The Hosting Market
Since I work at Gartner, I use Gartner’s hosting definitions when I talk about the market. We classify the hosting market into four segments: Colocation, Shared Hosting, Simple Managed Hosting, and Complex Managed Hosting. Colocation is unmanaged colocation (“ping, power, pipe”). Shared Hosting is mass-market shared-infrastructure hosting. The Simple Managed segment is typified by management only up to the OS layer, and simple architectures (usually just 1 or 2 servers). The Complex Managed segment is everything else. Cloud infrastructure services span the latter three categories, depending on what they are.
Sample Colocation Providers:
- Equinix (carrier-neutral data centers)
- AT&T (carrier)
- SAVVIS (has a network but doesn’t require its use)
- Peak 10 (regional provider)
- Hurricane Electric (local provider)
Sample Shared Hosting Providers:
- Yahoo! (small business portal)
- GoDaddy (domain registrar)
- 1&1 Internet (shared hosting-focused provider)
- NTT Verio (mass-market hosting, including wholesaling)
Sample Simple Managed Hosting Providers:
- The Planet
- Rackspace (its “Managed” line of business)
- Hostway
Sample Complex Managed Hosting Providers:
My core Gartner notes on the subject (you’ll need to be a client to see these, sorry):
- Market Overview
- Market Forecast
- Magic Quadrant (vendor rating)

blogs said
Wonderful ideas. I always carry out your suggestions and apply them.
7 Hosting Market Sites | Best Hosting Companies said
[...] The Hosting Market CloudPundit: Massive-Scale ComputingMay 3, 2010 We classify the hosting market into four segments: Colocation, Shared Hosting, Simple Managed [...]
8 Hosting Market Sites | Best Hosting Companies said
[...] The Hosting Market CloudPundit: Massive-Scale ComputingMay 3, 2010 We classify the hosting market into four segments: Colocation, Shared Hosting, Simple Managed [...]
7 Hosting Market Sites | Best Hosting Companies said
[...] The Hosting Market CloudPundit: Massive-Scale ComputingDec 20, 2011 We classify the hosting market into four segments: Colocation, Shared Hosting, Simple Managed [...]
9 Hosting Market Sites | Best Hosting Companies said
[...] The Hosting Market CloudPundit: Massive-Scale ComputingDec 20, 2011 We classify the hosting market into four segments: Colocation, Shared Hosting, Simple Managed [...]
Blog Domain Hosting » 9 Hosting Market Sites said
[...] The Hosting Market CloudPundit: Massive-Scale ComputingMay 3, 2010 Since I work at Gartner, I use Gartner's hosting definitions when I talk about the market. We classify the [...]