One of the keynotes from this week’s HostingCon 2008 was titled “The Optimized Hosting Platform – Meeting the Changing Needs of Hosting Providers.” The keynote was presented by Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. Here’s some of the points he covered:

5 Types of Cloud Computing

Serguei opened with a definition of Cloud Computing from Wikipedia. He then presented his visions for the 5 types of clouds that the majority of computing will move to:

1. Google Could
2. Microsoft Cloud
3. Other coulds (IBM, Apple, HP, EMC, Amazon, Facebook)
4. In-house clouds of large companies
5. Service Providers – telcos, ISPs, web hosters, managed hosters, smaller SaaS players, online service companies

Trends in the Hosting Industry

He also provided some insights on the hosting industry as a whole. He pointed to some trends he’s seen:

• Traditional hosting is established, growing, but slowing down
• Managing hosting and SaaS are the fastest growing segments
• Changes may be required to sustain revenues and continue growth.
• The industry has matured, it is no longer some niche vertical market
• Companies are acquiring and consolidating (Hostway acquired Affinity, Wachovia acquired HostMySite, etc.)
• Rackspace filed for IPO
• Virtualization is growing and enabling SaaS
• Managed hosting is becoming cheaper and more accessible (virtualization and automation are driving this)

Internet Giants are a Threat

Sergei also talked about the threats posed to traditional hosting by the Internet giants – namely, Google, Microsoft and others:

• Google is “changing the world”, and competing with hosting companies by providing free hosting and apps
• Microsoft was always friendlier to partners, but now it is addressing Google’s threat. As a result they are offering services direct
• Other giant IT companies must react (Amazon, Ebay, Yahoo, EMC Could Computing, IBM Global Services, HP acquires EDS)
• Vars and System Integrators need large assets to enter managed hosting space
• Dangerous times are ahead for channel and smaller players.

What Can Hosters Do

He wrapped things up with a concise “to-do” list for hosting companies:

• Be paranoid about efficiency to keep prices competitive
• Fully automate and provide self management for service levels
• Provide Critical Services such as (business class email, Office apps, channel offerings, business line apps, online marketing integrations)
• Host or own your customer and partners data
• Offer broader set of services and many types of applications (Blackberry, Antivirus and Antispam for hosted email)
• Offer better and flexible upgrade paths (different workloads, sizing options, automatic upgrades)
• Stay close with customers and partners

(thanks to Flickr user Robyn’s Nest for the cloud photo and for releasing it under a Creative Commons License)