San Antonio, Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 30, 2009 – Managed web hosting and IT services firm, Rackspace Managed Hosting, has been selected by IDG Computerworld as one of the top workplaces for information technology (IT) professionals. 

This honor is part of the weekly IT publication’s 16th annual Best Places to Work in IT survey, which was published in the June 15 issue of Computerworld and online at Computerworld.com.

Scot Finnie, Editor in Chief of Computerworld noted, “To be among the Best Places to Work in IT, it’s not enough just to seek out and hire the most talented IT people, offer them competitive pay and provide great benefits.  The organizations that made this year’s Best Places to Work list sustain a dynamic work environment in which IT professionals keep their hands on the latest technologies and work on projects that are business critical. In the months and years ahead, IT is going to become a key accelerator of business growth.”

Since 1994, Computerworld’s annual “Best Places to Work in IT” feature has ranked the top 100 work environments for technology professionals, based on a comprehensive questionnaire regarding company offerings in categories such as benefits, diversity, career development, training and retention.  This year Computerworld surveyed more than 27,000 IT workers for the list, and their responses factored heavily in determining the rankings.

Lanham Napier, President and CEO of Rackspace remarked, “Fanatical Support has been a cornerstone of Rackspace since the beginning, both internally and externally.  Growth opportunities and an extensive open door policy are just a few of the diverse ways that Rackspace ensures its employees have a rewarding workplace. Racker pride and satisfaction has a direct impact on excellent customer service.”

Rackspace’s dedication to being one of the best places to work — in IT and across the company — has been a focus since the company’s founding that has only grown over the years.  Through Quarterly Open Book and Town Hall meetings to an extensive open door policy where even top executives work from cubicles, Rackspace provides an open and communicative environment that empowers employees, who are known as Rackers. Rackspace conducts regular “engagement” employee surveys to gauge satisfaction levels and gather Racker opinions on subjects such as whether or not they have the ability to do what they are best at every day.

Rackspace Hosting delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry’s best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable. A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support. Rackspace is recognized as one of FORTUNE Magazine’s 100 Best companies to work for in the US, ranking number 32 on the 2008 list. Rackspace’s portfolio of hosted IT services includes managed hosting, email hosting and cloud hosting.

To learn more about Rackspace Managed Hosting, please visit: www.rackspace.com.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – (The Hosting News) – July 30, 2009 – Antispam consultancy and implementation enterprise, SpamExperts, has revealed the winner of its HostingCon full conference pass. From the many participants in its promotion, SpamExperts selected Hewlett Packard, former cPanel executive, Alex Villegas.

Mr. Villegas explains his reasoning on why he considers himself worthy of attending the U.S.’s premier hosting event free of charge, “I was in charge of the SPAM presentation during the 2008 cPanel Conference. Most importantly I organized the infamous SpamTable during the 2008 cPanel Conference. The SpamTable Board is a legend accross the Web Hosting Industry that will always prevail. In addition, I MUST be present in order to mediate the Web Hosting Automation Cold War between cPanel (USA) and Parallels:Plesk (Russia). My presence in HostingCon 2009 will of course help Obama stimulate the Global Economy by creating jobs while fighting SPAM via SpamExperts solutions.” 

SpamExperts looks forward to welcoming Alex as well as everyone else at its Booth #230. The company invites everyone to explain whatever spam problem they may have, so that they may assist and reduce expenses on current solutions being utilized. In addtition, they look forward to discussing any other business or spam related topic of concern. 

SpamExperts is an antispam consultancy and implementation enterprise. In-house developed technologies are based on self-learning and networking effects that provide for the elimination of annoyances and costs incurred by spam. SpamExperts aims to accomplish its goals by openly communicating, while being flexible and responsible.

With a projected attendance of over 2,000 Internet professionals from over 30 countries, this year’s premier hosting industry event is expected to be the best one ever produced of its kind in the United States. The HostingCon 2009 exhibit hall will include nearly 100 hosted services vendors displaying products and services, as well as many exciting demonstrations and other activities by top industry businesses.

To learn more about HostingCon news, please visit the official web site which contains all of the latest information regarding the conference.  The HostingCon blog details the latest developments of the event such as scheduled panels, speakers, exhibitors and high-profile keynotes.

For more about HostingCon 2009, please visit: www.hostingcon.com.

To learn more about SpamExperts, please visit: www.spamexperts.com.

Mountain View, California – (The Hosting News) – July 30, 2009 – Search engine, Google, has released the company’s fiscal results, for the period ending as of June 30, 2009.

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google noted, ”Google had a very good quarter, especially given the continued macro-economic downturn. While most of the world’s largest economies shrank, Google’s year-over-year revenues were up 3%. These results highlight the enduring strength of Google’s business model and Google’s responsible efforts to manage expenses in a way that puts us in a good position for the economic upturn, when it occurs. We remain focused on investing in technical innovation to drive growth in our core and new businesses.”

Google reported revenues of $5.52 billion for the quarter ending June 30, 2009, an increase of 3% compared to the second quarter of 2008. Google reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting traffic acquisition costs (TAC). In the second quarter of 2009, TAC totaled $1.45 billion, or 27% of advertising revenues.

Google reports operating income, net income, and earnings per share (EPS) on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. The non-GAAP measures, as well as free cash flow, an alternative non-GAAP measure of liquidity, are described below and are reconciled to the corresponding GAAP measures in the accompanying financial tables.

• GAAP operating income for the first quarter of 2009 was $1.87 billion, or 34% of revenues. This compares to GAAP operating income of $1.58 billion, or 29% of revenues, in the second quarter of 2008. Non-GAAP operating income in the first quarter of 2009 was $2.17 billion, or 39% of revenues. This compares to non-GAAP operating income of $1.85 billion, or 34% of revenues, in the second quarter of 2008.
• GAAP net income for the second quarter of 2009 was $1.48 billion as compared to $382 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. Non-GAAP net income in the first quarter of 2009 was $1.71 billion, compared to $1.47 billion in the second quarter of 2008.
• GAAP EPS for the second quarter of 2009 was $4.66 on 319 million diluted shares outstanding, compared to $3.92 for the second quarter of 2008 on 317 million diluted shares outstanding. Non-GAAP EPS in the first quarter of 2009 was $5.16, compared to $5.10 in the fourth quarter of 2008.
• Non-GAAP operating income and non-GAAP operating margin exclude the expenses related to stock-based compensation (SBC). Non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP EPS exclude the expenses related to SBC, and the related tax benefits. In the second quarter of 2009, the charge related to SBC was $293 million as compared to $273 million in the second quarter of 2008. The tax benefit related to SBC was $69 million in the second quarter of 2009 and $48 million in the second quarter of 2008. Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to GAAP operating income, operating margin, net income, and EPS are included at the end of this release.

Q2 Financial Highlights included:

Revenues – Google reported revenues of $5.52 billion in the second quarter of 2009, representing a 3% increase over second quarter 2008 revenues of $5.37 billion and a 3% decrease from fourth quarter 2008 revenues of $5.70 billion. Google reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting TAC.

Google Sites Revenues – Google-owned sites generated revenues of $3.65 billion, or 66% of total revenues, in the second quarter of 2009. This represents a 3% increase over second quarter 2008 revenues of $3.65 billion.

Google Network Revenues – Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $1.68 billion, or 31% of total revenues, in the second quarter of 2009. This represents a 2% increase from second quarter 2008 network revenues of $1.66 billion.

International Revenues – Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $2.91 billion, representing 53% of total revenues in the second quarter of 2009, compared to 52% in the first quarter of 2009 and second quarter of 2008. Excluding gains related to Google’s foreign exchange risk management program, had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the first quarter of 2009 through the second quarter of 2009, Google’s revenues in the second quarter of 2009 would have been $44 million lower. Excluding gains related to Google’s foreign exchange risk management program, had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the second quarter of 2008 through the second quarter of 2009, Google’s revenues in the second quarter of 2009 would have been $497 million higher.

Revenues from the United Kingdom totaled $715 million, representing 13% of revenues in the second quarter of 2009, compared to 14% in the second quarter of 2008.

In the second quarter of 2009, Google recognized a benefit of $124 million to revenues through Google’s foreign exchange risk management program.

Paid Clicks – Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of Google’s AdSense partners, increased approximately 15% over the second quarter of 2008 and decreased approximately 2% over the first quarter of 2009.

Cost-Per-Click – Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of Google’s AdSense partners, decreased approximately 13% over the second quarter of 2008 and increased approximately 5% over the first quarter of 2009.

TAC – Traffic Acquisition Costs, the portion of revenues shared with Google’s partners, decreased to $1.45 billion in the second quarter of 2009, compared to TAC of $1.47 billion in the second quarter of 2008. TAC as a percentage of advertising revenues was 27% in the second quarter of 2009, compared to 28% in the second quarter of 2008.

The majority of TAC is related to amounts ultimately paid to Google’s AdSense partners, which totaled $1.24 billion in the second quarter of 2009. TAC also includes amounts ultimately paid to certain distribution partners and others who direct traffic to Google’s website, which totaled $218 million in the second quarter of 2009.

Other Cost of Revenues – Other cost of revenues, which is comprised primarily of data center operational expenses, amortization of intangible assets, content acquisition costs as well as credit card processing charges, decreased to $655 million, or 12% of revenues, in the second quarter of 2009, compared to $674 million, or 13% of revenues, in the second quarter of 2008.

Operating Expenses – Operating expenses, other than cost of revenues, were $1.54 billion in the second quarter of 2009, or 28% of revenues, compared to $1.64 billion in the second quarter of 2008, or 31% of revenues.

Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) – In the second quarter of 2009, the total charge related to SBC was $293 million as compared to $273 million in the second quarter of 2008.

Google currently estimates SBC charges for grants to employees prior to July 1, 2009 to be approximately $1.1 billion for 2009. This estimate does not include expenses to be recognized related to employee stock awards that are granted after June 30, 2009 or non-employee stock awards that have been or may be granted.

Operating Income – GAAP operating income in the second quarter of 2009 was $1.87 billion, or 34% of revenues. This compares to GAAP operating income of $1.58 billion, or 29% of revenues, in the second quarter of 2008. Non-GAAP operating income in the second quarter of 2009 was $2.17 billion, or 39% of revenues. This compares to non-GAAP operating income of $1.85 billion, or 34% of revenues, in the second quarter of 2008.

Interest and Other Income (Expense), Net - Interest and other income (expense), net decreased to an expense of $18 million in the second quarter of 2009, compared to an income of $58 million in the second quarter of 2008.

Income Taxes - Effective tax rate was 20% for the second quarter of 2009.

Net Income - GAAP net income for the second quarter of 2009 was $1.48 billion as compared to $1.25 billion in the second quarter of 2008.  Non-GAAP net income was $1.71 billion in the second quarter of 2009, compared to $1.47 billion in the second quarter of 2008.  GAAP EPS for the second quarter of 2009 was $4.66 on 319 million diluted shares outstanding, compared to $3.92 for the second quarter of 2008, on 318 million diluted shares outstanding.  Non-GAAP EPS for the second quarter of 2009 was $5.36, compared to $4.63 in the second quarter of 2008. 
 
Cash Flow and Capital Expenditures - Net cash provided by operating activities for the second quarter of 2009 totaled $1.61 billion as compared to $1.77 billion for the second quarter of 2008.  In the second quarter of 2009, capital expenditures were $139 million, the majority of which was related to IT infrastructure investments, including data centers, servers, and networking equipment.  Free cash flow, an alternative non-GAAP measure of liquidity, is defined as net cash provided by operating activities less capital expenditures.  In the second quarter of 2009, free cash flow was $1.47 billion. 
 
Google expects to continue to make significant capital expenditures.
 
A reconciliation of free cash flow to net cash provided by operating activities, the GAAP measure of liquidity, is included at the end of this release. 
 
Cash - As of June 30, 2009, cash, cash equivalents, and short-term marketable securities were $19.3 billion. 

On a worldwide basis, Google employed 19,786 full-time employees as of June 30, 2009, down from 20,164 full-time employees as of March 31, 2009.

An audio webcast of Google’s second quarter 2009 earnings release call will be available at http://investor.google.com/webcast.html. Google hosted an additional question-and-answer session to provide an opportunity for financial analysts to ask more detailed product and financial questions.

With the largest index of websites available on the World Wide Web and the industry’s most advanced search technology, Google Inc. delivers the fastest and easiest way to find relevant information on the Internet. Google’s technological innovations have earned the company numerous industry awards and citations, including two Webby Awards; two WIRED magazine Readers Raves Awards; Best Internet Innovation and Technical Excellence Award from PC Magazine; Best Search Engine on the Internet from Yahoo! Internet Life; Top Ten Best Cybertech from TIME magazine; and Editor’s Pick from CNET. A growing number of companies worldwide, including Yahoo! and its international properties, Sony Corporation and its global affiliates, AOL/Netscape, and Cisco Systems, rely on Google to power search on their websites. A privately held company based in Mountain View, Calif., Google’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and Sequoia Capital.

For more information Google, please visit: www.google.com.

Houston, Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 30, 2009 – The Planet IT hosting provider, has joined the Microsoft BizSpark Program, where The Planet can provide early-stage startups with free Microsoft software, which otherwise may be unaffordable for certain companies.

As a gold-certified Microsoft partner, The Planet offers the program to qualified companies through its status as an official Network Partner and Hosting Provider. Eligibility requirements, as outlined by Microsoft, are simple and direct. Companies must be actively engaged in the development of a software-based product or service; the company must be privately held and in business for less than three years; and it must generate less than U.S. $1 million in annual revenue.

Urvish Vashi, general manager for The Planet’s Dedicated Servers line of business offered, “Both The Planet and Microsoft are committed to lowering the barrier to entry for small and emerging companies,. As entrepreneurs develop business plans and face the stark reality of start-up costs, they look to save money so they’re able to preserve hard-fought capital for their development resources, particularly in today’s difficult economic environment. Coupled with a hosting solution from The Planet, the BizSpark program offers extraordinary value.”

The BizSpark program provides qualified start-ups with access to vast resources that would otherwise be unavailable to emerging companies:

Software: Companies gain access to full-featured development tools, including Visual Studio Team System, plus production licensing for Windows Server and SQL Server. The only fee is a $100 program offering, payable to Microsoft at the end of participation in the program.

Support: BizSpark provides professional technical support from Microsoft, connecting participants to a global community of business experts who can help guide start-up companies through the hurdles of growing a business.

Visibility: Companies gain global visibility to audiences of potential investors, clients and partners.

The Planet is a leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 18.5 million Web sites worldwide. Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Northstar Managed Hosting and data center colocation, all backed by 24×7x365 support. With the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class service, backed by state-of-the-art data centers and an enterprise-class network.

To learn more about BizSpark, please visit: www.theplanet.com/BizSpark.

For additional information, please visit: www.theplanet.com.

Houston, Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 29, 2009 –
Global IT hosting provider, The Planet, is offering a promotion that includes 10TB of bandwidth at no additional cost to new dedicated server orders, for a limited time.

The promotion, which ends July 31, applies to servers hosted in the company’s world-class Houston and Dallas data centers. The free bandwidth offer can be combined with current special pricing on The Planet’s dedicated servers, starting from $69.

Urvish Vashi, general manager of dedicated hosting at The Planet remarked, “By extending this promotion to virtually every server in our product portfolio, customers with any size business or budget can benefit. We continue to invest in our hosting infrastructure, adding network points of presence on the East and West coasts; broadening the company footprint with an eighth data center in London; and increasing transit capacity to our seven Tier 1 network providers. By extending this promotion to virtually every server in our product portfolio, customers with any size business or budget can benefit.”

The offer is available on standard dedicated servers, excluding Monster configurations and Ready To Go Servers®. For more information, please visit www.theplanet.com/10TB-Bandwidth.

The Planet is a provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 18.5 million Web sites worldwide. Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Northstar Managed Hosting and data center colocation, all backed by 24×7x365 support. With the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class service, backed by state-of-the-art data centers and an enterprise-class network, The Planet turns IT into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to grow their businesses.

For additional information, please visit: www.theplanet.com.

Sunnyvale, California – (The Hosting News) – July 29, 2009 –
Web hosting provider, Yahoo!, and Microsoft will enter into an agreement that is designed to improve the web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry.

According to information released by the companies, Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Under this agreement, Yahoo! will focus on its core business of providing consumers with great experiences with the world’s favorite online destinations and Web products.

Carol Bartz,
Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo! noted, “This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry, and I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development. Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities and mobile experiences.”

For web users and advertisers, this deal will accelerate the pace and breadth of innovation by combining both companies’ complementary strengths and search platforms into a market competitor with the scale to fuel sustained development in search and search advertising. Users will find what they care about faster and with more personal relevance. Microsoft’s competitive search platforms will lead to more value for advertisers, better results for Web publishers, and increased innovation and efficiency across the Internet.

Providing a viable alternative to advertisers, this deal will combine Yahoo! and Microsoft search marketplaces so that advertisers no longer have to rely on one company that dominates more than 70 percent of all search. With the addition of Yahoo!’s search volume, Microsoft will achieve the size and scale required to unleash competition and innovation in the market, for consumers as well as advertisers.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said the agreement will provide Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, the scale necessary to more effectively compete, attracting more users and advertisers, which in turn will lead to more relevant ads and search results.

Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft added, “Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company. Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we’ve created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search.”

Roy Bostock, Chairman, Yahoo! Inc. remarked, “This deal fits the long-term strategic direction of Yahoo! to remain the world’s leading online media company and Carol Bartz has the full and unanimous support of the Yahoo! Board behind this deal. This is a significant opportunity for us. Microsoft is an industry innovator in search and it is a great opportunity for us to focus our investments in other areas critical to our future.”

The key terms of the agreement are as follows:

• The term of the agreement is 10 years;
• Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing Web search platforms;
• Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology;
• Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process;
• Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force;
• Yahoo! will innovate and “own” the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology;
• Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!’s network of both owned and operated (O and O) and affiliate sites;
  • Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue generated on Yahoo!’s O and O sites during the first five years of the agreement; and
  • Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.
• Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!’s O and O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country;
• At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million; and
• The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

The agreement does not cover each company’s web properties and products, email, instant messaging, display advertising, or any other aspect of the companies’ businesses. In those areas, the companies will continue to compete vigorously.

The transaction will be subject to regulatory review. The agreement entered into today anticipates that the parties will enter into more detailed definitive agreements prior to closing. Microsoft and Yahoo! expect the agreement to be closely reviewed by the industry and government regulators, and welcome questions. The companies are hopeful that closing can occur in early 2010.

The companies have established a website at www.choicevalueinnovation.com to provide consumers, advertisers and publishers with additional information about the benefits of the agreement.

Conference Call – 5:30 a.m. PDT, Wednesday, July 29

Yahoo! and Microsoft will host a conference call with Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss the agreement at 5:30 a.m. Pacific/8:30 a.m. Eastern Time today. To listen to the call, please dial 1-866-515-2908 in the U.S. and Canada; +1-617-399-5122 international, reservation number: 47968026. A live webcast of the call can be accessed through Yahoo!’s Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/results.cfm. In addition, an archive of the webcast will be available through the same link. An audio replay of the call will be available for two weeks following the conference call by calling 1-888-286-8010 in the U.S. and Canada; +1-617-801-6888 international, reservation number: 91217610.

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq “YHOO”) is a leading global consumer brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is where millions of people go every day to see what is happening with the people and things that matter to them most. Yahoo! helps marketers reach that audience with its unique and compelling advertiser proposition. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

For more information, please visit: http://pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal at http://yodel.yahoo.com.

Pasadena, California – (The Hosting News) – July 29, 2009 –
DiscountASP.NET, provider of ASP.NET hosting and SQL hosting, has received an award for Best ASP.NET Hosting Provider by the WindowsHostingASP.Net hosting directory.

Svetlin Boychev, CEO and Founder of WindowsHostingASP.Net explained, “The WindowsHostingASP.Net Awards are given to the Best ASP.NET Hosting Providers in the industry, who have proven themselves by delivering high quality services and the latest ASP.NET technologies to their customers. All of the awarded ASP.NET Hosts are rated and tested by our experienced webmasters team.”

Takeshi Eto, VP Marketing and Business Development at DiscountASP.NET offered, “We were extremely thrilled to learn that we won this award.. We are honored that our ASP.NET hosting product stood out to win this award in 2009. We will continue to innovate and hope to be a contender for years to come.”

WindowsHostingASP.Net provide useful ASP.NET hosting resources and information, including ASP.NET hosting providers, Windows hosting forums, ASP.NET hosting Glossary, ASP.NET hosting FAQ, ASP.NET Books and more. WindowsHostingASP.Net help developers and business owners to find valuable ASP.NET hosting solutions and quality ASP.NET web hosting services.

DiscountASP.NET is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a global leader in Microsoft Windows shared hosting, focused on providing the best value in ASP.NET hosting and SQL database hosting. As an innovator in .NET hosting, DiscountASP.NET is one of the first to offer Windows 2008 hosting, IIS7 hosting, SQL 2008 hosting and ASP.NET MVC hosting. Through strong word-of-mouth and their commitment to ASP.NET and SQL technology, DiscountASP.NET has become the choice for affordable and feature-rich ASP.NET web hosting.

For more information, please visit: www.DiscountASP.NET.

Herndon, Virginia – (The Hosting News) – July 29, 2009 – Provider of information technology solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, BackMesh, has developed its Optimized Drupal Hosting Platform, specifically designed to provide reliable, scalable hosting capabilities for Drupal-based web sites.

BlackMesh’s customizable solution is designed to enable Drupal developers to improve the performance of their Web sites, while at the same time enhance and simplify security by automatically synching with daily updates.

Eric Mandel, CEO of BlackMesh offered, “By working with Drupal sites and users for several years and because of BlackMesh’s large install base of single-server and multiple-server Drupal sites, we’ve been able to develop market-leading optimizations and hosting innovations throughout the Drupal stack. We’ve created our Optimized Drupal Hosting Platform to simplify day-to-day maintenance for Drupal users, providing a solution that addresses many common problems, as well as access to creative experts who can develop innovative resolutions to complex errors. In addition, our customers have access to our unlimited customer service, as well as the architectural support and scalability necessary to grow their web sites.”

Drupal, an open source content management system, has experienced immense growth in popularity as more businesses, individuals and government agencies build Web sites with Drupal for its ease of use, scalability, extended availability of features and modules. In addition, users have easy access to an engaging open source community. While organizations are quick to appreciate the benefits of Drupal for designing Web sites, many do not have the bandwidth or understanding to manage the infrastructure needed to host Drupal sites.

In the Optimized Drupal Hosting Platform, BlackMesh applies Drupal Optimizations to the entire LAMP Stack. This includes specific updates to Apache, MySQL and PHP. In addition, BlackMesh installs all of the supporting non-Drupal applications, such as outgoing mail server, PHP modules, PHP PECL/PEAR and caches. The Optimized Drupal Hosting Platform service includes implementation and BlackMesh’s specialized, 24×7x365 support for multiple architectures, including:Single Server

• Dual Servers (Separated Web and database tiers)
• N Web, N Database, Load Balancer
• Intelligent Distributed “Files” Directory Handling
• Multi-Server Databases With failover and SELECT-Only Servers
• Comprehensive MySQL Security And Login Management

Customers using the Optimized Drupal Hosting Platform will also have access to BlackMesh’s unique, unlimited service plan, which includes 100 percent uptime on the BlackMesh network, dedicated administrators and 24×7x365 access to personalized support via phone, email or the Web. BlackMesh’s information technology team caters to each client’s specific needs, ensuring that their network demands are in sync with their business objectives.

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Herndon, Va., BlackMesh is an award-winning provider of information technology solutions for small and mid-sized businesses. BlackMesh specializes in the design, deployment, and administration of robust, innovative managed hosting and managed services in both off-site and on-site locations. Combining powerful, high-performance technologies with world-class service and support, BlackMesh provides its customers with the tools they need to lower costs, accelerate growth, increase agility and improve efficiency.

For more information, please visit: www.blackmesh.com.

New York, New York – (The Hosting News) – July 28, 2009 – Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider of Hyper-V virtual dedicated server hosting, hosted Exchange, hosted SharePoint, and BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) hosting, Apps4Rent LLC, has enhanced its server administration plans.

Starting at $29/month, the plans may be added to Apps4Rent’s basic Hyper-V virtual dedicated server hosting packages that start at $49/month. There is no setup fee for Apps4Rent’s dedicated SharePoint server, hosted SharePoint, hosted exchange, BES hosting, Hyper-V virtual dedicated server hosting, and server administration plans.

Wade Dube, Manager for Apps4Rent explained, “Many of our Hyper-V hosting customers lack the internal resources to manage dedicated servers on a 24/7 basis. Such customers can depend on our experienced server administrators on Windows or Linux/Unix platforms who monitor, maintain, and manage the dedicated servers for full reliability.”

Apps4Rent’s IT clients who use hosted Kaseya, a managed service provider (MSP) software for desktop and server management, can also add Apps4Rent’s server administration plans to their packages.

Clients who purchase the server administration plans from Apps4Rent can focus on their core business, while Apps4Rent staff brings its experience and best practices of the industry to extract continuous top performance from the dedicated servers.

Tasks included in the server administration plans include 24/7/365 monitoring and helpdesk, server reboots, patch management, installation, configuration, and maintenance of popular mail or collaboration platforms (Exchange, Sendmail, Qmail, IMAP, POP3 ,Postfix, Imail, hosted SharePoint), Web servers (IIS, Apache, SAMBA, Squid, Tomcat), database servers (Microsoft SQL server, MySQL and PostgreSQL), DNS servers, and firewalls. In addition, clients can request assistance or have Apps4Rent’s experts work on custom projects and server administration tasks; certain hours are included in the server administration plans, incremental hours can be purchased at a reasonable hourly rate.

Apps4Rent LLC, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, is a provider of hosted applications such as hosted Exchange, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry® Enterprise Server (BES) hosting, hosted SharePoint, and Hyper-V Virtual Dedicated Server hosting. Apps4Rent’s processes are designed to provide 99.99% uptime with clustered infrastructure located in highly reliable top-tier SAS 70 compliant data centers. Apps4Rent, with customers in over 50 countries, can be reached 24/7/365 through phone, e-mail, and chat.

For more information about Hyper-V virtual dedicated server hosting, and server administration plans, please visit: www.apps4rent.com/server-administration-managed-services-plans-hyper-v-kaseya-hosting.html.

To learn more about Apps4Rent, please visit: www.apps4rent.com.

Dallas. Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 28, 2009 – Managed web hosting provider, NeoSpire, Inc., recently launched several new social media efforts to better facilitate the communication between the company, its customers, and the industry.

The social media launch includes a corporate blog, Twitter account, YouTube Channel and a Facebook Fan Page.
NeoSpire’s blog will launch July 21, 2009 and can be located at blog.neospire.net and will include updates on company events and an insider’s view of employees’ thoughts and direct posts from employees from all the various departments, so that customers can get a better sense of what NeoSpire represents. On the company’s Twitter account (twitter.com/NeoSpire) and NeoSpire’s YouTube channel people can follow daily insights regarding the company’s current focus and attention. NeoSpire’s Facebook fan page is also a great resource to find a concise page of current company news.

Mitch Gervis, President and CEO commented, “Being connected is vitally important for our company in today’s market. It allows us to better stay in touch with what concerns our customers and also with what is happening in our world. With these new social media tools we feel that we are better equipped to do just that.”

NeoSpire believes in serving its customers to the fullest and making themselves available to address any concerns customers might have. Being more connected and proactive with customers and the industry allows for NeoSpire to better meet the changing needs of businesses. By using social media as a vehicle to send out updates on the latest industry trends, technologies, and threats allows NeoSpire to better fulfill their motto of ‘Securing Trust.’

NeoSpire, Inc. is a provider of full-service, mission critical managed hosting solutions for organizations that demand 100% uptime. Since 1999, NeoSpire has been providing the infrastructure, security, expertise and customer-centric support required by clients that rely on Web sites and Web-based applications for critical business purposes.

To learn more, please visit: www.neospire.net.

Plano. Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 28, 2009 - Worldwide provider of on-demand IT infrastructure, Layered Technologies, Inc. (Layered Tech), has been named to the Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Web Hosting and Hosted Cloud System Infrastructure Services (On Demand)” published July 2, 2009, and written by Gartner analysts Lydia Leong and Ted Chamberlin.

Jack Finlayson, CEO of Layered Tech remarked, “There are hundreds of hosting companies, so Layered Tech is particularly pleased to be named to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant because we believe that industry recognition like this validates the strategies we have been implementing during the past year.  Layered Tech is committed to delivering a broad range of managed solutions to our customers.  As a technology innovator, we continue to enhance our solution set while broadening our roadmap to include automated solutions that support our customers’ evolving needs.”

According to the Gartner report which evaluated 16 companies overall, “The Web hosting market is evolving rapidly and converging with cloud system infrastructure services, creating new opportunities for cost savings and business agility.”  Gartner based its 2009 evaluation on five use cases for hosting: self-managed hosting, mainstream-managed hosting, highly complex managed hosting, global solutions portfolio, and enterprise applications hosting.

Layered Tech offerings introduced during the past year include:

• Launch of Astro, Layered Tech’s proprietary platform for rapid server deployment
• The deployment of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 to Astro for rapid server deployments broadening the existing portfolio which includes Linux and Unix operating systems
• Expanding Astro offerings to include Virtual Firewall Solutions from Fortinet
• Expansion of its DEFCON managed services to include virtual machines

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2009, by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission.  The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period.  It depicts Gartner’s analysis on how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner.  Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant.  The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action.  Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Layered Technologies is a global provider of managed dedicated hosting, on-demand virtualization/cloud computing and web services.  By providing high-quality technology, infrastructure and support, Layered Tech enables customers to eliminate capital expenses and save on operating costs while focusing on core business issues.  Layered Tech’s scalable infrastructure powers millions of sites and Internet-enabled applications including e-commerce, software as a service (SaaS), content distribution and more.  Our clients range from leading-edge Web 2.0 startups, successful mid-sized enterprises and some the world’s largest consultancy and integration firms. 

For more information about Layered Technologies, please visit: www.LayeredTech.com.

New Orleans, Louisiana – (The Hosting News) – July 28, 2009 – At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 (WPC09), Microsoft Corp. announced the global availability of partner program to help hosting providers and their resellers market hosted unified communications to small and midsize business (SMB) customers.

Microsoft Communication Services provides a common set of marketing collateral and the ability to utilize the Microsoft brand beyond individual product brands for better recognition in the SMB marketplace. The initiative is open to Microsoft partners that have attained the Hosting Solutions competency, part of the broader Microsoft Partner Network. John Zanni, general manager of the Worldwide Software plus Services Industry team for the Communications Sector at Microsoft, will outline Microsoft Communication Services and its benefits to hosting providers and their resellers in a software-plus-services breakout session today titled “Bringing It All Together Across MS Online Services, Partner Hosted and Windows Azure.”

Mr. Zanni noted, “SMBs are increasingly interested in communication and collaboration tools to improve productivity and reduce costs. The majority of customers in the SMB segment want to purchase Microsoft Hosted Exchange and Microsoft Office Communications Server services from companies that package these offerings. With Microsoft Communication Services, hosting providers and their resellers are speaking the language of their customers.”

Microsoft Communication Services was designed with Comcast, the leading provider of entertainment, information and communications products and services in the U.S., to help enable service providers to offer higher-margin services, create customer loyalty and become a trusted advisor. Collateral and guidance focuses on marketing a solution of collaborative hosted services, including hosted Microsoft Exchange Server, Hosted Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Live Meeting. Microsoft-branded collateral includes demo videos, marketing guidance and telesales scripts.

Also, today Microsoft announced that Outsourcery Ltd. (formerly Genesis Communications Ltd.), a U.K. hosting and communications provider and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, will use Microsoft Communication Services in the United Kingdom, enabling it to better market Microsoft-branded solution bundles to its customers.

Mark Seemann, Product Strategy Director at Outsourcery added, “Outsourcery is delighted to be involved in the launch of Microsoft Communication Services to U.K. SMBs. We’ve found that the Microsoft brand name resonates very well with our SMB customers, and that Microsoft Communication Services allows us to talk about entire solutions rather than just individual products. This alliance is totally aligned with our business strategy to become Europe’s No. 1 outsourced IT and unified communications provider for Microsoft-hosted solutions.”

Microsoft and Comcast piloted the program in November 2007, helping Comcast market business-class e-mail, calendaring and document sharing to its SMB customers. To date, Comcast has more than 100,000 e-mail users on Microsoft Hosted Exchange. Based on the success of the pilot for Comcast and its customers, Microsoft will now offer Microsoft Communication Services worldwide to all its hosting partners.

Bill Stemper, President, Comcast Business Services remarked, “Microsoft Communication Services from Comcast is an integral part of our Business Class Internet service and truly differentiates us from our competition. Not only does it help small-business owners be more productive but it also helps them save money by dramatically reducing their need for communication servers and IT support.”

Information on how to find a certified hosting partner is available at www.microsoft.com/hosting/catalogs/reseller/private-label-hosting.mspx. More information about announcements at WPC is available at www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/wwpc/default.aspx. More information on Outsourcery is available at www.outsourcery.co.uk. More information on Comcast is available at http://business.comcast.com/internet/business-tools.aspx.

To learn more about Microsoft Communication Services, please visit: www.partner.microsoft.com/communicationservices.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Burlington, Massachusetts – (The Hosting News) – July 23, 2009 – Web hosting, domain registration and related marketing services company, FatCow, is powering its offices and data centers with 100 percent wind energy. 

Paul Bukhovko, Marketing Manager at FatCow explained, “We’re offsetting all of our electricity use by purchasing wind-generated Renewable Energy Certificates, providing our customers with an environmentally preferable web hosting solution.” 

The Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are being supplied by wind energy marketer and developer Community Energy Inc. (CEI).

On behalf of all of its offices and data centers, FatCow is buying 4,412,000 kilowatt hours (kWhs) per year of wind-generated RECs.  This volume is comparable to the entire output of one 1.5 megawatt (MW) wind turbine over the course of one year.  When compared to the average generation mix in the national electric grid, the estimated environmental benefit from this purchase is equal to offsetting approximately 2,260 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, the impact of which is equivalent to planting about 2,390 acres of trees each year or not driving 6.1 million miles.

Brent Alderfer, Executive VP of Community Energy noted, “Electricity generation is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and Community Energy applauds FatCow for taking action on climate change. Their commitment to 100 percent wind-generated RECs makes a difference for cleaner air, a stronger economy and new clean energy sources in the U.S.”

By reducing its carbon footprint, FatCow is responding to feedback from its staff, as well as letting customers host green sites of their own.  Mr. Bukhovko added, “Quite frankly, our employees and our customers were the driving factors behind our decision to go green.  Our staff members encourage responsible environmental behavior inside the office and practice it outside the office.  And, we know that many of our customers feel just as strongly.  We wanted to give them an opportunity to reduce their own carbon footprint by hosting their sites on servers 100 percent powered by wind energy.”

FatCow provides shared web hosting solutions for individuals and small- to medium-sized businesses looking for an affordable, reliable Web hosting option.  FatCow pioneered the “one plan, one price” philosophy when it began offering its signature all-in-one Web site hosting solution, The FatCow, back in 1998.

Headquartered in Radnor, Pa., Community Energy, Inc. (CEI) is a marketer and developer of wind energy generation celebrating 10 years of wind power leadership.  CEI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iberdrola Renewables — the world leader in wind power. CEI cites its utility partners and customers as the reason for its success in bringing wind energy to market in new regions of the country.  CEI has developed new wind projects in the mid-Atlantic and Midwest and supports projects under development throughout the U.S. 

For more information about FatCow’s commitment to the environment, please visit: www.fatcow.com/green.

To learn more about wind energy, please visit: www.NewWindEnergy.com.

New Orleans, Louisiana – (The Hosting News) – July 23, 2009 – Collaborative infrastructure and web hosting application firm, Ensim Corporation, along with the BroadSoft firm, have embarked upon a collaborative demonstration of a new unified communications (UC) solution based on Ensim’s Unify provisioning platform.

David J. Wippich, president and CEO of Ensim Corporation explained, “Creating a comprehensive hosted UC solution presents a unique set of challenges due to the complexity of integrating multiple applications from multiple vendors in a unified and turnkey manner. Ensim Unify enables service providers to quickly, easily and inexpensively launch and manage a hosted UC offering that combines state-of-the-art, self-management capabilities with unrivaled flexibility.”

The new solution, designed for automating the creation, activation and configuration of hosted IP, SaaS and application services, has been successfully deployed by Outsourcery Limited (formerly Genesis Communications Limited), a U.K.-based provider of UC and hosted IT solutions, will be demonstrated at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 in New Orleans.

Based on Ensim’s latest release of Ensim Unify Service Provider Edition, 4.7.0, the production-ready system features support for BroadSoft’s BroadWorks VoIP application platform, the Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (HMC) 4.5, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to provide a robust solution for service providers looking to deliver a complete “Unified Communications Solution as a service” offering to small and medium-sized enterprises.

Piers Linney, director of Outsourcery added, “This combined effort provides Outsourcery with the ability to revolutionize the way start-ups and SMBs consume and pay for all their communications and IT needs. By offering a complete hosted UC solution on a per user, per month basis, SMBs gain access to enterprise-level solutions without the need for expensive hardware or onerous maintenance contracts.”

The companies will host a demonstration of the UC solution during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, July 13-16. The demo includes the following features:

·        Ensim Unify BroadWorks Manager – gives service providers enhanced capabilities to automate provisioning and integrate with their existing Operational Support System (OSS) to rapidly introduce, deliver, and manage VoIP services.

·        Ensim Unify Exchange Manager – allows service providers and resellers to flexibly combine Exchange Server 2007 functions into a full range of custom service plans.

·        Ensim Unify OCS (R2) Manager – a complete, role-based access management solution that can be deployed just for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 or across the entire unified communications infrastructure; enables self-service for management of features like group chat lists.

·        Complete UC functionality – integrated business telephony, video telephony, collaboration, call centers, mobile/wireless integration, and CEPBP/enterprise application integration for key business tools like CRM and ERP.

John Zanni, general manager of Worldwide Software Plus Services in the communications sector at Microsoft Corp. offered, “The global unified communications market is growing to be a $6 billion market opportunity for service providers. The ability for industry partners such as Ensim to provide a complete UC solution offers a real-time experience for end users by integrating telephony and desktop applications without carrying costs of IT equipment and support.”

David Bukovsky, vice president of products, BroadSoft noted, “Unified Communications is incredibly powerful, but often its cost and complexity has made it accessible only to large enterprises. This has been a major impetus behind the growing demand for ‘UC as a Service’- UC provided ‘in the cloud’ by service providers. This collaborative solution not only gives service providers the capability to fulfill a market demand, but it does so in a way that allows them to rapidly and cost effectively scale and grow their business.” 

Ensim Unify Service Provider Edition is available immediately. For more information, visit Booth # 327 or call Ensim at 1-888-248-4003 (1-408-496-3700 from outside the U.S.).

BroadSoft provides VoIP application software that enables the delivery of hosted telephony and multimedia services. After the 2008 acquisitions of Sylantro and the GENBAND M6 product line, BroadSoft has emerged as the undisputed market leader of VoIP application servers. BroadSoft’s family of carrier-class products, including its award-winning flagship BroadWorks technology, empowers wireless, wireline and cable carriers to deliver next-generation voice and multimedia applications and advanced features that enable them to increase revenue, enhance competitive differentiation and elevate customer satisfaction. BroadSoft products deliver the scale, open architecture and reliability that the world’s leading telecommunications companies demand to serve mission-critical enterprise and residential broadband customers. BroadSoft provides VoIP applications to nine of the top 10 and 15 of the top 25 largest carriers worldwide, as measured by recent annual revenue, including KPN, Korea Telecom, Qwest, SingTel, Sprint, Swisscom, Telefónica de España, Telstra, T-Systems, and Verizon. For additional information, go to www.BroadSoft.com.

Outsourcery Limited rebranded from Genesis Communications Limited in July 2009.  The company is the UK’s leading provider of mobile-centric unified communications and hosted IT solutions to SMBs, having acquired an HMC platform in 2007 and a Dynamics CRM business (Increase Limited) in early 2009.  With an investment of $15 million in our own data centers and hosting infrastructure, Outsourcery is now the UK’s #1 independent provider of business mobile solutions for SMBs and the UK’s #1 provider of hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Outsourcery has an annual turnover of circa $90 million and manages 25,000 SMB customers and over 100,000 business users.  The company employs over 250 staff in four UK offices. Outsourcery was selected as Microsoft’s launch partner for Microsoft Communication Services at their Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 in New Orleans.

Founded in 1998, Ensim Corporation is the leading provider of user provisioning and access control software. Ensim products are used by service providers and enterprises worldwide to accelerate and enable deployment of integrated solutions, simplify and automate secure management of complex environments, and increase user and IT productivity. Ensim is Microsoft Gold Certified, and maintains strategic partnerships with many leading infrastructure vendors including Research In Motion (BlackBerry), Hewlett-Packard, Accenture, Siemens and BroadSoft.

For more information about Ensim, please visit: www.ensim.com.

Seattle, Washington – (The Hosting News) – July 23, 2009 – Provider of shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated web hosting services, AptHost Communications USA Inc., has launched a major advertising campaign, in connection with its recent acquisition by Rancho Santa Monica Developments (RSDV).

Graham Alexander, President of Rancho Santa Monica Developments noted, “I believe this campaign will boost AptHost’s sales tremendously, which will give us the oppurtunity to grow AptHost rapidly with little impact on server performance. In addition the new website we put up several weeks ago has increased our conversion rate by a marginal but noticeable amount. This is only the beginning for AptHost as it becomes a speeding train coming down the tracks.”

RSDV is a public company and has been in the process of raising money to begin an advertising campaign for AptHost with the intent to increase sales by an exponential standard.

Advertising will commence on websites like www.webhostingtalk.com, http://webhostdir.com and many others. Primarily, AptHost plans to focus on advertising and special partnerships with script developers of the ever more popular Video Sharing Market. AptHost’s recent growth over the years in the FFMpeg Market has pushed it to become one of the leading providers of FFmpeg Hosting.

The campaign is expected to last for several months with no expected completion date. During this time of growth, AptHost’s management team plan to focus on increasing customer satisfaction with the addition of more staff and communication systems for easier availability.

Founded in 2001, AptHost.com started its enterprise on the web in early 2003. Since then, AptHost.com has become a leading provider of Linux-based web hosting services for Personal, Small, and Medium Sized businesses.

Founded in 2004, Rancho is a US Public Company with ticker symbol RSDV and is a diversified development company based in Madera, CA.

To learn more, please visit: www.apthost.com.