Starting a datacenter/webhosting

well first off I am new here and I would like to say hello to everyone! Hi!

My name is Jim, I am in the process of trying to start a web hosting business to run along with my technology services business. I am specifically looking to start a web hosting company with several servers maybe (3-5) and have a partner that is somewhat experienced in the web hosting business. I am a Microsoft Certified Systems engineer, so I am familiar with computers, hosting, etc, but I am unsure on how to go about starting a web hosting business, the required software, licenses, hardware, startup costs, colocations, dedicated servers, etc?

Additionally how do I go about finding a partner. I already have an established business "Dynixa Corporation" and I have been in business since 2000, but I have never offered web hosting services.

Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

And I do apologize if this post is in the wrong area.


Thanks so much!

Jim

Jim, your best bet would be to post this request on some of the more hosting specific forums - like web hosting talk. You are going to get a lot more feedback there, and there will be a lot more people interested in hosting partnerships.

We never run Windows Hosting, except a few servers for partners. However it is a huge market and I'm sure you'd make it. My suggestion is to speak to local businesses and to figure out how much do they pay for exchange hosting, etc. and then to come up with a plan.

Jim, as suggested before you should have a look at webhostingtalk.com where you cannot only find presumptive partners but also more specific discussions and tutorials about running a hosting business. Good luck.

Try these two
webhostingtalk.com
datacentertalk.com