First thing, this article will not be talking about what will happen in the web hosting industry in upcoming years!

The reality is that, looking at the number of domains records, we realize that we are running a lot in the number of new activations and request for web services: This course is especially true for web hosting, that they opt for Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting, Cloud Server or Dedicated Servers. A greater number of people online means a considerable increase of registered domains, web space activation and of course high-level solutions (for those who have simple user base and becomes producer of content, the web entrepreneur and so on).

The Web Hosting Summit is one of the most important Asian conference of the hosting industry which happened recently, in all editions addressing the issue of the evolution of the web hosting industry, but the past two years it seems that this is only coincided with a shift to cloud computing infrastructures. It is obvious that it cannot be the only action of change for the hosting industry.

Personally I do not think that Facebook, Twitter or Google for now may make it difficult for the industry of web hosting and web services, do not have the strength to offer customized solutions as well as those obtained via affordable web service, and companies, as you could say, they still have little confidence in large groups operating online; difficult to convince them to move their business to the cloud when it comes to Google or large companies. The risks are still high and not surprisingly, the private cloud is becoming a dot fixed from Microsoft.

On the occasion of Web Hosting Summit 2012, we were present with several hosting providers, and we tried to understand what are the main ideas that could change the approach in the sale of hosting services and their use.

What will change then? I’m hearing a lot of different opinions on this, but the reality is that no web hosting company is well aware how they will evolve its services in the coming years. The big industries can certainly impose their idea, I talk about Rackspace, GoDaddy and other giants, but much of the choice is up to the market and especially the number of startups that operate in this area. What appears certain is that domain names registration will continue to exist, despite some time ago, some had talked about their disappearance in favor of direct use of search engines and social networks. To understand, just look at the recent decision of ICANN, with the expansion of the generic extensions, and sales of premium domains in marketplaces. Continue to grind million in revenues, leaving the domain as one of the key to enter the Internet market and have good visibility.

The need for transformation in this area is felt and confirmed by many. I do not know if the transition to cloud computing will be the only one to change the approach to web hosting services, a common problem is assistance. The number of people who accesses these services is increasing and brings as a consequence a strong need to make the services more simple and immediate to handle, without the need of technical knowledge. For this reason, the next startup that will focus in the development of software for the hosting market must consider, first, the need to create products that are easily used by those who have no technical knowledge whatsoever.

The overload of requests for assistance is definitely a sign of the fact that many products today are complex, through no fault of suppliers, but by their very nature, not suited for use by unskilled persons.