Yesterday, I posted an introduction to Hermetic Hosting, and talked a little about the history and the plan in general. If you haven’t read that post, take a gander. That previous post talks about Phase Zero of Operation Resurrection, the re-introduction of Hermetic Hosting as a niche hosting service for the esoteric community.

Now I’m going to talk about Phase One of Hermetic Hosting, which is what happens after the new server is up and running, and projected hosting plans in specific. You may be wondering what kind of hosting accounts will be offered, what features are included, and how much they will cost.

 

Here is what I’m thinking about and currently plan to offer. There are several web hosting levels based on, if you wish, archetypes of use:

• Starter – $7.95/mo
• Standard – $15.95/mo
• Power – $24.95/mo
• Economy – $3.95/mo
• Luminary – No Charge
• Sponsored – Special
• Custom – Special

 

All plans include the same extensive functionality. Each is differentiated by the amount of space and bandwidth available. For economy and luminary hosting, there are special qualifications. 

Bandwidth and disk space are right-sized to the needs of each target client. The term “right-sized” means that our accounts include more disk space and bandwidth than will be needed by the customers in that target group.

We also offer transition support for clients moving from existing services, including entirely managed migration, for those non-technical clients needing that level of personalized technical support.

Our projected shared web-hosting services have all the buzzwords and features. In summary, our service is reliable, secure and highly configurable; suitable for a wide range of clients from individuals who are just learning to put together their first site to the professional website developer looking to place their own clients with a superior hosting service.

 

Projected features include:

Robust, Enterprise-class Infrastructure:
Deployed on a modern, scalable and robust platform, Redundant off-site international name servers, Redundant off-site international incoming mail spool

Secure and Safe:
SSL certificates, Secure e-mail through SSL, SPOP, Secure IMAP and Authenticated S-SMTP, Secure file transfer through SFTP and SSH, Administration interfaces are protected by SSL

Full-featured Email:
Unlimited email addresses (each available through both POP and IMAP), Unlimited email forwards, Webmail, Auto-responders, Authenticated and secure SMTP (outgoing mail server), Unlimited mailing lists through Mailman, Spam Assassin
(Anti-spam feature), SPF records and Domain Keys (Anti-spam), Import addresses or forwards from a CSV or Excel file, Filter email at the account level or user level, Modify MX entries (use Gmail, etc)



Website Management:
SSL certificates, Unlimited add-on domains, Unlimited subdomains (example.yourdomain.com), Unlimited parked domains, Unlimited FTP accounts and use, Webdisk
File Manager, Disk Usage Viewer, Password protect directories, Redirect pages or directories, Self-serve full or partial backups, Customized error pages, Frontpage 2000/2002 Extensions



Sitebuilders and Tutorials:
RVSitebuilder, Getting Started Setup Wizard, Video tutorials for control panel, Backup Wizard



Traffic Statistics:
AWStats,
Webalizer Stats, Bandwidth usage graphs, Raw Apache web Access and Error logs, View latest visitors



Pre-installed Programs:
Wordpress 
& 2 more, phpBB, SMF (forums), osCommerce, CubeCart, Zen Cart (shopping carts), Drupal, Joomla, Mambo
(CMS) & 8 more content management systems, and more (powered by Fantastico)


Developer-friendly Features:
PHP 4 and 5, PHP Pear packages, Unlimited MySQL 5 databases, phpMyAdmin, CGI-Bin, Perl modules, Server side includes (SSI),
 cURL, ionCube Loader, GD, Image Magick
, Ruby on Rails, RubyGems

Advanced Web Features:
Hotlink protection, Define mime types and add, Apache handlers, Deny IPs, Cron jobs, htaccess & rewrite engine

 

Starter Hosting — “Water”

2 GB space
50 GB bandwidth
Same great features
$7.95/mo

A popular package for small sites: great value with room to grow.
This package is targeted primarily at individuals and small organizations.

 

Standard Hosting — “Air”

5 GB space
125 GB bandwidth
Same great features
$15.95/mo

This is the plan that’s “just right” for mid-size sites.
This package is primarily targeted at small businesses.

 

Power Hosting — “Fire”

10 GB space
250 GB bandwidth
Same great features
$24.95/mo

Perfect for larger sites or those with multimedia content like videos.
This package is primarily targeted at larger businesses and power users.

 

Economy Hosting — “Earth”

1 GB space
25 GB bandwidth
Same great features
$3.95/mo

Typically, clients looking to host inexpensively have been force to use a free hosting service that places obtrusive ads over their content. At Hermetic Hosting there are no ads, not even on our economy account. And, this account, while surprisingly inexpensive, includes all the secure, robust and green features of our other accounts. All the features are the same, just the disk and bandwidth are right-sized.

Economy hosting will be targeted at two demographic groups: Non-profit and Fraternal. For these target groups, economy hosting is intended to get people up and running with reliable and affordable start-up service that they would upgrade later to one of the regular accounts when ready.

 

Non-profit

The first is non-profit economy hosting. This special plan is reserved for sites that have a public service mission, such as homeless shelters, environmental groups, health advocacy groups, etc, who would otherwise be unable to afford web hosting.

Non-profit Qualification

There are three criteria: 1) Are you a non-profit, social service agency, or school? 2) Is your organization’s mission to serve the public good? 3) Can your organization not afford the regular web hosting rates?

If you can answer yes to all three of the above questions, than you qualify for the non-profit rate. 501(c)(3) status is not required.

Non-profit Disqualification

Sites that are for personal use, hobby groups, and other organizations that do not have a public service component do not qualify. While these types of clients may not “make a profit”, they do not qualify as “non-profit” for the purpose of this plan. This plan is for those serving the public good, who otherwise would not be able to afford our quality web hosting, as a way of saying thank you for their service to the common good and enabling them to reach their philanthropic goals.

Fraternal

The second is fraternal economy hosting. The criteria for this plan are that the group is a fraternal organization or the person is a member of OTO or AA who needs to start out small, or has been a supporter of the Hermetic Library.

 

Luminary Hosting — “Æthyr”

Luminaries may wish to be included in The Hermetic Library using a managed hosting service, where they do not have direct control over their content. This is the status quo. Luminaries offer their content for inclusion in The Hermetic Library, in exchange for free managed hosting. This offers the luminary exposure to the significant audience that comes to Hermetic.com and The Hermetic Library seeking information. What The Hermetic Library gets is high quality content for the collection, which in turn drives more traffic to the site, which in turn offers more brand exposure and reach without the expense of advertising.

Flexible limitations, but completely managed by The Hermetic Library
No charge/Quid pro quo

 

Sponsored — “Philosopher’s Stone”

Several standard accounts will be granted on a philanthropic-basis, in exchange for free advertising or in order to become an event sponsor to raise brand awareness. These leverage our low overhead to create brand awareness in situations not otherwise available to any marketing initiatives.

Limitations based on the account offered
No charge/Quid pro quo

 

Custom Accounts & Services — “Elixir of Life”

Customers sometimes need special configurations and features, and Hermetic Hosting, Inc. has the expertise and infrastructure to create these special product offerings. Perhaps a customer needs a private USENET discussion server, a private Key Server for public encryption keys, or some another specialized implementation, and we can create a custom order for these services.

The final plan is for special product development, which will be done on a consulting basis when necessary. By structuring custom product development on a consulting basis, I can ensure that I do not spend time creating labor-intensive custom plans without securing equally custom and appropriate fees. Typically, custom accounts will be developed in coordination with external consultants, who are paid on a contingency basis or in an income-sharing structure; which leverages the extensive professional technical and design network of Hermetic Hosting and its principles. This particular plan is likely to be a rare one, but I wanted to contemplate something for the future.

 

So, now you’ve read the previous introduction, and now you know more specifics about what kinds of services Hermetic Hosting will offer.

Whether you want to be part of the initial 10-20 founding early adopters who will commit to being part of Phase Zero, or you wait until the service is completely up and running and join during Phase One; you should consider Hermetic Hosting as a partner in your project. I’d sure like to be of service, and hope you’ll be part of the project.

I’ve got more to write more about Hermetic Hosting, and some very special offers for people willing to help Hermetic Hosting get off to a great start, in the coming days. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, comments or concerns; or, you know, if you want to join in Project Resurrection!