Earlier this month, SoftLayer announced its Q3 results, reporting $85 million in revenues and £34 million in earnings before tax and distribution. In the same quarter, the company opened its first data centre in Singapore to serve Asia based customers and in Amsterdam to serve Europe based customers. More significantly, the company crossed the 100,000 threshold of servers under management. Impressive for a privately owned hosting company.
Robust portfolio
In addition to dedicated, cloud and managed servers, SoftLayer provides a number of services:
- support for hybrid environments through integrated management capabilities
- virtualization layer
- business continuity support that includes disaster recovery options through replication, snapshots, and networked storage
- high availability configurations
Go-to-market
SoftLayer’s routes to market suggest whole-hearted acceptance of the way new generations in business choose to buy computing resources. Its website invites engagement, offering clear options and pricing, and transparent call-to-action. In addition to directly appealing to customers, SoftLayer also addresses indirect opportunities with:
- reseller program – non-exclusive rights to sell standard SoftLayer services in return for volume discounts on dedicated server, upgrade purchases and setup fees
- referral program – simple commission structure and automated monthly payments
- technology partners marketplace – showcases SoftLayer SaaS and ISV customer’s products and technologies
Appealing to corporate decision makers
The opportunity ahead for SoftLayer is to increase the proportion of its business from large enterprise. As an aggregator, we believe SoftLayer’s own experience will serve as its best marketing. To date, the company has kept its operational staff in the back room. By showcasing how it harnesses expertise, the company stands to make faster inroads with the more traditional corporate decision maker.