plan to minimize downtime to the current production environment.
Hostway Provides Personal, Proactive Attention
As ShopVisible's hosting needs continued to grow, Hostway provided ShopVisible with a dedicated account manager who possessed intimate knowledge of the data and storage requirements of the company as well as an understanding of its business model and unique needs. A dedicated team now provides ShopVisible with fast issue resolution and an experienced consultant to look to for advice.
This proactive staff management has helped ensure that any problems are resolved quickly by one or more of the staff members who are fully briefed on ShopVisible's custom setup.
"The Hostway team is excellent at communicating with each other," said Patel. "If I tell something to one team member, the others all know it immediately."
In addition, the Hostway team understood the importance of infrastructure reliability to ShopVisible and their customers.
Josh Lloyd, CTO and co-founder of ShopVisible, praised Hostway's dedication to managed services.
"Hostway's proactive managed service has worked to make a good service even better," Lloyd said. "They diagnose potential issues before they exist."
ShopVisible Becomes a Hostway Reseller
In 2012, Hostway launched a Reseller Program to offer discounts and commissions to companies that resold or referred Hostway's services. ShopVisible became one of the hosting provider’s first reseller of Hostway’s resources (in that Hostway's servers are used to host ShopVisible's software).
As a demonstration of the commitment to ShopVisbile, Hostway served as a sponsor of ShopVisible's 2012 Client Connect event, and had staff on hand to help answer questions about the infrastructure side of product offerings.
"Many of our customers want to know who we're hosting with, since this obviously affects the service they receive," Lloyd explained. "It was extremely helpful to have Hostway at the event to answer questions and build trust with the customers directly, which in turn builds our customers' loyalty to us."
Hostway worked collaboratively from the beginning, and has grown hand-in-hand with ShopVisible, offering industry-leading uptime and customized managed services. It serves as a model reseller relationship, built around each side clearing the path to enhanced profits for the other.
Customer: GoalShare
Industry: Social Networking
Solution: Web Presence, Infrastructure Flexibility
GoalShare provides a platform for individuals to share their goals, holding themselves and each other accountable for success. Hostway provides the hosting expertise to respond to accelerating usage and avoid downtime, strong service and account management, and a 100% uptime guarantee.
The GoalShare idea came into focus in early 2008 as a personal tool of CEO Scott Spann as he prepared to compete at the Beijing Olympics. In his fifteen years of competitive swimming, the dual foundation of his drive to improve was goal-setting and accountability. To help him achieve his goals, he shared them with family, friends and coaches.
Spann realized that such goal-sharing transcends athletic endeavors – success for all individuals and companies is achieved by being motivated to complete a series of goals. Spann created GoalShare as a place for both the titular activity as well as positive social media exchange. Chris Voigt, COO of GoalShare, came on board after he learned of the project and started applying it to his everyday life.
Knowing the decision ahead of them would play a large role in their continued growth, GoalShare turned to its trusted colleagues for hosting company referrals. They learned about Hostway through their web design team.
“Our network consists of two hard commodities: the website and the hosting,” Voigt explained. “If the hosting works flawlessly, it allows us to grow our network. If the network continues to grow, we need more hosting space.”
Once GoalShare was in touch with Hostway Business Development Consultant Andrew Bruno, it became apparent where Hostway could be of service.
"We saw that their configuration was not ideal, and began the process of showing them how to get their platform running as efficiently as possible," Bruno said. “We’ve laid out a growth plan for them that explains how prices would change if their needs continue to grow.”
Hostway’s expertise was quickly evident to the GoalShare team.
GoalShare is set up with a single robust managed server, with plenty room to thrive and expand.
“Since switching from smaller servers to Hostway, the functionality of the site has been much faster,” Voigt said. “It was immediately clear that Hostway’s servers were more suitable for our needs.”
Through this transition, Hostway's account team and support were ever-present in making sure GoalShare had what it needed to reach its milestones.
Since joining Hostway, new users have been streaming in as GoalShare experiences 100% uptime and prepares to release its mobile application.
“We are very happy about everything that Hostway has done for us as we continue to grow,” Voigt said. “We’re excited to be adding a mobile app that will complement the existing website. Hostway will absolutely be involved with providing the platform for that project as well.”
Customer: ConvergeDirect
Industry: Marketing
Solution: Disaster Recovery, Database
ConvergeDirect, a marketing firm that provides a wide variety of advertising services, entrusts Hostway with maintaining and updating their overall infrastructure, adding a disaster recovery solution to ensure their databases are always available.
According to Jason Schalz, ConvergeDirect Director of Technology, the organization counts on several Hostway solutions, including those related to its database servers, web servers and hit-tracking servers, which show when a ConvergeDirect client's advertisement has been seen or clicked on. The company also utilizes a Hostway firewall solution to safeguard its network. All told, Hostway operates and manages the entirety of its core infrastructure, owning all of the servers used by the firm.
"All of our production applications and data are hosted by Hostway," Schalz said. "Everything."
In addition to its database, web and hit tracking servers, ConvergeDirect also began leveraging Hostway services for the company's new disaster recovery location. Schalz noted that this process began this year, as the organization looked to establish a second home in Tampa, Florida, specifically devoted to disaster recovery and business continuity.
During this time, company leaders had a difficult balance they were looking to maintain. They needed a system that would enable them to be fully prepared in the event of a disaster while still fitting within their budget.
This is where ConvergeDirect's partnership with Hostway became increasingly valuable. The vendor's experts were able to recommend the best configuration that would keep processes going temporarily while staying in line with the business budget.
"Hostway was able to figure out what we would need to keep running in case of a disaster, for a smaller period of time, obviously, until our regular production service was up and running," Schalz said. "They gave us a solution that didn't double our spending. We were able to spend less than we thought we would have to to have a second site."
Schalz added that it is beneficial to have a vendor that knows what the company has as well as what they need, and can recommend the best components to bring value to any project ConvergeDirect is working on.
"Hostway's solution provides us with 24/7/365 access to our apps and data, allowing us to always be there for our clients," Schalz said. "These clients can rest assured that they have connectivity at any time."
Overall, one of the greatest benefits of utilizing Hostway is the fact that the partnership enables the internal ConvergeDirect team to remain focused on their core company processes while not having to worry about their infrastructure. For Schalz, this means he is able to keep his attention on the software aspect of the organization while Hostway maintains the hardware.
"That is the best part for me. I don't have to worry about it and everything is taken care of," Schalz said. "I know the servers are going to be running and they're going to be up and if a disc drive explodes or something, Hostway is going to swap it out for me.”
“The fact that I don't have to worry about the infrastructure is really my favorite part," Schalz added. "If I had physical servers here that I had to administer, I would probably go crazy."
Customer: Technology On Call
Industry: Reseller Partner
Solution: Migration
Before working with Hostway, Technology On Call had been utilizing platforms from the same provider since the mid-1990s. While these supported the company’s previous requirements for support and reliability, the legacy technology’s capabilities had declined in recent years. This presented numerous challenges, particularly for a provider offering such a wide range of services. In addition to assisting with troubleshooting, website development and software installation and updates, Technology On Call also offers hosting, network and server support and security options for its customers.
When it came time to upgrade to a more advanced solution, Berg had concerns about the provider’s ability to handle the migration. In addition, Technology On Call had experienced issues with the old vendor’s customer assistance in the past.
“Over the past years, [service] has deteriorated, and I have not been getting the same intellectual support,” Berg said.
Berg’s migration needs — in addition to goals related to expanding and improving the company’s service portfolio — prompted Berg to seek out a solution. He discovered Hostway while researching his available options, coming across several positive recommendations on industry forums.
Soon after, Technology On Call connected with Hostway to address its immediate migration needs. Hostway’s industry-leading customer support meant Berg was able to work with a dedicated migration specialist for the initiative, which helped ensure the company was on track for success at every step along the way.
“With the move over to Hostway, I have been able to consolidate all my solutions,” Berg said. “Consolidation is key especially since Hostway offers migration support, better products and better overall support.”
Berg also took advantage of Hostway’s Plesk and cPanel control panels to help maintain granular visibility into his accounts and servers. This was a particular boon when it came to web design projects.
Technology On Call also became involved in the Hostway Reseller Partner Program as a Silver Level Reseller Partner. Now, the company can offer its own customers access to top-tier Hostway services, including virtual private server plans that fit an array of different needs.
Berg and his business enjoyed numerous benefits after partnering with Hostway, especially when it came to the company’s migration needs. In addition to having a dedicated specialist to work with directly, the migration was streamlined and effective.
Berg noted that he hesitated to trust his older provider with the migration because he feared the company wouldn’t be able to handle the process. Compounding this issue was the fact that Technology on Call used a proprietary platform unique to the old provider, creating considerable obstacles for migration. However, the more he worked with Hostway, the more confident he became in the standard platform solutions he uses and the support he receives.
“Hostway does the hard work for the migration,” Berg said. “I’m in it with both feet and expanding and moving everything to Hostway.”
Berg also noticed several improvements over his previous solution. Not only was the migration assistance tremendously valuable, but it also fit within the company’s budget. Berg’s backend and management capabilities were also considerably improved with the use of Plesk and cPanel.
“Transferring domain registrations to Hostway is a breeze,” Berg said. “Hostway maintains their own registrar service rather than being spread across various registrars. The savings is about $2 per domain per year compared to the newly announced price increases at [the former provider]. All in all, I’m paying less for domain registrations and less for servers, with the added ability to consolidate my hosting in industry-standard platforms.”
Technology On Call not only found assistance for its migration needs with Hostway, but also a partner with which it can expand its own services. Berg noted that he has been pleasantly surprised by his experiences with Hostway, and will continue to expand his company’s relationship with Hostway in the future.
“Before Hostway, I would never have been able to do it on my own,” Berg said.