Plano, Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 15, 2009 – Dedicated server solution provider, SoftLayer, recently supported the live Internet broadcast of the Michael Jackson Memorial Service, as an on-demand data center services provider, selected by multi-platform IP services and content delivery provider, Highwinds.

As a trusted partner to support high-quality live streaming of the global event, it is believed that the memorial service’s viewership was second only to the inauguration of President Barack Obama, also streamed by SoftLayer and Highwinds.

Ric Moseley, Vice President of Engineering at SoftLayer noted, ”It would be enough of an accomplishment just to handle an event of this scale. But being able to handle it without any interruption to regular operations really proves the robustness of our architecture and network. We are proud to have been a part of such a historic occasion, and that customers like Highwinds keep coming back to us for our expertise.”

SoftLayer provisioned more than 400 servers for the one-day netcast, demonstrating the service providers’ massive and dynamic scalability. SoftLayer streamed more than 45Gb of event coverage for the day, leading to a one-day high of 100Gb total traffic between its three data centers, with no reported outages or performance issues.

More and more people are turning to the Internet instead of television as their video source for important live events. After media and social networking sites experienced outages and overloading on the day of Jackson’s passing, it was expected his memorial service would generate record levels of attention.

George Antoniou, Vice President of Operations at Highwinds explained, ”We knew from our mutual success streaming the Obama Inauguration that SoftLayer was the ideal partner for this event.”

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer delivers world-class, on-demand virtual data center services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC. SoftLayer integrates all facets of IT to innovate industry-leading solutions that are fully automated. This empowers customers with complete control, security, scalability, and ease-of-management for their IT environment.

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

Houston, Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 15, 2009 – IT hosting provider, The Planet, is participating at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference through July 16 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, a collection of buildings in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Steve Kahan, vice president of marketing and product management at The Planet’s noted, ”As a Microsoft Gold Certified See certification, we invite partners, customers and prospects to stop by either of The Planet’s locations to learn how they can leverage our hosting partner solutions and IT infrastructure to help their businesses grow.”

Conference attendees who stop by The Planet booth can enter to win one of two grand prizes. The first-place winner receives six months of free service on a Dell PowerEdge R710 server, complete with two 2.4 GHz Intel Nehalem processors and 6GB of RAM (a $2,940 value). The second-place prize is a free Storage Cloud account for six months, which includes 100GB of cloud storage Cloud storage (also known as Cloud computing or Cloud services) is a model of networked data storage where data is stored on multiple virtual servers, generally hosted by third parties, rather than being hosted on dedicated servers and 250GB of bandwidth (a $465 value).

The Planet will also host the IT Effectiveness Index (www.iteffectivenessindex.com) at its booth, an online survey that lets small- and medium-size business owners see in real time how their IT system performance compares to industry peers. Microsoft is one of nine survey sponsors.

The Worldwide Partner Conference provides Microsoft’s partner community with access to key marketing and business strategies, leadership, and information regarding specific customer solutions designed to help partners succeed. Along with informative learning opportunities covering sales, marketing, services and technology, the Worldwide Partner Conference is an ideal setting for partners to garner valuable knowledge from their peers and from Microsoft.

The IT Effectiveness Index is the first-ever benchmarking tool that measures the technology effectiveness of small- and medium-sized businesses throughout the world: www.iteffectivenessindex.com. Spearheaded by companies with a core interest in the SMB market, the survey provides insight and counsel for improving business processes and IT effectiveness. Members of the consortium include the following companies: HostSearch (www.hostsearch.com); Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw State University, commonly known as Kennesaw State, is a public, coeducational university and is part of the University System of Georgia. It is located in Kennesaw, an unincorporated community in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, approximately 20 miles north of (www.kennesaw.edu); Microsoft (www.microsoft.com); Nine Lives Media (www.ninelivesmediainc.com); The Planet (www.theplanet.com); SmallBizTechnology.com (www.smallbiztechnology.com); Small Business Trends (http://smallbiztrends.com); SMB (1) Small to Medium-sized Business). Also called SME (small to medium-sized enterprise), it refers to companies that are larger than the small office/home office (SOHO), but not huge. Nation (www.smbnation.com) and Yankee Group (the Yankee Group, Boston, MA, www.yankeegroup.com) A major market research, analysis and consulting firm founded in 1970 by Howard Anderson. It provides general consulting and strategic planning in the computer and communications field. (www.yankeegroup.com).

The Planet’s goal is to deliver enterprise level hosting solutions that are readily available, affordable, and scalable. The Planet offers dedicated servers, co-location, Internet access, email and business continuance. Customers receive extreme value through offerings such as advanced security, proactive monitoring, database administration, data storage, load balancing, and virtual private networks, all managed through Orbit, The Planet’s customer portal.
The Planet’s Northstar Managed Hosting and data center colocation is all backed by 24x7x365 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.

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

Oxfordshire, United Kingdom – (The Hosting News) – July 14, 2009 – Storm Internet, an International web site hosting company, has revealed an increase of 120% growth since July 2008.

The Oxfordshire based company, which provides high quality web hosting solutions for individuals and businesses around the world, has seen its profits treble in the last 12 months – highlighting that it’s still possible for businesses to succeed in the economic downturn.

Salim Benadel, CEO explains, ”I believe our marked success this year is down to two things; offering an excellent product and providing customer support that is second to none. We understand that buying anything IT related is an important business decision. And that’s why we place so much emphasis on support. From our 24/7 hour customer service, to Live Chat, to assigning each customer a dedicated Account Manager, we are committed to providing the best expert service we can.”

Mr. Benadel believes that word of mouth is the best way to receive and retain businesses, continuing, ”The majority of our customers come from recommendation; whether it is from friends, colleagues or as a result of online customer reviews. We work on the principal that if you spend time with you customer and build a solution to their IT problems, then not only will they stay with you, but they will recommend your services to other people. That’s the type of growth we want.”

Mr. Benadel also doesn’t believe in spending thousands on advertising and marketing, saying ”Let’s face it anyone can pay to blow their own trumpet. We hope that our products and services do the talking for us.”

Storm’s vision for future growth is to continue offering excellent customer service and to focus on flexibility in their range of products and services. Recently Storm launched a range of business solutions for small and medium sized organisations.

Mr. Benadel added, ”In order to compete in the economic downturn, it has become more important than ever for small businesses to sell their services on the internet. And it’s not just having a good website that’s a must. An effective email system is imperative, as is ensuring that important data is backed up.”

Recent statistics from the London Chamber of Commerce highlight that 90% of businesses that lose data from a disaster are forced to shut down within 2 years.

Since 1996, Storm Internet has built a reputation of providing consistent and reliable Internet connectivity in urban and rural communities. An industry leader in fixed-wireless connectivity, Storm currently maintains one of the largest broadband wireless networks in North America, covering approximately 35,000 square kilometers, spanning more than 50 communities and municipalities (see: coverage map/chart). Through a network of partners, resellers, and affiliates, Storm continues to demonstrate a leadership position in connecting urban and rural communities with broadband infrastructure.

To learn more, please visit: www.storminternet.co.uk.

Mountain View, California – (The Hosting News) – July 14, 2009 – Search engine,
Google, has been in development of its Google Chrome OS, an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks.

Later this year Google will open-source its code and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Approximately nine months ago, launched the Google Chrome browser, which is being used by over 30 million people. Google Chrome was designed for people who live on the web – searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS, to be fast and lightweight, to start up in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of the user’s way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And with the Chrome browser, Google is going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and the company is working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple – Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, Google believes that choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including the company.

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.

To learn more, please visit: http://chrome.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-chrome-os-faq.html.

Flemington, New Jersey – (The Hosting News) – July 14, 2009 – Private label reseller web hosting services, Value Reseller, has acquired white label provider of outsourced technical support, administration and management services exclusively for web hosting companies, LogicSupport.

Ali Davachi, Chief Executive Officer of Value Reseller remarked, ”Value Reseller is only as successful as its partners. We will always look to bring on new and enhanced capabilities that will drive strategic and bottom line value, whether through acquisition, partnership or internal development. We will put the full weight of our company behind our reseller partners.”

LogicSupport provides hosting companies with 24/7 technical support services and guarantees a response time of one hour for any issue. Services offered include serving administration, 24/7 server monitoring, security scans, firewall installation, troubleshooting, and server setup and configuration. LogicSupport also offers a full range of security services that includes scanning, monitoring, intrusion detection and prevention and security software installation. In addition to a full range of server management services, LogicSupport has expertise with databases, FTP, e-mail, DNS and scripting.

The LogicSupport acquisition follows Value Resellers’ recent purchase of Javascript Zoom, a Javascript application that allows users to zoom in and focus closely on web site objects. The application is used to enhance customer web sites hosted by resellers, enhancing the overall value of their service. These two deals underscore Value Reseller’s commitment to providing all the technology, tools and services necessary to deliver a high-quality hosting service that generates additional revenue streams for partners.

LogicSupport can handle almost any type of hosting customer, supporting the Fedora Linux, CentOS Linux, SUSE, Debian, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and Windows operating systems. Hosting control panels supported include Plesk, cPanel, WHM, H-Sphere, Ensim Pro, Alabanza, Web Admin and Direct Admin.

Value Reseller has integrated LogicSupport into its infrastructure and is now capable of backing any hosting scenario or deployment. Reseller Partners will now have access to another critical service from a single source, reducing aggravation and increasing service quality across the board.

Mr. Davachi added, ”We are extremely excited about this acquisition. LogicSupport has developed a stellar reputation across the industry and its addition significantly strengthens our overall support and management capabilities. LogicSupport enables us to provide a completely integrated, end-to-end offering to web hosting resellers, including everything from the servers, network and data center to the technical support infrastructure and marketing tools. No other company can match such a powerful value proposition and it is why more and more resellers are coming on board at Value Reseller.”

Value Reseller provides a private label reseller hosting solution to web designers, developers and smaller hosting companies. Reseller partners get access to a world class hosting operation with a cloud-based infrastructure that is guaranteed to deliver 100% uptime. Value Reseller does not compete at the retail level against its partners and is fully committed to helping them succeed.

Value Reseller, established in 1998 with facilities in Boston, MA and Jersey City, NJ, is a privately owned private label web hosting provider focused exclusively on the reseller market. Hosting services offered include shared hosting, enterprise virtualization, virtual private and dedicated servers, and are available for both the Windows and Linux operating systems. All of Value Reseller’s services are backed by a leading edge datacenter infrastructure and network, and supported live 24/7/365 by technicians and customer service professionals. Value Reseller features a next-generation hosting platform built on the principles of cloud computing, making it possible to guarantee 100% uptime availability. This platform is the foundation from which Value Reseller has been able to offer customers hosting for unlimited domains – one of the biggest breakthroughs in web hosting over the past 10 years. Value Reseller is committed to enabling the success of its resellers and does not participate in the retail market in competition with its partners. With a complete private label service, web developers, ISPs, design shops and Internet professionals have everything they need to build a successful hosting business or enhance their existing offerings.

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

Los Gatos, California – (The Hosting News) – July 14, 2009 – Private label web and video conferencing software firm, Persony, has made available a free version of its Web Conferencing 2.0 in the Application Packaging Standard (APS) format promoted by Parallels.

Adopted by key Cloud Services Providers and third party application vendors, APS is a new industry standard that simplifies deployment of web applications, enabling service providers and their customers to easily deploy Persony’s web conferencing software on their web sites.

Soeren von Varchmin, Vice President of SaaS, Parallels remarked, ”We are pleased to see Persony joining the growing list of commercial applications in the APS Catalog. Persony’s web conferencing application is a highly demanded service and helps to round out a broad range of applications that cloud services providers can offer to their SMB customers, quickly and easily.”

Persony Web Conferencing 2.0 is an easy-to-use and feature-rich web and video conferencing solution. Participants can join a meeting with virtually any web browser and do not need to download any special software. Unlike many other web conferencing services, Persony web conferencing can be hosted on a standard web server with full private labeling. The free version of Persony software allows Parallels Plesk Panel users to easily create a web conferencing site with up to 100 trial users, including free audio conferencing. Trial users can host unlimited number of meetings with two participants per meeting. Meeting room sizes ranging from 10 to 100 participants can be purchased from Persony. Add-on options include multi-point video and voice over IP, synchronized audio and web conferencing recording, and an iPhone application for moderating or joining a meeting from an iPhone.

Eric Chen, CEO of Persony noted, ”We have been looking for ways to bring the benefits of online meetings to small businesses and help them reduce costs and increase productivity. The Application Packaging Standard is supported by many leading hosting providers and allows us to reach millions of users globally.”

The APS format of Persony Web Conferencing is available for download immediately at www.apsstandard.org. Persony is actively looking for service providers to offer web conferencing as an add-on option under a revenue sharing model.

Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with 700 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Persony’s web and video conferencing solutions enable many service providers to offer fully branded, feature-rich, and easy-to-use web collaboration services at very affordable pricing. Persony’s patent-pending smart-client technology puts the intelligence of a collaborative application on the client side and uses standard web servers to connect remote users. By leveraging the millions of web servers in existence, Persony’s solutions can be deployed anywhere and at a fraction of the cost of other solutions. The smart-client approach is a disruptive technology that allows individuals and small businesses to afford applications that were once only available to larger corporations.

For more information about Persony, please visit: www.persony.com.

To learn more about Parallels, please visit: www.parallels.com.

Houston, Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 9, 2009 – Provider of end-to-end web hosting services, Hosting Zoom and Reseller Zoom, have introduced a new Web Hosting Rewards Program, designed for new and existing customers, who will be eligible to accumulate reward points on a monthly basis and exchange them for new hosting or add-on services.

Greg Landis, CEO of Hosting Zoom and Reseller Zoom remarked, ”It has been a privilege for us to have served such a loyal customer base in over ten years of business. Our Web Hosting Rewards Program is a way for us to give back something to our customers and thank them for their continued patronage. It also lets us deliver some immediate value to new customers as soon as they sign up for hosting services. This is just the latest demonstration of our commitment to being there for customers both large and small. We look forward to doing business with them for many years to come.”

Points will be distributed on a recurring monthly basis. Every month a customer is on board, they will receive 50 reward points. On top of this, they will receive an additional reward point for every dollar spent on their monthly bill. For example, a customer that spends $10 per month will receive 50+10 for a total of 60 rewards points each month.

For every dollar spent in the initial sign-up month, customers will receive 50 bonus reward points. For example, a new customer signing up for $10 of monthly hosting services will receive 500 reward points (10×50=500) for that first month of service. This is limited up to a maximum of 2,500 points.

Hosting Zoom and Reseller Zoom will also reward customers a bonus of 2,500 reward points for new referrals. To thank our many customers for their loyalty, reward points will be issued retroactively for each month they have been a hosting Zoom or Reseller Zoom customer.

There is no limit to the number of points a customer can accumulate and the points do not have an expiry date. Customers can use the points whenever they wish. Monthly points are paid out on the first day of every month. Sign-up and monthly bonus points are awarded whichever day during the month they are incurred.

Customers can redeem points through their web-based control panels. Points can only be redeemed for additional hosting and add-on services. They cannot be used to pay existing hosting bills.

Hosting Zoom and Reseller Zoom are providers of web hosting services to small and medium-sized businesses, government agencies and non-profit organizations worldwide. Hosting Zoom and Reseller Zoom customers enjoy the flexibility of choosing from a full suite of hosting solutions, ranging from shared hosting and virtual private servers to dedicated hosting and managed hosting. Reseller Zoom operates a reseller program, helping smaller organizations jump into the hosting business or augment their current offerings. Each hosting plan is backed by a world-class data center infrastructure and network, and supported by a rock solid customer service operation. Hosting Zoom and Reseller Zoom help organizations realize their full potential by capturing the power of the Internet.

Learn more, please visit: www.hostingzoom.com and www.resellerzoon.com.

Trumbull, Connecticut – (The Hosting News) – July 9, 2009 – Provider of dedicated servers, web hosting and e-business solutions for individuals, small to medium size business, and enterprises, OLM, LLC, has completed a major overhaul of its Web site and service structure, including new hosting plans, control panel, and dozens of new features.

Chris Silkman, Business Manager at OLM.net offered, ”OLM.net has represented the utmost in stability, reliability, and affordability for tens of thousands of businesses since we started hosting in 1996.Today, with the completion of a major new Web site and service overhaul, we are taking a big step forward and offering a set of hosting services that will enable us to more aggressively compete in the marketplace of tomorrow.”

The OLM.net web site has been completely overhauled, and offers significant aesthetic improvements. The site is easier to navigate, faster to load, and more accessible to visitors with disabilities. The new horizontal navigation has been streamlined to just six tabs, providing quick access to the company’s five key areas of service and detailed information about OLM.net’s top-tier network infrastructure.

Shared web hosting plans now exclusively offer management through the cPanel control panel, which is configured with Fantastico script auto-installers and shared SSL. All Shared Web hosting plans now also offer unlimited disk space and unlimited data transfer – a significant boost with no reduction in prices for customers. The entry-level Business Web Hosting plan still starts at just $5.95 per month.

After a brief hiatus, OLM.net is now once again offering Virtual Private Servers (VPS), powered by either cPanel/WHM or DirectAdmin. All new VPS accounts are hosted on the Xen virtualization platform, and feature next-generation server hardware. Customers can choose from five customizable VPS plans, starting at just $10.95 per month.

OLM.net has also made changes to its critically acclaimed line of Dedicated Servers. New Dedicated Servers now have the option to utilize the DirectAdmin control panel as well as Parallels Pro and cPanel, and can store data on ultra-fast solid-state hard drives. The Cisco® ASA hardware firewall is also available as an added layer of security protection. Robust, business-class dedicated servers start at just $64.95 per month, and offer a wide range of customization capabilities.

OLM.net is an integrated dedicated server, Web hosting and e-business solution provider for individuals, small to medium size business, and enterprises around the world. Founded in 1996, OLM has since emerged as one of the largest global Internet Solution Providers, hosting over 350,000 domains and thousands of dedicated servers in over 150 countries. OLM.net offers web hosting, e-commerce, virtual and dedicated servers, reseller accounts, merchant and search engine services, web design, SEO, and other services.

To learn more about OLM.net, please visit: www.OLM.net.

For more about dedicated servers from OLM.net, please visit: www.OLM.net/dedicated-servers.

Los Angeles, California – (The Hosting News) – July 9, 2009 – Pronethosting.net, web hosting provider, has debuted the launched of its ”CRAZY SUMMER SPECIAL” for the month of July, featuring 1 year of Linux web hosting for $4.95.

The special includes unlimited space and bandwidth with the new Linux shared web hosting packages. During the tough economic times, Pronethosting.net is offering their Linux shared web hosting services at an incredible discount. The Linux shared web hosting packages feature unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, web development package, web site builder with hundreds of easy templates, and much more!

Ryan Morris, Marketing Director at Pronet Hosting remarked, ”People still need web hosting in our tough economic times, and we are offering our services to get them up and running.”

The coupon code for this promotion is FREEJULY.

Pronethosting.net was formed by a group of IT professionals in early 2001 to introduce a new standard in the fast-changing environment of web hosting. Our mission is to achieve your 100% satisfaction, which is guaranteed by our professional service and friendly support. With over 8 years of web hosting experience on various hosting platforms and operating systems, particularly Linux web hosting, Windows web hosting, and reseller web hosting, we bring a wealth of knowledge and the capability to handle any hosting needs. This experience also comes with the support and knowledge customers have come to rely on, which ensures that their problems are being resolved timely and effectively and they are able to obtain friendly and respectful customer support.

To learn more, please visit: http://www.pronethosting.net

London, United Kingdom – (The Hosting News) – July 9, 2009 – The London Internet Exchange (LINX) has initiated significant price cuts on its membership, including 1GigE and 10GigE port fees.

John Souter, CEO of LINX remarked, ”As a mutually-owned organisation, LINX has been cutting its prices for a number of years now. We are confident that we have achieved a ‘virtuous circle’, whereby lowering our prices leads to an increase in the number of members. This in turn leads to greater economies of scale and enables us to continue to cut our prices still further.”

Each one of LINX’s 334 members will benefit from a 20% saving in membership costs plus a further 7.5% reduction for those with 1GigE and 10GigE ports. The new prices follow those introduced in September 2008 when 1GigE and 10GigE ports were reduced by up to 25% continuing a run of annual price cuts.

LINX membership has seen exceptional growth in recent months with 52 members joining in 2008 alone. This rapid development has continued into 2009 with a further 26 applications to join the exchange since the beginning of the year. Overall, LINX has more peers, more sites over a greater metro area and access to more Internet routes than any other Internet exchange point in the world.

Mr. Souter added, ”The great news is that every member will see a reduction in their bills. This will take effect immediately without any change to our membership agreement. Ultimately, these mid-year reductions demonstrate our continued commitment towards acting in the best interests of our members now, and in the future.”

LINX is a mutual, not-for-profit organisation whose 330-plus members include 58 of the top 100 global network operators*, almost all UK Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and content providers plus many from the Americas, mainland Europe, the Far East and Africa.

Full details are publicly available on the new fee structure here: www.linx.net/govern/servicesfees.

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