John Posan, Business Development Director of Atum
HostSearch interviewed John Posan, Business Development Director of Atum. We talked about his work and Atum, a Toronto based web hosting and IT solutions company that has just received the awards this month (September 2010) for the best small business solution & greenest solution at the CDN Elite Channel Awards.
- HOSTSEARCH: John, thank you very much for an opportunity to talk with you today. What did you do before joining Atum?JOHN POSAN: I have always had a passion and an interest in IT. Before Atum I worked as a Network Administrator for a Government organization and Electronic Data Systems as a Network Engineer.
- HOSTSEARCH: What make you decide to join Atum and what are your day-to-day roles here?JOHN POSAN: I joined Atum because I saw a tremendous amount of opportunity. I started here in a network administrator role and my dedication to the company lead me to the role of director of business development. I oversee all of the operations at Atum and make sure to guide IT, marketing & sales teams. I also make sure that no one is waiting on me either from the Atum team or any of our clients, and so far I think I’ve been pretty successful!
- HOSTSEARCH: That's interesting. What is the difficult part of your job?JOHN POSAN: I set high expectations for every level of our business and make sure to lead a team that is dedicated to the company as much as I am. We only hire people that share the same values of customer service and quality as the rest of the team. It is difficult to find those types of people to come on board, but it is very rewarding once they join on.
- HOSTSEARCH: What services does Atum offer?JOHN POSAN: Atum offers hosted unmanaged & managed virtual private server (VPS) solutions, IT consulting and email host exchange. We’re dedicated to our clients and offer deals on IT consulting & VPS hosting solutions. We primarily target small to medium sized businesses and understand that other small businesses need help in competing among large corporations. Our solution is based on hardware and software manufactured by our partners that deliver premium results for companies that may not afford to host in house. It’s a rewarding feeling when we sign on small to medium sized businesses and cut their IT costs by 85% so that they now have a competitive performance advantage as well as a bigger budget to focus their efforts on their core business.
- HOSTSEARCH: What is your core web hosting product? Which one is the best selling?JOHN POSAN: Our core hosting package is the managed VPS gold package ($189) that includes 4 CPUs, 4,096 MB memory, 2 TB of bandwidth, and 200 GB hard drive capacity. As mentioned, if a business want to attempt to do this in house it would cost them thousands of dollars.
- HOSTSEARCH: Besides from web hosting, I noticed you also have IT outsourcing service. Can you please tell us more about it?JOHN POSAN: IT consulting is one of our expertise and we offer deals to all of our VPS clients. We do a free IT business analysis and work with clients in developing custom packages for their needs. Since we evaluate each case so closely, a client never has to pay for additional features they don’t need. We like to eliminate companies needing additional IT staffing in order to receive the highest quality IT infrastructure. We can be engaged on many different consulting levels so that we act as your complete solution or a backup support team when your inhouse team is too busy.
- HOSTSEARCH: What can we expect from Atum in 2011?JOHN POSAN: Everyone here continuously works hard to deliver the best results and create more awareness of our brand & service. We’re investing more time & money in our company to stay above in a highly competitive market. We’re also involved in the community in attempts to raise awareness about hosting the green way. Just this past year, I spoke at the annual Canadian Pollution Prevention Roundtable about green IT and represented the IT industry. Atum was also a finalist in the quest for canada’s greenest IT & received awards for the best small business solution & greenest solution at the CDN Elite Channel Awards.
- HOSTSEARCH: What do you predict for the future of web hosting in the next 5 years?JOHN POSAN: I predict that about 95% of all servers will be virtual and outsourced. For Atum’s sake, I hope my predictions are right! Haha
- HOSTSEARCH: Well John. Thank you for your time today. We look forward to talk with you again soon.JOHN POSAN: Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me! Don’t forget to take a look at our website at http://www.atum.com & read up on all the latest deals and news.
