A lot of web hosting companies are offering different products and services on the market. RackNap is a billing and provisioning automation platform for selling cloud and non-cloud services. Today we have the honor to talk with Mr. Munesh Jadoun and talk about the products and services of Racknap.
Take a break by reading this exciting story.
Before the interview, we did a little research and we found out that RackNap is a brand that is part of ZNet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.Can you tell us a bit more about the idea behind RackNap?
Munesh: Yes. RackNap is the brainchild of ZNet Technologies – which itself is a hosting and cloud services distributor serving 90K+ customers via partners. It is a product developed by a CSP for other CSPs – designed to help them accelerate their customers’ digital transformation journey by allowing them to sell cloud services with complete automation.
As the first-of-its-kind platform, RackNap enables cloud and IT service providers with complete cloud service business cycle automation across several modules – marketplace and product display, inventory and assets monitoring, sales and marketing, multi-tier partner channel enablement, support management, business analytics, and end-customer panel.
The whole idea behind the launching RackNap was to help service providers sell more with end-to-end business automation, allowing them to cut operational costs and fasten delivery time. So, they can not only sell more but sell it more efficiently.
Especially for hosting services providers,
- RackNap enables smart workflow management to deliver WordPress hosting, dedicated and virtual private servers.
- There are integrations with Plesk Control panel for shared hosting, VPS, dedicated servers, and all cloud platforms, including Azure, AWS, Google and more.
- RackNap enables automated license delivery with add-ons.
- RackNap gives complete visibility and control over hosting infrastructure across the world with real-time graphical dashboards.
- RackNap’s advanced customer panel helps keep hosting customers informed, aware and independent with self-help quick issue resolution feature.
- RackNap empowers hosting providers to create a flexible billing model for offering hosting services with provision for complete automation.
How long has RackNap is on the market as a commercial product?
Munesh: Though RackNap has been developed and extensively used internally by ZNet since 2013 for its own cloud service delivery and business automation needs, it was commercially launched in Jan 2017. So, it has been almost 5 successful years for RackNap in the industry.
RackNap is a billing and provisioning automation platform for selling cloud and non-cloud services. Can you explain a bit more about what this means?
Munesh: RackNap gives complete cloud billing flexibility to service providers to offer both cloud and non-cloud services. This allows them to create customized product and pricing plans based upon their unique business requirements; further allowing their end customers to purchase services on their terms. The flexible billing and provisioning module is built on three tenets – complete compliance, zero error, and automation.
Cloud service providers can create automated cloud billing model like free, one-time, pay-per-use, pre-paid, post-paid, and contract-based. It also supports recurring or subscription billing management. Service providers can even have separate pricing structures for different billing cycles. It supports multiple currencies, tax levels, and payment gateways to facilitate international cloud billing.
It also allows ISVs (Independent Software Vendors), Software-as-a-Service Providers (SaaS), and other IT distributors to sell their software applications through complete automation.
Who are the clients of RackNap? What is your approach to reaching them?
Munesh: The clients of RackNap include Microsoft Direct and Indirect CSPs, software retailers, cloud and managed service providers, IT distributors, Datacenter providers, ISVs/SaaS providers, Web Hosting providers, and subscription services providers.
We mostly leverage Microsoft’s Go-to-market strategies to jointly win customers and promote our brands. Aside from Microsoft we also work with a number of other OEMs too.
Customer satisfaction is a very important trait for many companies. How RackNap is handling this part?
Munesh: Customer satisfaction is our topmost priority. After all, they are the end-users and hence their feedback on the product is crucial for maintaining a strong product.
We have a dedicated team of customer support experts who take care of every feedback or query received from our customers. Critical queries or performance-related feedback are handled on priority. We have several customer success stories and case studies that say the same.
What are RackNap integrations?
Munesh: The field of technology is ever-evolving and highly dynamic. Hence, it is important to stay abreast on the latest technologies in the market. We keep ourselves updated so our customers get to work with the latest technological upgrades. We do this through our integrations.
RackNap is integrated with the industry’s multiple leading cloud/non-cloud platforms and services. For example, our platform is integrated with cloud solutions like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Amazon Lightsail, etc. For the hosting community, we have integrations with leading control panels including Plesk, CMS platforms like WordPress, etc. You can have a look at the complete list of integrations, here.
We have to mention the Covid-19 pandemic. Has this pandemic affected the business of RackNap in the last 12 months? If yes, how?
Munesh: COVID-19 created havoc for all industries and businesses. It did affect our business as well initially, as many of our clients faced financial crunches due to nationwide lockdowns and a complete change in the way of doing business. The initial few months starting from February 2020, were very bumpy for most organizations. But the pandemic didn’t affect our revenue because there was a silver lining – the pandemic accelerated the demand for digital services.
As more and more businesses are adopting digital technologies for business continuity via cloud and automation, RackNap stands tall as the perfect business automation platform to help them reach their goal faster and more conveniently.
What are trends and new technologies that will be developed on the market in the following period that will help RackNap grow? Is there any new feature that you are planning to integrate with RackNap?
Munesh: The growth of digital technologies built on cloud computing can help our business grow. As companies today look to transform digitally, cloud-based solutions will play a crucial role in this development. It is also a golden opportunity for the new age cloud service providers and even traditional IT services providers to bundle cloud solutions along with their conventional products and services. RackNap, as a cloud automation software, is prepared to help these providers accelerate their product delivery time through end-to-end billing and provisioning.
Presently, RackNap is integrated with all major cloud and non/cloud services and products.
We are also planning to introduce more AWS and Plesk-focused integrations for automating service delivery.
Where do you see RackNap as a brand in the following 5 years?
Munesh: Right now, our focus is on the cloud and subscription-based businesses. In the future, we want to make our more product generic, so individual software and hardware distributors and other non-cloud providers too can leverage the power of automation to increase their revenues.
Finally, is there anything else you would like to add about the products and services of RackNap to the hosting community?
Munesh: RackNap supports the growth of the web hosting community and empowers them to sell and manage all traditional web hosting services along with cloud solutions from a single panel.
Web hosting providers, today, need to add value to their service offering in order to stand out from the competition and bring in some differentiation.
RackNap can help improve their go-to-market strategies and cut operational costs by the virtue of automation and customer lifecycle management.
Hosting providers who want to take the modern approach and sell new-age cloud services like AWS, Azure, etc. along with their legacy hosting services like dedicated servers, domain names or shared hosting, need web hosting management software. And RackNap is the perfect option for them.
With complete automation of business operations and service delivery, they can win more customers and generate more revenue.
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