Wow! HostingReviews24 has featured Virtono by Daniel Draga on multiple occasions since 2014! They have a great deal of experience working with low-end products! Additionally, they have been expanding! Virtono currently has 17 locations across the world, but they have plans to expand to a total of 30 locations by the end of this year. The most recent post that Virtono made on HostingReviews24.com celebrated the company’s expansion to new locations in Poland, Canada, and Japan.
Jhon Bilowe, owner of HostingReviews24.com, recently had a conversation with Daniel Draga, vice president of Virtono. They talked about the development of the internet market and Virtono’s differentiation as well as its infrastructure, locations, policies, customer trust, and previous experience with HostingReviews24.com and HostingReviews24. Please keep reading if you would like to see the complete Interview! In addition, a link to sign up and a discount code good for life!
Please tell me about your history, as well as the history of Virtono.
It’s always nice to go back to the beginning; it’s a good exercise to keep me grounded and with a vision for the future. Going back to the beginning of something is always nice.
The origins of Virtono can be traced back to Romania; initially, we operated as a local hosting provider and offered local shared hosting through the domain cloudweb.ro, which now directs users to the most up-to-date version of our website.
We started out with very little, and the core of our team is still comprised of the same people it was when we first established ourselves. Years of experience providing web hosting, virtualization, cloud infrastructure, and customer support have gone into the construction of our team.
We started to notice that our VPS, which we only offered as an upgrade for customers that were growing quickly, but it quickly became obvious that the demand for our service was going to be significantly higher than we had initially anticipated.
That was the initial step that ultimately led to us traveling to a location outside of Romania.
In 2014, we rebranded ourselves under the name Virtono, and that same year, we started providing support for a select group of European locations. The journey was, to say the least, motivational; we advanced up the ladder while adhering to the same mission as when we first started out, which was to provide high quality at reasonable prices.
We are aware that in this competitive market, large brands have a tendency to not care about their customers, but to us, they will always be important. Today, we are present on three continents and in over seventeen locations, and throughout our journey, we still want to maintain the same dedication to customer satisfaction as when we started.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alcIouC4Tm4
Virtono was established in 2014, which means you have witnessed the development of the market. What piece of advice would you give to someone who is interested in beginning a hosting company in the present day? What recommendations do you have for me?
When we look back, it is simple for us to make assumptions about what will work and what will not because we have the benefit of hindsight; however, if there is one thing that we have learned, it is that it is impossible to fully predict where the market is going. When starting this business, or any business for that matter, the best course of action is to maintain a vigilant and adaptable mindset throughout the process. These two characteristics were a huge help in ensuring that our company stayed on course, but you need to have a solid grasp on the idea that you should always be on the lookout for new opportunities, given that the market almost never moves in just one particular direction. Once you do, you will have moved forward one step closer to achieving your goals.
We are aware that the web hosting industry began somewhere in the early 1990s; however, during the past ten to fifteen years, it has undergone significant transformation and captured a sizeable portion of the market.
During that period of time, this sector as a whole has been subjected to a variety of shifts, ranging from staggering rates of growth to nerve-wracking operating environments. Each time, the sector adapted to the circumstances and moved forward with innovative technologies and ideas. You can be sure that our times are not any different, change is on the horizon, and in order for you to make the most of the opportunity, you need to be there.
You might want to begin by looking into this suggestion because we believe that the idea of the cloud will be a major trend in the market for a considerable amount of time, especially as more services migrate to this kind of infrastructure. When you have people working for you who are goal-oriented and performance-driven, you can be confident that you are proceeding in the right direction regardless of how the market shifts. This is one thing that you should always keep in mind because there is no denying that you will always need a team in order to be successful. Keep in mind that you are not capable of doing everything by yourself, and the sooner you realize this, the sooner you will be able to achieve success as an entrepreneur at the highest level.
Where do you see the hosting industry going in the years to come, in your opinion?
You can never fully predict where the market is going because “the market rarely just moves in one defined direction.” That is a good question, and I am going to tie it to the previous one, “you can never fully predict where the market is going.”
The decision made in 1991 by the National Science Foundation to remove restrictions placed on commercial use of the World Wide Web and to permit traffic from commercial networks to use the NSFNET internet backbone network marked the beginning of what would become the web hosting industry. Since that time, it has only continued to grow to even greater proportions; each year, new ideas are being introduced, and to tell you the truth, not all of them are particularly impressive. However, growth and transition are almost always positive indicators for a market. At least for the foreseeable future, what we are going to see is an increase in cloud infrastructures and cloud hosting services, and for the time being, we believe that this is the trend that the market is going to continue to follow.
Naturally, the fundamentals and the backbone of the industry are what we are discussing here; otherwise, there are a lot of trends to follow, such as integrated website builders, e-commerce store integrations, and a great deal more.
To answer your question in a way that ties in with the current state of events, which are so fast-paced that basically every day something new takes place, we would say that the industry is moving toward complementary services based on quick and easy-to-use integrations as well as cloud infrastructures. This is because everything is moving at such a breakneck pace right now.
What sets Virtono apart from other hosts that are focused on virtual private servers (VPS)?
This is a good one; we think that every provider is special in its own way, or at least the majority of them are… As was mentioned earlier, the customers are the most important aspect to us, and as a result, we make it a point to always put their needs before our own. This is undoubtedly one of the most defining characteristics of our company. Naturally, we support this policy with servers that are brand new, hardware that is of the highest quality, the most up-to-date security technology, high download speeds, and a team that is highly qualified to put it all together.
We also make it a priority to have a large number of locations all over the world so that we can be closer to our customers. At the moment, we have 17 locations spread across 3 continents, and we intend to reach over 30 locations by the end of the year. Additionally, we always collaborate with well-known datacenters that have premium networks so that we can offer our customers the highest possible level of service.
And most importantly, despite making significant investments in our infrastructure and technology, we have not deviated from our mission, which is to provide products that are of a high quality at reasonable prices.
Tell us more about the Virtono cloud service; specifically, what kind of underlying infrastructure does it run on? How did you go about choosing your different vendors?
Our cloud infrastructure is made up of multiple nodes in each region, all of which are connected to one another and virtualized with the help of KVM. We only use one kind of server for all of our nodes, and that server comes from a single provider. All of our servers have the same specifications: 512GB of DDR4 RAM, an Intel Xeon gold 5218 processor, 24 SSDs in a raid-protected storage array, and two 10Gbps networks.
Because we only work with one vendor, the process of selecting our vendors is made much simpler by the fact that there is only one option available. Why do we choose to work with this particular vendor? First and foremost, the quality; secondly, the price; and finally, by combining these two aspects, we are able to successfully fulfill our mission, which is to provide High Quality at Reasonable Prices.
There are many Virtono locations; which of these locations are expanding at the fastest rate? To what do you attribute the success of that growth?
At the moment, we operate out of 17 locations, but by the end of 2022, we hope to have expanded to a total of 30 locations across the world. We just launched Tokyo a few days ago, and there are constant purchases. As a matter of fact, we are planning to grow our overall presence in Asia as it seems to be a logical step forward for our company. Although all of them have shown great potential and are keeping up with our standards, locations in Asia tend to outperform others statistically.
Because I just mentioned that we are concentrating on expanding to 30 locations around the world by the end of the year, of course each region still holds a significant amount of significance for us.
I believe that the growth potential in Asia is supported by their thriving economy and competitive environment. I believe that those two factors would be the most important factors for the location’s constant growth. When you think of Tokyo, you can’t ignore the business aspect of the city.
Please tell me about the top two business mistakes you’ve made. What did you pick up from talking to them?
A hypocrite is someone who, when discussing entrepreneurship and success, fails to mention the possibility of failure. Entrepreneurship is a journey, and just like any other journey, it does not always proceed in a linear fashion; rather, it features both highs and lows, which are precisely what make it so enjoyable and rewarding.
We aren’t any different than anyone else in that regard; however, despite the fact that no one enjoys discussing their past mistakes, we think that doing so can be educational and, more importantly, inspirational for aspiring young businesspeople.
So, in conclusion, here is what we think: DON’T let your success make you arrogant because everything that rises must eventually fall. This is a lesson that had to be learned the hard way for us. We were so focused on the initial growth that we forgot to take this into consideration, which is how we were initially caught off guard, and we were forced to slow down our rapid expansion plan when the bills came around and some clients did not remain. Back in the day, when we experienced our first growth spurt, we were so excited to do more and reach for new heights that we forgot this fundamental principle. After a growth spike, we experienced a fallout.
Therefore, the first rule is to always keep your head in the game and to never let your success get to your head. Another valuable thing to take away from this experience is the realization that you can’t handle everything on your own. When we first started, we were young and full of energy, and often times we had a tendency to do all the tasks ourselves. We had strict rules, and we believed that we were the only ones that could meet our standards. However, as we started to grow, our stubbornness proved to be a hindrance rather than a benefit, despite the fact that we initially saw it as a plus. We gained the ability to put our faith in others and educate them, and over time, we were able to put together a group of people who shared our values and goals. This was possibly the most successful thing that we were able to accomplish.
The second guiding principle is to avoid being obstinate and to put your faith in other people.
Please describe the two most important accomplishments you’ve had in your business.
When it comes to being successful, there are a few key points that we would like to highlight as important milestones. The first one that we’d like to talk about is our company’s fairly recent success and a major breakthrough, and that’s the expansion into Asia. We’d like to talk about it because it’s fairly recent. We have spent a significant amount of time working toward this objective, but because we continually managed to run into new challenges that made our progress more gradual, we had the impression that we were never going to be able to achieve it. But despite many challenges, we were ultimately successful in getting everything organized, and as a result, we were able to secure our first location in Asia—Hong Kong, to be more specific.
After all of that hard work, we were finally able to have a location in Asia, and the feeling of satisfaction that it brought us is indescribable. First of all, it was a step forward in our expansion plan, and second of all, it was a new area where our customers could have access, and in the end, these things made all of the effort worth while. In addition, it was a new area where our customers could have access.
Another accomplishment that we are pleased to highlight and one that I believe should be brought to your attention is the growth of our team. As we grew and expanded our business, we also grew our team, and we are pleased to say that we couldn’t have asked for a better one. Because every single employee shares the same values and goals, we have every reason to believe that our company’s success is directly attributable to the strong sense of teamwork that we maintain.
We consider the formation of a team to be a successful endeavor in and of itself, but we consider the formation of a large and effective team to be on an entirely different level.
What do you find to be the most satisfying aspect of your job?
In spite of the fact that holding a C-suite executive position is a lot of fun, I’ve never viewed it that way. In our company, we do not approach things according to a hierarchical status. Instead, we are constantly working together, and whoever is present to solve a problem will do so, regardless of whether he is a manager, COO, CEO, or member of the technical support staff.
We are a close-knit family, and we always have each other’s backs no matter what. However, my obligations are a different story. I am the one responsible for ensuring that everything is in order, and I do everything I can to ensure that both my colleagues and our clients are satisfied with our services.
The work is challenging, but somebody’s got to put in the effort.
What values and beliefs serve as a foundation for you, both personally and professionally?
Great question! I find the study of human nature and the philosophies that serve as our compass as beings to be very interesting; however, I am frequently left wondering what, exactly, constitutes a solid base for a set of principles.
We like to believe that morality and needs typically go hand in hand, but humans have a deep unpredictable nature, and I believe that in order to reveal our true potential, we need to establish a set of guiding principles that will assist us in remaining true to our vision despite the fact that our instinctual tendencies may lead us in a different direction.
Apologies for the rant, but I feel strongly about this topic, and in the interest of keeping things brief, I’ll just say that the principles of morality, equality, and self-worth form the foundation of my belief system.
You already have an internal moral compass; all you have to do is listen to it and act in accordance with what it tells you to do. In general, you should avoid doing anything that you would object to someone else doing to you.
Everyone should be treated on the same level because, first of all, you can never really know another person, and judging a book by its cover can be a very dangerous thing to do. And secondly, going back to the first principle, don’t do anything to others that you wouldn’t like done to you, and I’m going to assume that you’d like to be treated on an equal footing with everyone.
The final one is essential to master; pay attention to how you treat yourself. At the end of the day, you are all that you really have, so you should always love yourself and nourish your spirit, regardless of the circumstances. When you pay attention to your own well-being, others are more likely to do the same and follow your example. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get into some insider tips on how to live a more fulfilling life.
Please provide some more information about the exciting new projects that you are working on at Virtono.
At the moment, our primary objective is to expand our market presence and strengthen our infrastructure. To date, we have opened 17 locations around the world, including, to name just a few: Tokyo, Los Angeles, Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid, Miami, and many more. One of the things that is driving our ongoing expansion is the desire that we have to provide our customers with the highest possible level of protection.
Only in the past year have we experienced such rapid expansion in comparison to previous years, and we intend to maintain this rate going forward. Building a website will become even simpler than going for a stroll in the park, but we don’t want to spill the beans just yet because we have some cool new features in the works that we want to keep secret.
Why should a customer put their faith in you and your company?
Wonderful question! We are aware that it can be challenging for some people to put their trust in a new service provider or to identify a justification for switching service providers.
To get right to the point, we do not anticipate that customers will immediately place their trust in us. Although we are cognizant of the fact that certain processes require some amount of time, we have developed some compelling arguments in support of our legitimacy.
Since we’ve been in business since 2014, which makes our experience nearly a decade long, we like to think that we have a good handle on what we’re doing.
We always make massive new investments in Virtono, and I believe that this demonstrates both our commitment to the community in which we operate as well as our dedication to maintaining the high quality of our services. Year after year, we increased our market share and expanded to new locations.
Even after all of these years and all of the advances that we have made, we still keep the business human, and we always make an effort to have a great relationship with both our community and our customers. We are of the opinion that there is no sensation that can compare to the awareness that someone is actually paying attention to what you are saying on the other side of the screen.
We are extremely proud of the fact that our customer support team is consistently ranked among the very best available in the industry.
What can you tell us about your time spent at hostingreviews24 also with the Virtono team?
This one hits close to home because we consider that our involvement with LEB and LET can be summed up using a single robust word: partnership.
Our neighborhood was established in this location, and we anticipate that it will continue to call this place home for the foreseeable future. We came here when we wanted to find out what our community wants, when we wanted feedback regarding our services, and when we wanted to find out where we should go next. We will never stop being grateful to this channel for the never-ending well of creativity that it supplies to us. Without all of you, it would have been an impossibly difficult task to realize our vision of a community at the center of every successful enterprise.
Because we firmly believe that LET has served as a stepping stone for the development of our company, we will continue to think of our collaboration with them as a partnership.
We are grateful to each and every member of the Virtono team, and we wish you success in everything you do.
Your concluding thoughts, and is there anything else you’d like to add?
On a more personal note, I’d like to discuss a topic that is near and dear to both of our hearts, as well as one that we feel ought to carry a greater weight in the marketplace. As you are aware, the phenomenon of global climate change is a real problem; however, a disappointingly low percentage of companies take their responsibility seriously.
We have direct responsibility for how we conduct ourselves as a company because we have an effect on the communities and people all over the world. Because of this, we believe it is important to hold ourselves to high standards, and we think it is something that every company ought to do.
The concept of “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) ought to be implemented in each and every corporate setting, and the implementation of the most environmentally friendly practices ought to be ongoing.
On a related note, we are working on some significant projects in the near future, so you ought to keep an eye out for those.
We want to say a big, heartfelt thank you to our customers for being by our side and for their consistent support. Everything that we have accomplished is because of them, and for that, we want to express our gratitude in the strongest possible terms.
In addition, we would like to express our gratitude to the LET & LEB team for conducting this interview and for assisting us in promoting our offerings to the local community.
Vice President of Virtono Networks SRL
Daniel Draga
www.virtono.com.
