Interviewed on 11 May 07
Carsten Zorger, Head of Public Relations
Berlin based STRATO is one of Europe’s leading web hosting providers with three million domains and over one million customer contracts. STRATO operates across Europe, including Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands offering comprehensive all-inclusive packages and e-commerce solutions for beginners, advanced users and professionals. Due to the economy of scale of their operations, STRATO can offer complete packages at an ideal price-performance ratio.
STRATO operates two independent data centres in Germany. As a one hundred per cent subsidiary of freenet AG, STRATO is one of the few providers to have their own infrastructure for data and speech exchange, which enables them to offer maximum performance levels for customer websites. Connected to many of the important internet exchange points in Europe, STRATO offers innovative and capable services for millions of Europeans. Both datacentres are certified according to ISO 27001 for safety, security and availability by the German Technical Control Board (TÜV). STRATO products and services have regularly received awards and certifications in independent tests.
STRATO currently has about 485 employees and is still growing. Employees come from 30 different nations, enabling STRATO to deliver perfect customer support for the target countries in their native language.
What unique selling points do you offer?
STRATO offers an unbeatable price-performance ratio. Using the same technical platform for all European customers, STRATO adapts web hosting services to local needs while profiting from economies of scale. These lead to especially advantageous prices that local providers are simply unable to meet. Even beginner packages boast numerous valuable tools and services other providers only include in more expensive professional packages, if at all. In comparison with other web hosts, STRATO scores with a vast range of included services.
Individual customer support is of highest importance. This fact distinguishes STRATO from the multitude of providers dealing with cheap mass accounts. Especially the free of charge hotline provides excellent services: A competent and friendly team helps out via phone or email whether contract or technical details are concerned. Another bonus: Only native speakers take care of their respective market.
STRATO’s technological leadership is an important base for its success. There are two
company operated, high performance computing centres in Karlsruhe and Berlin - positioned at the heart of Europe, at short distance away from its target markets. As a one hundred percent subsidiary of publicly listed freenet AG (www.freenet.ag), STRATO uses its backbone network for optimal internet connections. The freenet network is directly linked to European internet hubs in London, Frankfurt, Paris Milan, Amsterdam and Madrid. Therefore, STRATO customers benefit from high-speed connections and short upload times.
Describe the services you offer?
Web hosting enables individuals and businesses to use the internet easily. As a web host, STRATO delivers a service via the internet to the customer’s browser. The service and all accompanying data are hosted and backed up at STRATO’s two secure datacentres.
STRATO enables people to make use of the Internet, an interactive communication platform, whereby people make use of facilities such as email, chats, websites and e-commerce.
Describe your target market?
STRATO brings corporate security and service down to the consumer level and offers complete web hosting packages and Web Shops for all levels: beginners, advanced and professionals. They provide a full service and cater for individuals, start-ups and SMEs.
STRATO’s available web hosting packages include EasyWeb, PowerWeb, AdvancedWeb and EnterpriseWeb. Available Web Shops are the BasicShop, AdvancedShop and PremiumShop.
How is your company planning for the future?
Naturally, STRATO aims to increase its market share in Europe, whilst at the same time increasing the variety of solutions we offer and always making improvements as technology evolves and enables us to do so. With the launch of the STRATO Web Shop in the UK, we also strive to firmly establish STRATO in the UK e-commerce solutions market and mirror the STRATO Web Shop success so far in Germany, where we already host over 20,000 active Web Shops.
STRATO leads the market with innovative, user-friendly technology, products and tools. Almost ten years of web hosting experience means STRATO delivers the very best in security and back up.
What benefits can you offer your customers?
STRATO brings corporate service and security down to a consumer level. We offer web hosting and e-commerce at low prices, making our great service accessible to all. STRATO services are fit for any large corporation, but are still affordable for the individual. We do not compromise on service, security and quality.
Best buy:
STRATO PowerWeb is ideal for web designers and developers because it offers a variety of professional features as well as a smart home page and all at a very competitive price. PowerWeb features include 3 domains, 3 GB Web space and 1000 e-mail addresses, each with 1GB mailbox capacity. Professional tools such as PHP 3, 4, 5, SSI & Perl, Python & Ruby programming language, installation of own CGIs, MySOL 4.0 databases, MySOL backup, BackupControl, Cron-Jobs, SSL encryption, Anonymous FTP, Incoming FTP and SSH access are included amongst many other features. Additional features included are Web statistics (Log files), Web statistics – graphical presentation, QuickTime streaming and CGI Library. Full-featured versions of Adobe GoLive CS2 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 are included at no extra cost. The price is currently £1 (£1.19 incl. VAT) for an entire year. This offer is valid until 30th May 2007. The normal price is £6.99/month (£8.11/month incl. VAT). Customer support is always included free of charge.
How do you support your customers?
STRATO customers can call our experienced team of competent and friendly experts – all native speakers - 7 days a week for free. STRATO offers a comprehensive FAQ database, which is constantly being expanded and updated
