ABOUT AGENT BLACK HOSTING
Agent Black Hosting provides a wide range of services including domain name registration and administration, dedicated servers, virtual private servers, and shared hosting. The company focuses on delivering outstanding quality of service and inimitable customer service to its clientele.
CHALLENGE
Agent Black Hosting wanted to enhance its service to customers and serve new markets and geographies. The problem? It had outgrown the dated data center infrastructure and services of its existing provider, LiquidWeb, and grown weary of poor customer service. To achieve the company’s objectives, it needed to find a more progressive and reliable data center partner.
SOLUTION
Hivelocity, a premier provider of dedicated servers, edge-computing, colocation, and cloud hosting services and solutions.
BENEFITS:
- Lower costs
- Empowered company growth into new markets
- Zero downtime and reliable throughput
- Ability to offer superior, state-of-the-art infrastructure to customers
- More responsive customer service
QUOTE
“Hivelocity worked closely with us to develop the infrastructure we needed to bring our clients the best shared hosting environment at a reasonable cost. They have also allowed us to tap into their vast system management experience which helps us keep our infrastructure running at peak performance so we can focus on serving our clients and attracting new customers to our platform.”
– James Miller, Founder & CEO, Agent Black Hosting.
Agent Black Hosting’s Journey to Hivelocity
There’s Got to Be A Better Way
James Miller, the founder and CEO of Agent Black Hosting,
has a history of turning technological obstacles into opportunities. In 2007, when a local paintball business he was doing web design work for needed a place to host their website, he became frustrated trying to help them using existing hosting services. “I felt that there had to be a better way to do web hosting and that’s how I launched what is now Agent Black Hosting,” says Miller.
Today, the company provides over 100 businesses with domain name registrations, email hosting, shared hosting, and dedicated servers. “We serve everyone from a small local comic book store all the way to the single largest paintball registration company in the world, and small design firms that need numerous domain names managed,” says Miller. “Technically savvy organizations that need stable web hosting to grow their business, and are willing to pay for a quality platform, turn to us.”
The Backbone for Next-Level Success
Before Agent Black Hosting could achieve its goals, it had to build the IT infrastructure necessary to support it. “In 2017, the time was right for us to reevaluate our existing data center partner,” says Miller. “The managed hosting provider we were with, Liquid Web, used antique hardware that left a great deal to be desired. Response times were also slow, trouble tickets went unanswered for extended periods of time, and they were charging over double the industry norms for subpar hardware.”
Agent Black Hosting made the difficult decision to seek a new partner. “We found LiquidWeb to be inconsistent with our growth, that it did not offer the greatest value to our clients, and had not kept up with the changing hardware scene, so we needed to move on,” says Miller.
Miller knew exactly what he wanted in a new data center partner. “We wanted a premium data center partner that could provide us with a wide selection of options, locations, support, and opportunities for growth,” says Miller. “Other key criteria included an IaaS partner with a demonstrable track record of providing quality service, proven uptime records, network quality, premium hardware, and responsive technical support. I also wanted to make sure that they did not permit abuse on the web such as SPAM or supporting questionable websites.”
Agent Black Hosting started its due diligence. “I made inquiries on Web Hosting Talk and received many suggestions and conducted research online and via various non-traditional resources,” says Miller. “It ultimately came down to two providers: ColoCrossing and Hivelocity.”
While both Hivelocity and ColoCrossing could satisfy Agent Black Hosting’s needs, Miller soon realized that one IaaS provider stood out for several reasons. “Hivelocity answered all of our questions and did not dance around and give typical corporate-speak replies,” says Miller. “They also checked off all our boxes including great customer service, infrastructure quality, technical support, and network peers. They really listened to our needs and crafted the service package we needed including a deal that was difficult to turn down.”
While confident in his decision, Miller did harbor some small reservations until he could truly experience working with Hivelocity. “I was a bit skeptical at first of the quality we would receive at their price point, but after a few months any concerns were completely dispelled,” says Miller. “Going with Hivelocity has turned into one of the best decisions I have ever made.”
Delivering Results
Agent Black Hosting migrated from LiquidWeb to Hivelocity without a hiccup and began reaping the benefits. “Since we migrated, we have had zero downtime,” says Miller. “Hivelocity always has the most current hardware on the market, which is key for those with demanding web or application needs. And, with their prime crypto-mining hardware, I’m confident that we can meet any demands from even the most dedicated crypto-miner on the market.”
Miller’s team has found Hivelocity’s customer service and accessibility a major asset. “The ability to speak directly to Hivelocity’s senior management, and with account reps and technical support staff that understand our needs is really valuable, as is the intuitiveness of their management interface,” says Miller.
The move to Hivelocity is delivering bottom-line benefits. “The amount we pay for Hivelocity’s dedicated server hardware, versus the quality of the infrastructure we receive, makes utilizing any cloud vendors pointless,” says Miller. “With all of the hidden ‘gotchas’ with some cloud offerings, we would end up far exceeding what we pay for Hivelocity.”
Hivelocity Powers Entry to New Markets
Agent Black Hosting now has the throughput, reliable uptime, state-of-the-art, robust hardware, and tools and services it needs to continue to grow and target new markets and geographies. “By leveraging Hivelocity’s investments in other data centers throughout the United States, we are able to provide our clients with a diverse selection of locations to house their data,” says Miller. “And, their rock solid infrastructure and data center environments have allowed us to successfully market ourselves to non-profits and our other clients as a safe-haven for their online presence. In particular, we want small non-profits to know that we can assist them with their needs so they can focus more on initiatives instead of worrying about whether their website is online or if they’re getting overcharged or not.”
By investing in the latest technologies, adding new data center locations, and delivering responsive service and affordable, customizable services, Hivelocity continues to help companies like Agent Black Hosting reach their objectives. “Hivelocity allows us to provide a solid shared hosting platform with Solid State hardware, which enables us to improve service to our clients,” says Miller. “Combined with their team’s vast technical knowledge, we are now well positioned to handle the next phase of our growth.”
It’s clear that Miller hasn’t lost his knack for converting technical challenges into opportunities to better serve customers or to grow Agent Black Hosting. He has some advice for other organizations in search of a data center provider capable of driving their business. “Hivelocity has a proven track record, wide selection of data centers, constantly evolving hardware options – including crypto-mining machines – and the network connectivity necessary to deliver our client’s data around the world,” says Miller. “If you’re looking for an infrastructure partner that has the technical aptitude to handle simple to extremely complex issues, look no further than Hivelocity. They are one of the best partners we have had since we launched in 2007.”
Hivelocity provides dedicated servers, bare metal cloud, and colocation hosting solutions to customers from over 130 countries worldwide. Featuring 38 world-class, edge-ready data centers, strategically positioned in 36 cities, across 4 continents, Hivelocity’s expansive global footprint allows users to reach 80% of the world’s internet population in under 25 milliseconds. All of their data centers are SSAE-16 SOC1 and SOC2 certified, and HIPAA and PCI compliant services are also available. With award-winning 24/7 support, an average 15-minute ticket response time, and an SLA-backed 99.99% network uptime guarantee, Hivelocity is the hosting provider you can rely on.
Download a free PDF of this case study: Agent Black Case Study
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