Where abouts do you see the hosting industry moving in lets say 5 years, 10 years and more?

Over the last 5 years I have seen hosting be easier to keep stable with the increasing demands of the clients websites.

I see in the next few years that more stability will be added, more tools to track down problems, log IP's as events to make finding things easier.

I have read on other forums that some think that the webhosting industry will come to an end because everyone will host their own web sites.

I personally believe it will be here to stay although I do think in a few years time that more and more tools will be readily available to help both admins as well as site creators. I think great times are ahead of us!!!

I think there will be less and less commercial hosting. (IE: hosting for small business websites) Personally, I think network administrators (not particularly GOOD network administrators) are becoming more abundant these days so more and more businesses are asking in-house workers to manage web servers.

Maybe the hosting industry will change, and what hosts offer will be different. Maybe templates for personal websites will become more popular, with hosting moving towards a more domestic market?

That is something I have thought about too. All of our stuff is done in house where my FT job is but the company is pretty huge and has the resources to do this.

I think datacentres are always going to be in demand because of the amount of network providers, security, air con, fire protection etc... Hosting a server for critical needs is best placed in a dacentre environment (or secured location with good network access).

I can see things moving more domestic. We host a number of personal sites but yet I could not count on 1 hand the people I know in person who actually own a domain name and have a website. Not many even understand the concept of hosting.

I think there will be major development into hosting solutions for mobiles, pda's etc and workgroup comms . .

I am looking forwards to that happening! I can access the net on my phone and PDA but it just isnt practical and it's a pain to work with. It would be nice to have more seamless integration with the work I do on a day to day basis.

PDA / Phone technology has been with us for a while, however it's the high cost of mobile datacomms that's the blocker. I'd love to see GPRS costs fall and 3G actually make data available rather than focus on video messaging

Google are making a city a full (free) wifi hotspot over the next year or so.http://gigaom.com/2005/09/30/google-...co-wifi-plans/

I find Wifi on my PDA is VERY useful.

My 3G phone recently showed up a service where you get broadband speeds. The problem was is that it is rediculously expensive. Something like £45/Month for 512Mb of data transfer at 384kbps which they say equates to 1000 web pages. I wish the prices would come down a tad and that could get me interested.

Thats an easy one, VIDEO
Sites will finally have video instead of all static images and text

Video In A Flash
By Mike McGuinness, FLV Hosting.com


Web Hosting is going through a revolution. The ever lower cost of video streaming is morphing websites into less images, less text, more video. A recent look at Yahoo! ™ shows a home page with video links front and center. One of the emerging technologies allowing low cost streaming is Flash FLV. It is a format that is designed for web playback, offering high rates of compression. Flash Player, the embedded plugin that is in 98% of all internet browsers, allows playback of Flash FLV using SWF files. It is a preferred method because there is no need for a 3rd party download. FLV is a "Flash Live Video" file.
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Not many people know it, but Macromedia (Adobe) has developed a sophisticated media delivery platform, that is emerging as a sleeping giant.
Flash is the world's most pervasive software platform, used by over 1 million programming professionals and reaching 98% of Internet-enabled desktops worldwide as well as a wide range of devices.. You might be shocked to hear that using Flash for your Video Media Delivery can save you a bundle of cash!

The Flash Player browser plugin can play an FLV, but that FLV, must be either embedded in or linked to a SWF. That is, you can't just put the actual FLV on an HTML page. You can however reference the FLV file using action script and SWF (the player controls), which now opens up the door to brand your player, add colors and logos, skins, and links to further information. Customization is now only limited to your imagination and Flash Skills. 4 hour movies can be streamed instantly with no buffer wait or download lag time.

Highlights of the Flash Communications Server include the ability to provide your end users with the best possible experience via a seamlessly integrated client that lets you brand your broadcast the way you want to, with any devices containing the Flash Player being capable of delivering movies when connected to the MX Communications server.

A Fantastic File Format
The file format used in this process is Flash FLV or Flash Live Video, and it plays in a Flash Player. While traditional methods of media delivery include some kind of download to the user's computer, either in a pre-loader or through temporary Internet files, Flash MX Communications server and a Flash FLV Player connect in a completely different manner. Simply put, it's a new connection to the file each time the user uses the controls in the player. This means that in the background it's a "start here" – "stop here" – "start again here" style of play, with no downloads or caching.

Here's The Top Ten Reasons to Stream Video Using Flash

1. FLV format file sizes after conversion are up to 60% smaller, saving server storage costs.
2. FLV's start - stop connection style saves on bandwidth perhaps as much as 60% less per month.
3. FLV format has no local player in operating systems, so file sharing is nullified.
4. FLV format plays directly in more browsers than Windows Media, Real Player or QuickTime.
5. FLV server can authenticate clients, and control users as you wish.
6. FLV players can be completely customized for logos, branding and embedded links.
7. FLV players can play files from a programmable database, and simple administration area.
8. FLV players can be programmed to integrate with databases for free previews, time, users.
9. FLV encoding can include user information for content tracking, misuse, or DRM.
10. Flash Communications servers are easier to maintain than others, and less prone to security hacks.

Who is using Flash Communication Servers? Google, MTV, Yahoo, IBM, Sony, Universal Studios, the list is growing.
Flash is suitable for various applications, including live, on-demand, audio and video streaming, 24 x 7 live radio broadcasting, pay-per-view, with digital rights management, delivery to mobile devices, including phones, product demonstrations, commercials and movie trailers, employee and partner training, corporate communications – the list goes on and on...

Video websites do have a drawback, though. I often open new windows and continue reading the original page until the other page has fully loaded. (It also means that video adverts have usually finished and I can browse in peace!)

Thats one way of thinking about it I guess it depends on how much the ad grabs you and your style of browsing.

I think things that will change is the amount of space and banwidth people will want and need and down the road customer support will probably improve much more.

I am not sure if customer support will improve. I think some companies will continue to give a great, good or poor support level.

What I think will change in this respect is more easy to use automated tools in which users have less need to contact support. Maybe some use of effective AI to answer questions etc... and self repairing problems etc...

Hopefully we'll see some updated protocols. While HTTP is a great protocol for most applications it's time we started seeing a few new ones that browsers support. HTTP is stateless. It's is also impossible, between requests, for a server to contact a client. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to have a protocol for some websites that updates real time? No more "Please wait while we process your order..." messages that remain on screen for a generic 60 seconds. The website could take you to the next page as soon as it's work is done.

If I had the knowledge I'd draft a protocol myself.