You can’t be a Gryphyn Media client and not talk to Tracy Brant, the CEO and active principal of Gryphyn Media. She is the “face” of the company. Learn more about her at TracyBrant.com

What we do

We provide web hosting, email services, script and template installation and customization… and support. We help people put together the pieces and understand what they need, in plain language. Many of our clients are techies… but IT is such a big field that it is entirely possible to be a world-class expert in certain technology fields, and still not understand how to configure an email client. We can help, and discreetly.

We are big on Philadelphia, on Southeastern Pennsylvania, and on the general Mid-Atlantic area. We live here… we want to see the area prosper. We tend to use regional business services, refer people to other regional businesses, and get involved in local projects and partnerships. We have business offices in suburban Philadelphia (Conshohocken) and in suburban Reading, Berks County (Mount Penn).

The Hosting Industry and Us

We sell space on leased servers. This is a well-established business model for hosting companies. So, what we are really selling is customer service. The people that run the datacenters (and we only use the best) focus on what they do best… keep the hardware healthy. Gryphyn Media focuses on customer contact… we are your interface with the hardware people. We have on-demand access to as many servers and as much bandwidth as we need, and 24-hour access to the NOC (network operations center) folks. Read more about our network.

We also provide managed dedicated and semi-dedicated servers for clients who need more space, bandwidth, and control. What is “managed?” Well, rather than just stuffing your server in a rack and handing you the keys, we do all the geeky stuff and hand you a control panel you can understand, as well as all the support you need.

Is a Small Hosting Company Enough?

Bigger is not necessarily better. Large consumer hosting providers are marching into bankruptcy court in the unstable IT economy, buying and selling each other like eBay collectibles. Customers may find that their support call center is suddenly staffed by people who are not aware of their account history. Then again, tiny hosts selling extra bandwidth on their single server can be vulnerable to a number of technical and business disasters. We have a moderate number of severs in more than one datacenter, with system administrators we know by name, and excellent reputations for network excellence. They do nothing but support hosting companies, and they do it well.

We don’t plan to become huge. Successful, but not big. We want to stay at a size that lets us know our customers individually. We don’t want to outsource our phone support to a offshore contractor, or go to IPO and have venture capitalists suddenly in charge of our operations.

Having seen “the inside” of hosting now, we know how hard it is to wear all the hats people put on a host. When you find a host, you tend to ask them to help you solve ALL the problems that go with having a website. “Why doesn’t my site look right in Netscape?” “Who should I use for credit card processing?” We actually know, personally, a good number of our hosting clients. We are comfortable providing direct support by phone and email. We tend to go beyond the “That isn’t a hosting issue” limit of service that plagues you with large hosts.

We have also chosen not to try to be all things to all people. We have Unix servers, and we don’t provide ASP support. We require annual payment and we use PayPal. We don’t support streaming yet… although we are considering it. But we don’t nickel-and-dime you to death for this and that. If our combination of features works for you, you will be hard-pressed to find a better deal. Read what clients say about us.

This is a Good Value

No host is perfect. We sure aren’t. We learn something new every single day. Heck, new technology develops every day. But we are committed to improvement, customer support, and providing a good hosting package at a good price. We are building a network of support FAQs, site-building information, and links to more resources. We add features all the time, to make Gryphyn Media the best value you can find in shared hosting and dedicated server leasing.

Gryphyn Media
[email protected]

Gryphyn Media, is a web services consultancy specializing in web hosting and related services for small-to-medium business, nonprofits, and creative consultants. We have been web developers since 1998, focusing on web hosting since 2000, primarily in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Our philosophy embraces regional networking and local business spending.

Our business model draws elements from other service models: personal banking, commercial real estate management, and just-in-time inventory management. We offer more personalized customer service than can be gotten from large hosting providers.

An account manager is assigned to each client, providing a single point of contact. Your representative becomes familiar with your company, your hosting needs, and the technical expertise level of your employees and clients. We focus less on hardware management and more on client support. Our equipment is leased from major US datacenters, accompanied by top-quality bandwidth and expert technical support. That gives us access to virtually inexhaustible on-demand managed hardware and bandwidth.

We keep our pricing competitive in four major ways:

• We bill annually to substantially reduce our payment processing fees and administrative overhead;
• We choose the best datacenters and negotiate bulk pricing;
• We focus on marketing ourselves to business, consultants, and nonprofits, avoiding the support needs of the consumer market;
• We use technology to allow our team to work virtually, eliminating the cost of maintaining public corporate offices.

We are debt-free, cash flow positive, privately-held… and intend to stay that way.

Selected client references available on request.

 

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Our History

1998 – Gryphyn Media was founded by business partners Tracy Brant and Clint Gibson in 1998. We began with private commercial web projects.

2000 – We expanded into doing sites for other people. Along the way, we engaged in our own search for good hosting. We made all the usual mistakes, had the usual bad experiences, and ripped out just about as much hair as everyone else. When we finally found the right solutions, we were so relieved that we wanted to share.

2001 – Launch of formal web hosting site with plan packages.

2002 – Stopped taking new web design clients, in order to focus on hosting and avoid conflicts with our clients who were also designers and developers. We became more interested in “making things work” than “making things look good.”

2003 – Steady growth and development of brand awareness in the Philadelphia market. Expansion to multiple datacenters. Development of private-label hosting and helpdesk services.

Since 2004 – Our plans include expansion into new products that complement our existing services: Cold Fusion hosting, better domain name management, new tools for for our designer/developer clientele, and alliances with partners for steaming, email list hosting, and entry-level site building tools.