I started Headwall Hosting early in 2020, just as the first Covid lockdown was about to kick-in in the UK. I set out to offer professional managed WordPress hosting & email, along with website builds.
Looking at the website/WordPress hosing industry, it was obvious that most hosting companies just wanted to shift cPanel installations, then let the client do what they want. There’s definitely a market for this approach, but small businesses want to spend their time and energy on their business… not looking after a Linux server, website, backups and all the stuff that goes with it.
So I acquired a couple of VPS (virtual Linux servers) from Krystal Hosting and created an infrastructure that would enable me to run many sites, with the key tasks automated… and monitored. I really wanted to make sure that all my clients’ sites had multiple backups and were always up-to-date (software).
As I started to pick up clients, it was interesting to see just how many bad “bots” there are out there, always probing websites for vulnerabilities. So I extended my automation tools to include scanning-for-malware, and log file monitoring.
As my client base grows through word-of-mouth and recommendation, I’ve added more servers to the network, and evolved my automation tools.
If you’ve got any questions, you can usually find me at the Curious Lounge in Reading on Thursdays (co-working space with great tea & coffee).
