Shied away from posting this type of thing for some time (don't want the pressure of having to meet others' expectations and my brain is pretty much f*cked up with ideas of grandeur).
However, I feel the time is now right to do it. Probably should put it in the INSIDERS' forum, but don't see the value to be honest. If I'm going to get copied, I'll get copied.
--
I have been working on a series of new innovations over the past 24 months. Most of my money has been tied up in these innovations, and I now feel it appropriate to highlight progress.
As with all things in business, the goal is sales. Business is sales and everything you do needs to contribute in some way to their continued growth. In the capitalistic system, you're rewarded for growth (not innovation)... which is why most companies are brain-dead.
Whilst innovation is obviously a bonafide way to achieve growth, it doesn't get you paid on its own. You still need to create a valid offer, provide buyers with an obvious benefit, and generally work on doing something that people are willing to pay for. This I hope to highlight with this thread.
--
The product I've been working on is a "cloud" VPS deployment system.
It is a tool which allows you to provision, manage and extend the use of "cloud" VPS servers running on the likes of Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Engine, DigitalOcean and others. I have extensive experience using all of these platforms, with my DigitalOcean account being ~3 years' old on its own...
In terms of the product, what I am going to explain in this post (and likely thread) is the process of creating a new solution and getting it adopted by the market. I don't know whether it will be successful, but I do know that this is the type of thing you need to be looking at when considering a new product, especially in the tech space (you're selling an "offer" - not the product itself).
I will use the following post/thread to explain how it works...
----
Shared Hosting Sucks.
When you create a "website", what you're doing is installing a series of software applications onto an Internet-connected computer. The way in which these software applications work is known as a "stack", and the present web has a 3-tier stack (HTTP/Application/Database) (most hosts run LAMP/LEMP):
Courtesy of Cloud66...
Courtesy of RubyGarage...
The "computer" you operate is known as a "server" and is generally operated by a "hosting company" (although there's nothing stopping you running it from your house).
Whilst there are many types of hosting, they ALL use the same technology (a stack as above).
What differs is how they provision the various software applications required to get the server operating. This is where "control panel" software comes in - most prevalent being CPanel, or Plesk.
My goal is to create a new "CPanel", but for the "cloud" VPS market.
-
The problem with CPanel, Plesk et al is they're local software systems.
Local software means that it has to be installed directly onto the system (similar to "desktop" software). Whilst secure, they are not extensible (you can only run 1 server with 1 instance of CPanel).
My solution comes with two immediate benefits to this setup:
--
Why Cloud?
"Cloud" VPS technology is nothing special - the big difference lies in how compute resource is allocated:
Courtesy of HowToGetOnline...
AWS is widely considered the originator of the paradigm, although it's been a thing for a while.
The way it works is simple - a hypervisor is used to create virtualized compute instances across a myriad of physical servers. The "myriad" quotient is the most important element here - "traditional" hosting solutions were always tied to a physical server (hence "shared" hosting -- your account is 1 of 1,000's on a single server).
As seen above, the various ways in which the physical server resource was allocated determined the type of hosting you were using. Most Wordpress websites could be happily run on "shared" hosting - which is why the price for their provision has dropped massively in the past decade.
The price you paid for hosting was determined by how much server capacity you were allocated. A shared hosting account was mixed in with 1,000's of others, making it cheaper to run. A dedicated server was entirely for you, hence the cost.
"Cloud" VPS hosting gives you a virtual server, running across 100's or 1,000's of physical systems. Whilst it can cost more than shared (especially if you consume more resource), the key point is that the cost is NOT tied to physical boxes... but pure compute resource.
This means, among other things, that there is a plethora of opportunity in the apps which can be integrated into this sort of system. People use "web hosting" for Wordpress (NOT for the likes of video/graphics rendering, large-scale calculations, etc)... "cloud" VPS resource has the ability to extend the depth of provision that web-centric services can provide; allowing businesses to integrate a LOT more functionality into their processes (what Wordpress did for the "front-end", it can do for the "back-end").
This is what I want to focus on (explained below).
I believe the key to success - particularly in technology, but in ANY arena - is to have a bold "vision" of what you're hoping to create. Yes, this opens the door to many possibilities & tangents, but if you really want to revolutionize a market, and create HUGE amounts of wealth, this is the type of stuff you need to be doing...
--
Promotion / Demand
The core of all business is demand.
If you can control who needs your product, you will have a chance of monopolizing its supply.
This forms the core of the "blue ocean" ideal which is how all big businesses grow. Since I pivoted into wanting to build a new Microsoft/Google/Oracle in 2011, I have been focused on imbuing this ideal into anything I do.
The "secret" of a "blue ocean" is results (I actually have a post I wrote last year which expounds on this - I will ask MJ for permission to publish it soon).
In other words, you're not selling the "thing", but what the "thing" actually does. Tesla don't sell EV's; they're selling a "better car" (which is "free to drive"). Thus, with this stuff, what I've been focused on is how a system like this would deliver a better result than anything that's come before.
This is what gets you paid.
In terms of this, it is essential that this stuff should NOT be seen as "web hosting".
That ship has long since sailed. There needs to be a "killer app" which justifies the adoption of the solution, and I believe I have it. It's also not an "app". It needs to be a legit business service that some oldtimer CEO will happily pay for. Ukulele music on some shitty video is not what we're going to be doing.
Get 'em paid or get 'em laid...
Product/Solution/Offer
I'll detail the product more specifically when I have further information.
For now, I will explain several core points:
Competition
Obviously, the market has competition already. This is a given.
As mentioned, none of the following services are that appealing to business. They are good pieces of technology, but horrible in terms of offering a reason for companies to adopt (pay for) them.
Regardless, there are issues with each:
Developers aren't my focus; businesses are. Where money flows, I want to get in front of it.
I want to sell this stuff to the local company reliant on warehousing + logistics. I want some shipping business to gain advantage out of it. I want to make sure that whoever ends up using the system is able to see an uptick in sales because of it. That's the level I'm aiming at... whether it gets there is something else entirely (yes, I am fully expecting failure).
--
In case you haven't figured yet - the main reason for making this public is to give me a record of the sales process. I can code (and would consider myself quite good at it)... but I'm not a "coder". I get stuff sold, and this thread is my attempt at - perhaps - recording how it's done (for posterity).
Feel free to follow along. I would have written on a private blog, but the audience is here already.
--
Finally, I do this my way. I'll accept criticism but it has to be legit. If you want to talk to me discreetly, my email is rpeck@frontlineutilities.co.uk. Whilst I'd prefer to keep myself under the radar, I want to grow this year and will have to bite the bullet and become more "public" I think.
However, I feel the time is now right to do it. Probably should put it in the INSIDERS' forum, but don't see the value to be honest. If I'm going to get copied, I'll get copied.
--
I have been working on a series of new innovations over the past 24 months. Most of my money has been tied up in these innovations, and I now feel it appropriate to highlight progress.
As with all things in business, the goal is sales. Business is sales and everything you do needs to contribute in some way to their continued growth. In the capitalistic system, you're rewarded for growth (not innovation)... which is why most companies are brain-dead.
Whilst innovation is obviously a bonafide way to achieve growth, it doesn't get you paid on its own. You still need to create a valid offer, provide buyers with an obvious benefit, and generally work on doing something that people are willing to pay for. This I hope to highlight with this thread.
--
The product I've been working on is a "cloud" VPS deployment system.
It is a tool which allows you to provision, manage and extend the use of "cloud" VPS servers running on the likes of Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Engine, DigitalOcean and others. I have extensive experience using all of these platforms, with my DigitalOcean account being ~3 years' old on its own...
In terms of the product, what I am going to explain in this post (and likely thread) is the process of creating a new solution and getting it adopted by the market. I don't know whether it will be successful, but I do know that this is the type of thing you need to be looking at when considering a new product, especially in the tech space (you're selling an "offer" - not the product itself).
I will use the following post/thread to explain how it works...
----
Shared Hosting Sucks.
When you create a "website", what you're doing is installing a series of software applications onto an Internet-connected computer. The way in which these software applications work is known as a "stack", and the present web has a 3-tier stack (HTTP/Application/Database) (most hosts run LAMP/LEMP):
Courtesy of Cloud66...
Courtesy of RubyGarage...
The "computer" you operate is known as a "server" and is generally operated by a "hosting company" (although there's nothing stopping you running it from your house).
Whilst there are many types of hosting, they ALL use the same technology (a stack as above).
What differs is how they provision the various software applications required to get the server operating. This is where "control panel" software comes in - most prevalent being CPanel, or Plesk.
My goal is to create a new "CPanel", but for the "cloud" VPS market.
-
The problem with CPanel, Plesk et al is they're local software systems.
Local software means that it has to be installed directly onto the system (similar to "desktop" software). Whilst secure, they are not extensible (you can only run 1 server with 1 instance of CPanel).
My solution comes with two immediate benefits to this setup:
- Web-Centric (platform agnostic) -- my skill is centered around "web" centric applications. Allows us to provision servers across 1,000's of different accounts. The downside to this is that it will be centralized, meaning that it's vulnerable to attack or downtime. The upside is that it's centrally updated, completely extensible AND (importantly) can run from a single API (think Stripe).
The benefit of the API is important - it means the provisioning, management and integration of "cloud" servers can be externalized into applications. Say you had a system which managed Wordpress... you could integrate your account into the platform, and boom you have a system which works on cloud VPS without the need to provision + manage servers. Further, if you can make the system a legit part of the business process, you've won.
- Software ONLY -- both an adv + dis - we will control zero hosting. The user is responsible for providing their own hosting accounts, through which we will ONLY manage their software stack (above). The benefit to this is that it allows us to track servers across ALL VPS providers (not possible presently), as well as giving people the ability to integrate a more extensive array of hardware into their fleets.
The biggest benefit to this is that we get to compete at the deploy level. As mentioned, it's a race-to-the-bottom with the hardware (you'd be an idiot to compete with AWS), but being able to provision and manage a wide array of servers has mileage.
--
Why Cloud?
"Cloud" VPS technology is nothing special - the big difference lies in how compute resource is allocated:
Courtesy of HowToGetOnline...
AWS is widely considered the originator of the paradigm, although it's been a thing for a while.
The way it works is simple - a hypervisor is used to create virtualized compute instances across a myriad of physical servers. The "myriad" quotient is the most important element here - "traditional" hosting solutions were always tied to a physical server (hence "shared" hosting -- your account is 1 of 1,000's on a single server).
As seen above, the various ways in which the physical server resource was allocated determined the type of hosting you were using. Most Wordpress websites could be happily run on "shared" hosting - which is why the price for their provision has dropped massively in the past decade.
The price you paid for hosting was determined by how much server capacity you were allocated. A shared hosting account was mixed in with 1,000's of others, making it cheaper to run. A dedicated server was entirely for you, hence the cost.
"Cloud" VPS hosting gives you a virtual server, running across 100's or 1,000's of physical systems. Whilst it can cost more than shared (especially if you consume more resource), the key point is that the cost is NOT tied to physical boxes... but pure compute resource.
This means, among other things, that there is a plethora of opportunity in the apps which can be integrated into this sort of system. People use "web hosting" for Wordpress (NOT for the likes of video/graphics rendering, large-scale calculations, etc)... "cloud" VPS resource has the ability to extend the depth of provision that web-centric services can provide; allowing businesses to integrate a LOT more functionality into their processes (what Wordpress did for the "front-end", it can do for the "back-end").
This is what I want to focus on (explained below).
I believe the key to success - particularly in technology, but in ANY arena - is to have a bold "vision" of what you're hoping to create. Yes, this opens the door to many possibilities & tangents, but if you really want to revolutionize a market, and create HUGE amounts of wealth, this is the type of stuff you need to be doing...
--
Promotion / Demand
The core of all business is demand.
If you can control who needs your product, you will have a chance of monopolizing its supply.
This forms the core of the "blue ocean" ideal which is how all big businesses grow. Since I pivoted into wanting to build a new Microsoft/Google/Oracle in 2011, I have been focused on imbuing this ideal into anything I do.
The "secret" of a "blue ocean" is results (I actually have a post I wrote last year which expounds on this - I will ask MJ for permission to publish it soon).
In other words, you're not selling the "thing", but what the "thing" actually does. Tesla don't sell EV's; they're selling a "better car" (which is "free to drive"). Thus, with this stuff, what I've been focused on is how a system like this would deliver a better result than anything that's come before.
This is what gets you paid.
In terms of this, it is essential that this stuff should NOT be seen as "web hosting".
That ship has long since sailed. There needs to be a "killer app" which justifies the adoption of the solution, and I believe I have it. It's also not an "app". It needs to be a legit business service that some oldtimer CEO will happily pay for. Ukulele music on some shitty video is not what we're going to be doing.
Get 'em paid or get 'em laid...
- Enhanced processes - system needs to be presented to business owners/operators as a means to make more profit. Quite what this entails is yet to be seen, but that's the market -- I'm more eager to talk to factories than some shitty "Wordpress agency". Companies like Unilever.
- Sold in physical box - adamant on this although most will call BS. If I'm targeting business-owners (many of whom don't even have social media), I want something they can quantify value against. It's a similar deal with Antivirus software -- boxed software is the shit because it gives them something tactile to play with. It's actually a strategy Frank Kern made up called the "Big Ol' Box Of Stuff".
The other MASSIVE deal with a physically boxed product is that people are buying the product (NOT the "hosting"). Hosting isn't valuable... but if you have a boxed "widget", you can EASILY make it $99.95, $295.95 or even $595.95, depending on what it's meant to do.
- Brand backing - The product is developed and sold by the company I founded almost 10 YEARS ago (Frontline Utilities LTD). Yes, the business took a massive hit when I put all my money into a product, but I weathered the storm and kept it alive. Now I can legitimately say it's been trading for a decade (100% true).
- BOLD plays - I'm not bothered whether this is majorly successful or not, but I'll tell you now that I'm not here to play silly games. It's different here in the UK to the US; less opportunity and things move slower. But I'll tell you this - I'm here to win and win I will. This isn't some brain-dead blog/product. I want to sell into governments if the opportunity is there.
Product/Solution/Offer
I'll detail the product more specifically when I have further information.
For now, I will explain several core points:
- SSH Powered
The core of the product is the ability to provision servers.
This means installing & maintaining the various software packages the server requires to operate (listed above). This is not that big of a deal, but ensuring the server runs 100% smoothly, without glitches etc, is. Fortunately, I have not only a strong retinue of experience in this capacity, but I also have a large number of configuration options which I can deploy to the servers themselves...
One of the best parts of CPanel is its rock-steady ability to keep a server running (and allow you to manage the various resources it may have such as domains etc from a central command panel). As mentioned, it only works on physical servers and is tied to the server itself.
The solution I've been working towards works on its own. It's a web service (similar to Stripe etc) which uses SSH to provision servers for users. Not the most efficient way, but the most robust.
The system connects to users' VPS instances, installs applications which are required, updates ones presently installed, and automatically ensures that Apache/NGinx as well as other configuration is working correctly.
- App Extensions
This will be the killer. If we can somehow create an extensible platform through which other applications can integrate with the service, it will win.
For example, perhaps you want to have a warehousing system that integrates with some CRM system, or a logistics provider or whatever. The system should be able to integrate data from third party sources, and manage how they interface with the various servers.
I don't know how this will happen, and it certainly wouldn't be part of an MVC -- but it's essential to get through to the businesses I want to target. If I can create some system which allows a business to run smoother, it will achieve adoption.
- Deployment Pipelines
Basically how Heroku works -- take inbound GIT repo's and have them deploy to X number of servers. This depends on a number of criteria, such as having a valid GIT repo set up on the server (which I can do thanks to having SSH access), and the ability to build the applications properly.
Heroku uses its "buildpacks" feature to do this (as well as building apps on its own server). Because my service will manage many different servers, I will need to create a solution which can be deployed as required. I think I know how this needs to be handled.
Ultimately, a "buildpack" is a simple bash-level script called by the git post-receive hook (somehow, Heroku has bound it to pre-receive). The script will take the inputted GIT repo, determine the necessary "buildpack" based on various patterns, and install the dependencies as required.
The difference with my solution will come from how the user determines how their "build" will happen. Because we have granular control of the server, we may be able to introduce some sort of "recipe" type service (basically what capistrano does). This would allow the likes of Wordpress to be backed-up at the push of a button etc.
- Platform-Agnostic Provision
The ability to provision servers on "all" platforms. Because it uses SSH to connect to the servers, this should not be an issue (unless the daemon's IP gets blocked).
I can explain this further, but the core of it is that the user gets to choose where their servers are hosted. Maybe they want a DB server on Rackspace, but their web front-end running in DigitalOcean. This service would allow for that - primarily because it's exclusive of the process (rather than inclusive as in the case of CPanel).
- Endpoint Manager
Along with the app extensions, an "endpoint manager" needs to be created.
This is an ode to my programming experience, and should fix digital delivery for a HUGE number of businesses -- rather than focusing on "web pages" or even "web services", emphasize the deployment of endpoints.
Endpoints exist both at the domain level and application. They're the equivalent of email, subdomains and addon-domains etc - allowing users to "access" your compute resource.
Whilst this stuff is quite elementary, one thing that most people have no concept about is how "endpoints" work at an application level. For example, if you're running an eCommerce store, you only need ~3 "endpoints" for it to work -- /products, /cart & /order.
Everything you "see" on these endpoints is dependent on the type of data you're serving.
Competition
Obviously, the market has competition already. This is a given.
As mentioned, none of the following services are that appealing to business. They are good pieces of technology, but horrible in terms of offering a reason for companies to adopt (pay for) them.
Regardless, there are issues with each:
- Heroku (founded 2007, exited to Salesforce for $212m+)
Heroku is similar to what I'm looking at doing, except it's built on top of AWS only.
It's a pure PaaS play - basically allows you to push GIT repo's to their infrastructure and their system will create a "build" of the app, deploy it and have it running on an EC2 instance.
The problem with Heroku is several-fold:
- They are locked into AWS (no provision for other services).
- Beyond their free tier, too expensive ($50/mo in many cases).
- Unable to manage servers individually ("x.herokuapp.com" domain always present).
- No flexibility in server deployment (apart from "buildpacks", no choice of server use).
- "App" = "Sever" (no way to manage individual server resource).
- Nanobox
Very good technology but poor delivery - targeting developers to try and get them to use the system to deploy large scale apps. Probably more akin to Chef/Puppet than others.
- Containerized (no individual server management)
- Inaccessible ("request demo" etc - instantly makes ineffectual)
- Very good at what they do, but not that accessible if you're not in the "developer" bracket
- Not known too well outside US
- Cloudways
Who the f*** is that guy? Highly focused on Wordpress; whilst their system works well, it's nothing that I would consider that big of a deal.
Further, they're billed as a "hosting" service. As explained, that Pinata has been beaten to death already. I'm interested in opening the door to more enriched business processes.
Developers aren't my focus; businesses are. Where money flows, I want to get in front of it.
I want to sell this stuff to the local company reliant on warehousing + logistics. I want some shipping business to gain advantage out of it. I want to make sure that whoever ends up using the system is able to see an uptick in sales because of it. That's the level I'm aiming at... whether it gets there is something else entirely (yes, I am fully expecting failure).
--
In case you haven't figured yet - the main reason for making this public is to give me a record of the sales process. I can code (and would consider myself quite good at it)... but I'm not a "coder". I get stuff sold, and this thread is my attempt at - perhaps - recording how it's done (for posterity).
Feel free to follow along. I would have written on a private blog, but the audience is here already.
--
Finally, I do this my way. I'll accept criticism but it has to be legit. If you want to talk to me discreetly, my email is rpeck@frontlineutilities.co.uk. Whilst I'd prefer to keep myself under the radar, I want to grow this year and will have to bite the bullet and become more "public" I think.
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