(The Hosting News) – CipherOptics stated today that Platte River Power Authority is protecting its Digital Control System (DCS) information with the CipherOptics CEP line of standards-based encryptors and CipherEngine, the most well recognized scalable policy and key management solution for network encryption.

Platte River Power Authority provides wholesale electric power to four municipal electric systems in northern Colorado. As a utility provider, they are subject to many regulations, including the NERC Reliability Standards. With a looming NERC compliance deadline, Platte River Power Authority needed to encrypt its DCS information between the human-machine interfaces (HMI) and various control systems.

“We needed a solution that operated natively to Layer 2 because our control systems do not support routing” said Paul Crosby, CIP Compliance Officer, Platte River Power Authority. “The CipherOptics solution inserted seamlessly into our existing infrastructure without impacting the operation or performance of our DCS.”

The approaching deadline meant that Platte River Power Authority also needed a solution that could be installed quickly and easily. “The solution was so easy to install that one of our electrical engineering interns did it,” added Crosby. “The ease of ongoing management and the redundant capabilities of the CipherOptics solution really set it apart from the other vendors we evaluated.”

CipherOptics protects sensitive information for a growing number of Utility Providers, Fortune 100 companies and government agencies around the world. The CEP line of encryptors offers 10Mbps to 1Gbps wire-speed encryption for any Ethernet or MPLS network, with 10Gbps available in late 2010. CipherEngine, a breakthrough policy and key management solution, makes it easy to deploy and manage network encryption, regardless of scale or network infrastructure.

CipherOptics to Protect Platte River Authority DCS Network

(The Hosting News) – A new Chicago Data Center joins the CoreLink Data Center portfolio. CoreLink Data Centers, LLC, a leading provider of high quality, Tier 3 Data Centers announced today that it has added a Chicago Data Center location in the suburb of Mt. Prospect. CoreLink has entered into a long term lease for an 81,600 square foot stand-alone building which is currently configured with 10,000 square feet of raised floor.

CoreLink will modify the existing infrastructure to bring it up to CoreLink’s typical 2N configuration with over 200 watts per square foot of usable UPS power. The design is flexible so that customers with higher density requirements can also be accommodated. The completed facility plan will accommodate up to 65,000 square feet of useable raised floor, providing ample space for expansion. The location in Mount Prospect is located outside the flood plain and all flight paths of nearby airports. It is ideally situated close to O’Hare Airport and is approximately 25 miles from downtown Chicago. CoreLink has secured over 16 MW of power for the facility.

CoreLink also announced that the Company’s Head Office will relocate to Chicago from Phoenix, effective immediately. In conjunction with that move, CoreLink further announces the hiring of Mr. Jay Sinder as CFO. Sinder comes to CoreLink from Hostway Corporation where he was CFO. Prior to Hostway, Sinder was CFO at Focal Communications where he was responsible, among other things, in structuring and securing both equity and long term debt financing for the Company. “Jay is a great addition to the Corelink team,”stated Geoff Hampson, CoreLink Data Center’s founder and CEO, “He brings in-depth knowledge of the industry and a track record of managing and financing successful growth stories”

In conjunction with the headquarters move to Chicago, Hampson will move there in March. Hampson has a long history of successful start-ups, including Peer 1 Network Enterprises Inc. where as CEO from 2000 through 2006, annual revenues grew from $250K to $80 Million. “We are building a strong team of managers with proven track records of value creation for all stakeholders” said Hampson. “Our move into the Midwest comes at a good time, when demand for co-location remains very strong and supply is limited. This is particularly true for the Chicago market where we are committed to making a large investment into this new facility, which will be our largest yet”.

CoreLink has an active M&A and Business Development program and anticipates further additions to its co-location facility locations and to the management team over the coming months and continuing for the next several years.

CoreLink Data Centers Acquires Chicago Data Center

(The Hosting News) - Cloud Linux Inc today releases information that its CloudLinux Operating System (OS) has been selected by Altaire as an OS option to improve density on its servers, and will offer the OS as an option for its dedicated server solutions. U.K. based datacenter operator Altaire is a hosting reseller and managed hosting provider that delivers solid and consistent dedicated server performance, while providing the ultimate support experience. Altaire marks the first premier partner in EMEA to offer the CloudLinux (OS) as an option for its dedicated and shared servers which host thousands of customers.

Altaire selected CloudLinux because of its cutting-edge technology that promises service providers the ability to double the density on its servers via its new Lightweight Virtual Environment™ (LVE) that optimizes the number of users on a server while maintaining a high level of server stability. “The CloudLinux OS is an important advancement in the management of web hosting infrastructure. Its LVE technology allows us to significantly improve our operations,” states Steve Ball of Altaire. “Our past experience with Igor Seletskiy and his expertise in solving the complex problems of hosting service providers gives us the confidence that this new approach to web server management will deliver improved service quality to our customers.”

The core innovation of CloudLinux OS is Lightweight Virtual Environment™ (LVE), a kernel-level technology that limits the amount of resources (CPU, I/O, memory) available to a group of processes to make sure that each account gets enough CPU resources to run efficiently. Unlike hypervizor or container virtualization that create a full virtual server, LVE isolates specific hardware resources (e.g. CPU, I/O and memory) within a lightweight container and limits these resources to a specific process or customer. Thus, CloudLinux achieves better separation between tenants, and prevents one tenant from affecting others – especially due to a sudden peak load from a single tenant. CloudLinux’s OS is compatible with major control panels for easy management and deployment, and offers complete 24/7 support. It is expected that Altaire will introduce CloudLinux across its platform within the next 30 days.

“We are proud to partner with Altaire, the first U.K.based datacenter to deploy our innovative LVE technology,” states Igor Seletskiy, CEO and Founder of CloudLinux. “Altaire has recognized the value of the LVE technology, which was specifically developed to offer hosting providers and datacenter operators increased server stability and performance with less downtime. All of this directly translates to better profits for our customers.”

This announcement represents CloudLinux’s second partner signed within its first 30 days, demonstrating how the innovation of LVE can enable service providers to be more efficient and profitable. For more information, please visit www.cloudlinux.com.

Hosting Reseller Altaire Cements Partnership with CloudLinux

(The Hosting News) – INetU Managed Hosting was ranked in the top 3 managed hosting services by hosting review service HostReview in their annual web hosting awards.

Since 1996, INetU has been a prominent hosting provider focused on business web hosting for mission-critical sites. INetU provides a tailored managed hosting solution designed for each of their clients’ needs and establishing long-term relationships that have earned them over 96% client satisfaction. INetU also attributes earning this award to the personalized expertise delivered 24×7×356 by certified personnel and true 100% uptime they provide.

“We are very honored to receive this recognition from HostReview,” commented Dev Chanchani, President of INetU, “Our clients already know that INetU is willing to go the extra mile for them, and awards like these are evidence of that.”

INetU placed #3 in the managed services category from HostReview’s Web Host Awards 2009. This is their second year placing in the top 5 for the managed services category. HostReview awards providers based on service quality, customer support, package diversity, new products, and overall performance.

INetU Listed As On Of Top 3 Managed Hosting Providers

(The Hosting News) – Cloud-enablement leader Parallel stated today that the Parallels Small Business Panel has attracted some of the biggest names in the industry within months of release. Go Daddy began offering Parallels Small Business Panel to its more than 7.5 million customers, many of whom are small businesses.

Other successful adopters of Parallels Small Business Panel include The Planet, Softlayer, Softcom, Codero, Layershift, ServeInt, Arsys, Network Group Europe and Host Europe.

“This has been one of our most successful product releases and delivers profitable services to small businesses. To have such a quick uptake of our product by some of the largest companies in the industry is a testament to how Parallels Small Business Panel fills the growing IT needs of small businesses,” explains Jack Zubarev, President of Worldwide Service Providers at Parallels. “Parallels really values partnerships like Go Daddy and is committed to delivering products that enable cloud services providers to move beyond basic hosting services and offer value-added applications and services.”

Parallels Small Business Panel features a game-changing control panel designed for small businesses, offering simple wizards and productivity tools for collaboration, file sharing and business management. This makes self-service possible for all employees using the solution.

“Offering Parallels Small Business Panel at Go Daddy helps small to mid-sized businesses receive the advantages larger companies do with similar, advanced products for a cost small businesses can afford,” said Go Daddy President and Chief Operating Officer Warren Adelman. “These businesses don’t need an IT administrator to take advantage of the Small Business Panel because of the easy wizard-driven interface. Parallels understands what small businesses need and Go Daddy is pleased to offer their Small Business Panel to our customers.”

Parallels Small Business Panel 10.1 gives users an intuitive interface designed to connect employees to the right applications, which can be installed with a single click with no need for special training or technical knowledge. In addition, Parallels Small Business Panel incorporates the functionality of additional Parallels solutions for free, including Parallels Sitebuilder and Parallels Power Pack.

Users also have access to over 200 applications that increase productivity, efficiency and creativity but require no prior knowledge of the product to utilize the benefits. Some of the top applications available for free include Wordpress, SugarCRM, Droopal and Mumbo.

Widespread Attention Given Small Business Panel

(The Hosting News) – IT Solutions Provider Neptuny, today announced that it has become Gold Partner of the Oracle Partner Network. The company states that the Oracle Partner Network is designed to enable independent software vendors (ISVs), systems integrators, developers, reseller and consultants to work collaboratively together to effectively meet customer needs and to deliver superior solutions.

It explains that it has chosen the Oracle database technology as the best foundation for Caplan, the most complete Capacity Planning and Data Center Optimization solution available on the market. Oracle high-performance and scalability features provide Caplan customers with the ability to automate their Capacity Planning tool for (very) large environments. This translates both in terms of reduced operational costs and the ability to proactively identify optimization opportunities and reduce capacity risks for the whole data center (i.e. including physical and virtual servers, databases, storage, networks, facilities and other components). The company adds that Caplan ROI has been validated by its customers in several market segments, such as Finance (Unicredit, Julius Baer), Telco (Vodafone, Pirelli Broadband Solutions), Retail (Expedia) and Energy (ENI).

“Our decision to join the Oracle Partner Network reflects our will to enhance our support and provide a better integration of our product to Oracle technologies.” said Giuseppe Nardiello, Business Development Manager, Neptuny. “This partnership is also part of a larger initiative aimed at further developing our technology partner network, which already includes leading vendors such as HP, IBM, VMware and Red Hat”.

Neptuny Newest Member of Oracle Partner Network

(The Hosting News) — Cloud Linux Inc released information today  that its CloudLinux Operating System (OS) has been selected by Altaire as an OS option to improve density on its servers, and will offer the OS as an option for its dedicated server solutions. U.K. based datacenter operator Altaire is a hosting reseller and managed hosting provider that delivers solid and consistent dedicated server performance, while providing the ultimate support experience. Altaire marks the first premier partner in EMEA to offer the CloudLinux (OS) as an option for its dedicated and shared servers which host thousands of customers.

Altaire selected CloudLinux because of its cutting-edge technology that promises service providers the ability to double the density on its servers via its new Lightweight Virtual Environmentâ„¢ (LVE) that optimizes the number of users on a server while maintaining a high level of server stability. “The CloudLinux OS is an important advancement in the management of web hosting infrastructure. Its LVE technology allows us to significantly improve our operations,” states Steve Ball of Altaire. “Our past experience with Igor Seletskiy and his expertise in solving the complex problems of hosting service providers gives us the confidence that this new approach to web server management will deliver improved service quality to our customers.”

The core innovation of CloudLinux OS is Lightweight Virtual Environment™ (LVE), a kernel-level technology that limits the amount of resources (CPU, I/O, memory) available to a group of processes to make sure that each account gets enough CPU resources to run efficiently. Unlike hypervizor or container virtualization that create a full virtual server, LVE isolates specific hardware resources (e.g. CPU, I/O and memory) within a lightweight container and limits these resources to a specific process or customer. Thus, CloudLinux achieves better separation between tenants, and prevents one tenant from affecting others – especially due to a sudden peak load from a single tenant. CloudLinux’s OS is compatible with major control panels for easy management and deployment, and offers complete 24/7 support. It is expected that Altaire will introduce CloudLinux across its platform within the next 30 days.

“We are proud to partner with Altaire, the first U.K.based datacenter to deploy our innovative LVE technology,” states Igor Seletskiy, CEO and Founder of CloudLinux. “Altaire has recognized the value of the LVE technology, which was specifically developed to offer hosting providers and datacenter operators increased server stability and performance with less downtime. All of this directly translates to better profits for our customers.”

Hosting Reseller Specialist Altaire Partners with CloudLinux

(The Hosting News) – Portland hosting provider Opus Interactive has  announced that it has been chosen to host the sweepstakes site for a “Super Bowl Promotion”.

The Super Bowl Promotion, created by a local marketing agency for a major global brand, will air numerous times throughout the event and drive traffic to the sweepstakes website. Opus Interactive has been chosen to host the website on its vClustrâ„¢ Virtual Hosting Platform, thanks in part to the dynamic scalability it affords.

“Our vClustr solution is perfect for needs like this,” said Jeremy Sherwood, VP Sales and Operations at Opus Interactive. “We can spin up numerous web servers quickly for promotions that require high bandwidth, scale to demand easily, then shut down the servers as the promotion ends.”

Opus Interactive will provide three active virtual dedicated web servers, with another 2 to 5 on standby, one database server, a firewall, load balancer and CDP backup protection. The overall hosting solution will be able to handle the expected spikes in bandwidth that come from a Super Bowl sized promotion.

Leading Business and Agency Hosting Provider, Opus Interactive to host Super Bowl Web Promotion

Dealing with surprise

Last night my wife and I were at our local Toastmaster’s meeting. The table topics discussion was “what has surprised you?” The story of the time Kevin Gold and I made a hurried trip to LA that was filled with surprises from the beginning quickly came to mind. (Read More…..)

• Lower Costs and Increase Differentiation with Cloud Storage
• Valuable and free Google tools

Read the entire “Dealing with surprise” edition of the Web Hosting Talk Insider

(The Hosting News) – The success of the New Orleans Saints’  during the Super Bowl brought the Super Bowl site into the national spotlight last Sunday. A record number of visitors to the site looking for additional ways to connect with their team. Thanks to Seattle-based Adhost Internet, a leading provider of server colocation, dedicated servers and Web hosting, and Cypress Consulting, a full service digital agency, fans experienced the site in championship style – without interruption.

Fervor from the Super Bowl brought over four million fans to the New Orleans Saints’ Website on Sunday in search of player details, game highlights, team photos, multimedia, and game coverage. The site, strategically designed by Cypress Consulting to meet the growing demands from fans for unique content, such as team news, player interviews and photo galleries, is built on Adhost’s infrastructure and utilizes its redundant network and dedicated servers backed by experienced Web server administration, system monitoring, data back-up, and firewall services.

“Cypress and Adhost did a phenomenal job preparing the Saints website for our historic Super Bowl victory,” said Doug Miller, senior director of communications for the New Orleans Saints. “Their hard work gearing up for the surge in traffic and assisting the team in real-time content updates during the Super Bowl led to a fantastic online experience for our fans on Super Bowl Sunday – and beyond. I can’t say enough good things about the work Cypress and Adhost have done in support of the New Orleans Saints digital efforts – they are our go-to team for the web.”

“We designed this site to receive large volumes of fans anxious to find more information, to connect with their team and ultimately celebrate such a phenomenal win,” said Nate Thompson, CEO of Cypress Consulting. “This visually-rich, highly-functional site meets the business goals of the team and the dynamic needs of its users who turn to the site as the primary way to interact with their favorite team.”

Working as partners for the last three NFL seasons, The Saints’ site was designed and is maintained by Cypress Consulting and is hosted on Adhost’s managed server environment. Cypress and Adhost worked together to optimize the site infrastructure and application configuration for the expected Super Bowl traffic, including hardware load balancing, website application changes, and increasing the multiple front and back-end servers connected to robust high-speed bandwidth connections.

”It was exciting to watch the correlation of their dramatic success on the field to their greatly increased network activity. After the Saints won the Super Bowl, their website traffic reached an all-time high. Although unsurprised, we were pleased that our infrastructure handled their extra traffic without an issue,” said Will Riffle, CEO of Adhost.

Adhost and Cypress were also responsible for design, development and hosting of the Seattle Seahawks Web site www.seahawks.com when they went to Super Bowl XL in 2006. Cypress Consulting is nationally recognized for its role in helping dozens of athletic teams and organizations, including the New Orleans Saints, Seattle Supersonics, FSN, Women’s Professional Soccer, USC Trojans, CBS College Sports and Seattle Seahawks develop innovative, feature-rich Websites.

New Orleans Saints Website Backed Up by Adhost and Cypress Consulting

(The Hosting News) – The entries for the UK’s DediPower Digital Awards, which awards a £50,000 grand prize, have increased drastically.

The closing date for entries has now passed and the judges have a tough task choosing a short list from the range of high calibre entries. The short list of three finalists will be announced on Monday 15th February. There is also a judges’ special “Digital Innovation Award” for an excellent entry, displaying inventiveness and creativity, but which did not quite make the last three.

Finalists will be invited to the Telegraph Media Group headquarters in London, on Wednesday, 24th February, to present their idea and business plan to a panel of judges which includes:
• Kamal Ahmed, Business Editor, The Sunday Telegraph
• Catherine Doran, Director of Corporate Development, Network Rail
• John Redwood, MP for Wokingham and former cabinet minister
• Karen Price, CEO, e-skills UK
• Craig Martin, CEO, DediPower Managed Hosting

The DediPower Digital Awards’ first prize is up to £25,000 cash investment, plus £2,000 in development funds and a further £25,000 worth of business mentoring and free Internet hosting. There is also the special Judges’ Digital Innovation Award to stimulate the development of other great digital ideas.

Craig Martin, CEO, DediPower Digital Hosting, comments: “This is the first year of the Awards and we have been staggered by the high number of entries and the quality of the ideas. It really seems to have captured the imagination of young people aged 17 to 30 years and the judges now have an unenviable task trying to choose the finalists.

“The campaign has had tremendous backing from e-skills UK and has been promoted by the Sunday Telegraph.  It is all helping to recognise the young talent in the UK and to encourage innovative and determined young people with getting a start in their careers. You don’t have to have a degree to have a good commercial idea, but often it is nearly impossible to get that idea off the ground. These awards are trying to change that dynamic and stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit in this country.”

The DediPower Digital Award 2010 will be awarded to the winner at a special ceremony in London, on Monday 1st March, as part of EU e-skills Week.

Further details about the DediPower Digital Awards 2010 can be found at: www.DediPowerDigitalAwards.com.

DediPower Digital Awards Entries Submission Opens

(The Hosting News) - Entrepreneurial enthusiast Network Redux has announced today it’s decision to support Portland Startup Weekend. This will provide a one year VPS One account and registered domain name to each new business developed within the 54 hour event.

Startup Weekend is a national event that provides resources and opportunities and brings together a community to establish their ideas into reality. “What an incredible method for help those with an idea or invention get going in today’s economic climate,” says Network Redux President, Thomas Brenneke.

“We are active participants in the startup and entrepreneurial components within Portland and are pleased to be able to provide one of the most essential tools for any new business, reliable managed web hosting. Our engineers will work with each of these startups to build, configure and pro-actively monitor their environments to meet their specific and unique requirements. We’re also proud to be working with our friends at NedSpace. Josh and team are doing more for local startups than any other privately held organization in the Portland metro area.”

Portland Startup Weekend to be Sponsored by Network Redux

Pinewood Studios Group, the leading provider of studio services to the worldwide film and TV industries, has built an on-site data centre to offer tailor-made hosting services.

Pinewood’s data centre provides a secure and controlled environment for companies to store their own web/mail servers and render farms, with server requirements scaled according to client’s needs. Operated by a secure swipe system, each company will be given a unique code to access their own equipment, locked within the server racks. Bandwidth and networking services are supplied by Sohonet, with dedicated internet backup, fire suppression and generators for the facility.

Comments Pinewood’s Group Director of Technology Darren Woolfson “We’ve created a high-spec data centre to offer extremely cost-effective, tailor-made hosting solutions to accommodate the entire range of clients’ requirements. As one of the world’s foremost creative hubs, the data centre adds to the wide range of innovative facilities here at Pinewood, enabling us to continue offering unrivalled levels of service to tenants, productions and off-site companies.”

Pinewood Studios Group has also introduced an effective web and email hosting service for tenants based at its 3 UK studio sites with on-site technical support. Powered by cPanel, Pinewood’s hosting service provides an intuitive interface to help website owners manage their sites.

About Pinewood Studios Group
Pinewood Studios Group is the leading provider of studio and related services to the worldwide film and television industries. Synonymous with world class British and international productions, the impressive heritage of its UK-based Pinewood, Shepperton and Teddington Studios date back to the early 20th Century and are home to some of the most successful features films and TV shows ever made. Renowned across the globe for excellence in its field, the Pinewood brand is now being exported overseas to studios in Toronto, Canada and Iskandar, Malaysia.

Comprising the best quality sound stages, a globally unique underwater filming stage, a wealth of specialist production resources, easy access to the world’s most experienced crews as well as digital TV studios, the facilities plays host to revered production crews who continue to explore and challenge the art of what is possible on the small and silver screens.

Recent film and TV productions that have used the Studios’ facilities include Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Slumdog Millionaire; Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time; Nine; Moon; Me and Orson Welles; Gullivers Travels; The Wolfman, Little Dorrit, Gladiators, Cranford, Weakest Link, My Family, Harry Hill’s TV Burp, The IT Crowd.

Visit www.pinewoodgroup.com for more info.

(The Hosting News) – The Planet, the global leader in IT hosting, has furthered the expansion of its Partner Plus Program by formally joining the Commission Junction affiliate network. A leading provider of affiliate marketing solutions, Commission Junction’s extensive network of publishers expands The Planet’s visibility among Web-based buyers.

With the increasing popularity of cap-ex-free IT and cloud computing, The Planet offers Web content publishers the ability to profitably reference the company’s broad range of solutions. The Planet advertiser program through Commission Junction offers solutions that range from affordable dedicated servers to fully managed hosting. The Planet pays affiliates an industry-leading, one-time $150 commission for each newly referred customer who completes a Web purchase.

“With this partnership, we’re enhancing our visibility among the Web’s biggest influencers,” said Tom Blair, vice president of global sales for The Planet. “Consumers look to these sources for input and advice on IT and hosting solutions, and The Planet will be front and center in this community. Last week we expanded our partner program for resellers, and combined with today’s announcement, we’re making it easier than ever for customers and partners to do business with us. Throughout 2010 we plan even more additions that will set The Planet apart as the industry’s best partner program.”

The Planet Joins Commission Junction Affiliate Network

(The Hosting News)– The Planet, the global leader in IT hosting, today announced that Internet messaging company Venali, Inc. (http://www.venali.com) has chosen the company to host its IT infrastructure. To support its global presence, Venali requires a geographically redundant infrastructure, robust network and solid uptime. The company made a strategic decision to move its infrastructure to a hosted solution, rather than managing it in-house. Following an extensive evaluation, Venali chose The Planet’s private racks solution, load balancers, gigabit switches and private networks to fulfill its requirements. For redundancy purposes, Venali operates in data centers located in Houston and Dallas.

“The decision we made to host with The Planet wasn’t singularly based on financials, but on the fact that it’s a smart business decision,” said Venali Chief Executive Officer John Poncy. “Just because we’re an IT services company doesn’t mean we can’t outsource. Our IT team and developers who work closely with customers took time to understand the IT hosting model. The Planet team provided both the cost-effective solutions we required and strong operational excellence. By outsourcing our IT infrastructure, we’re able to work on strategic initiatives in our company, expand our portfolio and grow our business.”

“In today’s economic environment, our customers tell us they want to focus more closely on their business, adding new products and services that are important to their long-term growth,” said Tom Blair, vice president of global sales with The Planet. “We deliver scalability, reliability and value, so they can do what they do best in their own companies, rather than worrying about their IT operations.”

The Planet for Selected to Provide IT Infrastructure for Venali