Why CozaHost?

For us, life started developing large scale client server (enterprise) systems for multi-national corporations in the early nineties.  Back then it was quite a struggle to convince the entrenched old guard that mainframe systems are not the be all and end all of information technology.  We "evangelized" that PCs and client/server systems were not toys and not a communist plot either.  Much of the time it was an uphill battle.  We could not understand how experienced IT people simply could not see the writing on the wall and the obvious benefits of moving away from a completely centralized IT architecture.

Then, in 1998, the internet arrived in South Africa (and the rest of the world).  It soon became clear to us that the internet will change the way we do business (and live) in a fundamental and permanent way.  We were convinced that the Internet is way, way, waaaayyy more interesting and important then sliced bread.  As importantly, we realized that the internet represents another fundamental paradigm shift - in the same way that client server systems was a paradigm shift from centralized mainframe systems.

In fact, the internet is like the invention of the wheel  - for the 21st century.  It changes everything. Everything.

So, with a little leap of faith we founded CozaHost in 1999 with the realization that most businesses could not get the help and expert advice needed to successfully use the internet to grow: exactly the same trend we witnessed in client/server software development:  the hardware and programming software is relatively cheap, but it is of absolutely no use to anyone unless it is implemented effectively.

We understood that the internet is a sophisticated tool - but not the next silver bullet to solve all business problems. 

It is a powerful technology that enables business - just like the telephone, then fax machine and later cell phones did. 

Put another way: the Intenet is like a huge spade - but our customers need holes.

Time for us to grab the spade and make some holes!

To this day (3,265 days later) we still find it strange that most ISPs have no idea at all on how to help their customers do business on the internet.  Sure, they could supply the technology like web servers, email services and the like - but as to how to get an internet visitor to buy a product - no clue.

On the bandwagon...

Anyone can go buy server hardware, monitoring software, routers, firewalls and all the technical paraphernalia required to call yourself an ISP.  In fact, the guy living next to you can easily set up an ISP in his garage - using exactly the same technology as that employed by multi-national companies!

The majority of web hosting companies are nothing more than one or two people reselling services for someone else - they don't own their own infrastructure, bandwidth or even technical support mechanisms.  Your web site ends up on some unknown server elsewhere in the world at the mercy of a company you don't know and have no business relationship with!

On the other end of the scale, huge multi-nationals sell web hosting to hundreds of thousands of people at a time - leveraging economies of scale until their clients turn blue (and red) in their faces.

But not...

This left us with a problem:  How can we do what we love and not turn into what we hate?

We figured that, by focusing on what people really need, we can have our cake and eat it.  "All" we need to do is tie technology, technical expertise and business sense into a single product offering.

So, we put our money where our mouths were: we created CozaHost and built the business to be profitable within one year - using nothing other than internet marketing.  That's right: no adds in the paper, no radio spots - nothing other than free internet marketing.  We figured that if we could do this, we could help our own customers do the same: after all running a technical infrastructure is easy compared to making sales and paying salaries at the end of the month! :-)

We own our own server racks (in South Africa and USA) and we have our own fixed line network in South Africa - in other words: a real web hosting company, not just a front for someone else.  Currently (2008) we run all our services in the USA and our South African network lies dormant - waiting for Escom and Telkom to improve service levels to a point where one can reliably and cost effectively run an internet business.  (Perhaps the telkom/electricity problems are a blessing in disguise: our clients are hosted at the very center of the internet - in the largest and most sophisticated data center in the world.)

Don't take your clients for granted

But how do we ensure that we maintain this focus on service supported by business driven technology?

Simple really: we don't take our clients for granted.  We don't use contracts to tie down our clients so that, after the honeymoon is over, we can relax secure in the knowledge that: no matter how much our service stinks, our clients are bound hand and foot to stay with us.

Like in a good marriage, we have to romance our clients each and every day! :-)

And as for growing our own business?

While the "big guns" in the industry try to get as many as possible customers on their network to satisfy their shareholders, we try to keep our customer base as small as possible. We don't have to employ technicians that neither know nor care about how to build a profitable business on the internet.

Just think for a moment: what kind of service can an ISP profitably provide you with if they charge you R 20.00 per month for web hosting?  And what if they have 10 000 customers?  How important do you think your business is to them?

I'm sure you are asking how we do this in practise? How do we compete on service AND price, remain selective and stay in business since 1999.  What do we know that our competitors don't?

Part of the answer lies in the skills we gained many years ago, and the rest lies in ethics and philosophy.  Allow me to explain:

We developed very sophisticated software systems for large organizations - software to solve problems ranging from customer care to controlling robotic manufacturing systems in real time.  Our philosophy (in part) is that every repetitive task should be automated - with the understanding that automation is fallible.  We are qualified to do this thanks to our experience in high-end software engineering. 

So, our (continuing)  objective is to design and build very sophisticated and reliable systems to watch and repair other systems: thereby relieving the load on the human operator.  Because we design and build these systems ourselves, they are unique to Cozahost and they enable us to provide a level of support unheard of in our industry.  Our human staff now look after our human clients - our systems look after our infrastructure.  Consider the advantages of an automated system noticing a spam attack on a mail server at 03h00 on a Sunday morning and automatically adjusting rules to eliminate the treat.  Or think about a Microsoft operating patch causing an incompatibility problem with a mail server and our automated system noticing the problem and restarting the server with virtually no downtime.

Imagine the advantages of communicating the status of all our critical services to our clients in real time and automatically?

The bottom line

We stay small and smart.  We stay profitable so that we can be in business for a long-long time.

We believe that, in the end, common sense will prevail. :-)

Would you like to speak to us?

I'm sure you have questions or comments about us and our products - and how we can help you become successful online.  Please contact us, and let's chat for a few minutes.

(Section 51 manual of the PAIA act of 2000...)