Achieving Balance in Unpredictability

Unpredictability

Interview by Brian Shepard, DevelopersNetwork.com Inc.

Since its inception in 1994, Cybercon has managed to successfully navigate the unpredictable waters of the Internet service industry. In the ever-changing technological climate, this company has come to realize that it is not the ability to predict the future that spells success, but the knowledge that achieving balance between customer focus, real world experience and long range vision will be the factor that drives Cybercon to the forefront of innovation and Internet service provision. Cybercon's Public Relations Manager, Jeff Florida, understands the need for balance in the dynamic Internet service industry. "Since our inception, we have listened to what our customers were looking for, and found ways to offer those services to them at a price they can afford and in a way we can easily support." explained Florida when asked why Cybercon has been so successful.

When Cybercon began providing Internet services in 1994, the demand was by small and medium sized businesses for an online presence in the form of brochure-type web pages. As customer demand grew and changed as technology advanced, the company grew and changed with it, continually maintaining the right balance for the market. Today, Cybercon is at the forefront of providing high-end web, e-commerce, database and application hosting services. They have come to specialize in dedicated Internet server hosting and in management services for Linux, Windows NT, FreeBSD, SDDI, and Solaris servers; Oracle, mSQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL database applications; C, C++, Java, Perl, PHP3, ASP and Cold Fusion programming. They have grown from providing services to small businesses to handing a broad client base that includes businesses of all sizes - from home-based to multi-billion dollar public companies. Cybercon boasts a hosting client list of over 800 dedicated servers receiving over 5 billion hits a month. Jeff Florida explains Cybercon's success and outlines its vision for the future…

DevelopersNetwork: Explain why your company is stable during the current economic conditions.

Florida: Cybercon has remained stable because of good customer service and a stable, expanding customer base. Some of these same customers have been with us since our inception in 1994. We are one of the few profitable Internet companies around today, and have been since 1996. Making balanced decisions based on good business has allowed us to remain in a great financial position even through a stalled economy. The current economic conditions have caused our competition to struggle and have lead to industry consolidation. Businesses today are looking for financially stable companies like Cybercon to provide a fast, reliable network and to guarantee that their online operations are reliable, scalable, and performing at the highest possible level.

DevelopersNetwork: How do your server collocation and dedicated server services differ from your competition?

Florida: With Cybercon, you receive three levels of service from one source. We offer low cost unmanaged services where the customer wants to take full control over their services and may only require a remote hand from time to time. We also can be beneficial to the customer who knows how to manage their servers, but needs help with more complex issues in order to achieve high-availability. Cybercon's staff has expertise in firewalls, VPN, load balancing, data storage and other services that can improve web site reliability and help you to become more efficient and competitive online. The third level of service a customer can expect from Cybercon is total server management. We can create a service agreement with the customer according to their specifications and manage their entire network.

DevelopersNetwork: What differentiates Cybercon's data center from others?

Florida: When looking at Cybercon, you can physically see the things every data center should have… A back up diesel generator, a data center Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), a pre-action fire protection system, complete environmental control including redundant indoor cooling systems and multi-point security checks, including bio-metric readers, for data center access.

What differentiates Cybercon's data center from others is the fact we take advantage of being located in a telecom hotel. We have access to multiple top brand backbones and have implemented BGP routing to fully utilize those connections. Our data center receives Internet connectivity directly through these backbones through rich fiber channels, such as a GigE and an OC48. Being located in a telecom hotel also gives us the ability to expand not only our Internet connection quickly, but also our physical space. We currently occupy 22,000 square feet with easy access to more than 150,000 square feet if necessary.

Lastly, because we manage our own data center with 24x7 on-site staff, you also have remote access to your server 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are several things that can not be taken care of remotely, including physical upgrades or immediate replacement of failed hardware. Our staff works around the clock to bring you the best customer service available.

DevelopersNetwork: How does this affect consumers once they have chosen a company for their hosting requirements?

Florida: The main thing is the speed at which their sites will download. If they have not wisely chosen a hosting provider, then the speed at which their data can be accessed may be limited. They can purchase the fastest processor, and stick an insane amount of RAM in their web server, but if their host has only one Internet connection and it happens to be a T3 line which is near 100% capacity, their site is going to suffer.

Again, if they have not done their research and choose the wrong hosting provider, they may need to pay for additional technical assistance or may get a recording asking them to call back during normal business hours when they really need help. For some companies this may not be a big deal. For them, dealing with the server downtime may be worth having the lowest possible monthly cost.

DevelopersNetwork: Who is a typical customer?

Florida: A typical Cybercon customer can be anyone running an application or web site that demands 100% uptime and 24x7 technical expertise. Our customers range from someone needing a place to host a simple web site to someone looking for complex hosting, including DotComs, Web hosts, online gamers, media streaming. The size of our customer is not as important as the application they are relying on for their business. Our services can be customized to fit any budget. Our services include highly available web servers, database servers, firewalls, load balancers, data storage, virtual private networks and more. By utilizing Cybercon's infrastructure and technical expertise, businesses can be more productive, reduce cost and stay focused on their core business.

DevelopersNetwork: Who are some of your high profile clients and what services do they receive?

Florida: Cybercon has signed non-disclosure agreements with most of our high profile customers, but we can say that there are a few on the Jupiter "Media Metrix Top 500" list. One Cybercon customer places in the top 20 on the "Media Metrix U.S. Top 50". These customers receive the same services every Cybercon customer is offered.

DevelopersNetwork: What are some of the key partnerships that have been established to improve and expand your service offering?

Florida: We have a few key partnerships with VeriSign (formerly Network Solutions), NetScreen Technologies, F5 Networks, Microsoft, and Oracle. Each of these partnerships allows us to offer an expanded number of services. These are all trusted leaders in the industry and have extended special services and support to Cybercon as a business partner. VeriSign allows us to increase the speed at which we can register new domains and transfer existing ones. NetScreen provides Cybercon with firewall, VPN and traffic management solutions. F5 delivers Load Balancing and High Availability Integration Solutions to our customers. Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies, and Oracle is the world's largest enterprise software company. Both companies give us added support and technology that we can in turn pass along to our customers. We have developed partnerships with many other companies, but the above-mentioned help our customers greatly stay ahead of the competition.

DevelopersNetwork: What technical advancements have been made for data centers in the past 1-2 years?

Florida: Many businesses have been reluctant in the past to outsource their mission critical operations, but that is starting to change due to technological advancements in the last couple of years. BGP routing continues to improve; making it possible to deliver content even faster than before and making better use of a data center's multiple Internet connections. Load balancing has also allowed us to guarantee a highly available application or web site by directing traffic around a faulty server and spreading the load among those available. Internet security has also reached a point where we can create a Virtual Private Network between two points, making the connection between the data center and an enterprise as secure as a dedicated line. We have to convince businesses that an outsourced operation is secure, more reliable and performs better than if they hosted everything in-house.

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