Comments on: A Little Philosophical Thought: The SoftLayer Family Tree http://blog.softlayer.com/2008/a-little-philosophical-thought-the-softlayer-family-tree/ A Behind the Scenes Look at the Best Hosting Provider in the World Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:20:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: jeffatrackaid http://blog.softlayer.com/2008/a-little-philosophical-thought-the-softlayer-family-tree/comment-page-1/#comment-524 jeffatrackaid Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:09:17 +0000 http://theinnerlayer.softlayer.com/?p=153#comment-524 The client/customer model for the hosting industry is often a poor descriptor of what underlying operations. Even the most simple of online operations involves dozens of companies. I prefer to think of the hosting industry as a complex ecosystem - with many customers and providers. A case .... We (rackAID + Softlayer) have a mutual client that runs a flash video game site. This site requires many participants to assure its continued success. There is the site owner, who's creativity and programming skills result in millions of flash games being played every day. There are the site visitors, who help pay for the site through their ad clicks. There are the advertising networks that simplify the process of ad placement. There is the IT manager (us) that assure the servers and systems run smoothly. There is the IT infrastructure provider (SoftLayer) that delivers the hardware. And behind each of these players is a host of other players in non-technical roles such as financing, banking, legal services, etc. So there is a huge ecosystem of participants just to let someone play that 3 minute flash game at lunch. In this example, you may think the person playing the game is the ultimate customer, but they are also a supplier - a supplier of clicks that generates the revenue which let flash developers produce games and employ the services of companies like ours. The client/customer model for the hosting industry is often a poor descriptor of what underlying operations. Even the most simple of online operations involves dozens of companies. I prefer to think of the hosting industry as a complex ecosystem – with many customers and providers.

A case ….

We (rackAID + Softlayer) have a mutual client that runs a flash video game site. This site requires many participants to assure its continued success. There is the site owner, who’s creativity and programming skills result in millions of flash games being played every day. There are the site visitors, who help pay for the site through their ad clicks. There are the advertising networks that simplify the process of ad placement. There is the IT manager (us) that assure the servers and systems run smoothly. There is the IT infrastructure provider (SoftLayer) that delivers the hardware. And behind each of these players is a host of other players in non-technical roles such as financing, banking, legal services, etc. So there is a huge ecosystem of participants just to let someone play that 3 minute flash game at lunch.

In this example, you may think the person playing the game is the ultimate customer, but they are also a supplier – a supplier of clicks that generates the revenue which let flash developers produce games and employ the services of companies like ours.

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