TechPad Agency LLC RSS Generator http://www.thehostingnews.com 2008 The TechPad Agency LLC en Mon, 12 May 2008 07:19:13 GMT Mon, 12 May 2008 07:19:13 GMT Web Hosting News for WebSite Hosting Resellers http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-web-hosting-partner-status-attained-by-aventure-host-with-r1soft-4254.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-web-hosting-partner-status-attained-by-aventure-host-with-r1soft-4254.html Fri, 09 May 2008 13:17:25 GMT Dublin, Ireland - (The Hosting News) - May 9, 2008 - Developer of near-continuous data protection products for Linux and Windows, R1Soft, has welcomed enterprise web hosting solutions company, Aventure Host, to its hosting partner program, R1HPP.

Aventure Host offers R1Soft's data protection technology at no additional charge on most of its shared, reseller and dedicated hosting plans. With CDP, Aventure Host is able to minimize the period between backup restore points, thereby reducing potential data loss in the event of a disaster. Six daily backups on hosted Exchange, shared and reseller packages are being offered.

Richard Kennedy, Managing Director of Aventure Host noted, ''By offering CDP as a value-add on most of our packages, we are bringing on new standards on how we operate. This will allow us to also provide our clients with peace of mind that their data is safe, and can be easily recovered in the event of a disaster.''

For dedicated servers, it offers 12 daily backups. Customers on Virtual Private Server (VPS) plans may purchase data protection from 1 pound ($2 US) which provides 1 daily backup.

As a member of R1HPP, Aventure Host gains access to valuable marketing materials, sales tools, and volume licensing discounts on software. R1Soft also provides its partners with priority technical support and advanced access to software updates.

David Wartell, Vice President of R1Soft, a division of BBS Technologies remarked, ''By joining forces with R1Soft and becoming a R1HPP partner, we will be able to more closely work with Aventure Host to help them maximize return on investment and successfully achieve their goal of the new hosting standardization.''

Aventure Host offers shared hosting packages starting from 32 pounds ($63 US) yearly. Dedicated servers start at 150 pounds ($295 US) monthly and Virtual Private Servers start at 5 pounds ($10 US) per month. All are hosted in the company's Ireland datacenter.

Recently, R1 Soft released a new version of its CDP Server product that introduces a quick and easy Windows Server restore using Linux Live CDs. R1Soft's new Bare-Metal Restore process does not require Windows Pre-Execution or Remote Installation Services and is a first of its kind. R1Soft provides its customers a bootable Linux Live CD ISO image compatible with most popular Windows Server storage and network devices. Administrators can initiate a restore by simply inserting the CD, powering on, and then selecting a point-in-time virtual full backup to restore from in the R1Soft CDP Server web interface.

Previously, before any data could be restored, Windows server administrators had to first re-install the Windows operating system and any backup software. Recent Bare-Metal Restore alternatives, such as products released by vendors like Symantec, IBM, and EMC, still require the customer to use either the Windows Pre-Execution Environment (Windows PE) or Windows Remote Installation Services (RIS) during restores. Windows RIS and PE can be complicated processes and these systems add hours of wasted time during a critical server restore.

R1Soft also supplies media and configurations for DHCP and TFTP servers to allow Windows Server restore over the PXE network boot protocol supported by all modern network interface cards. R1Soft has previously been offering Bare-Metal Restore in its CDP for Linux product.

A subsidiary of Aventure Media, Aventure Host is one of Ireland's fastest growing internet solution providers, providing internet and media solutions to SME and corporate customers. To date, this equates to over 95,000 users in 132 countries. Aventure Media's award winning internet solutions are based on a rock-solid datacenter infrastructure featuring n+1 redundancy and multi-homed bandwidth providers direct from Dublin, matched with an in-house state of the art Network Operations Centre in Belfast.

Founded in 2003, R1Soft is a provider of disk-based backup solutions. The company's customer list includes some of the world's largest hosting providers. R1soft products provide Continuous Data Protection (CDP) for over 85,000 mission-critical Linux and Windows servers worldwide. In November, 2007 R1Soft was acquired by BBS Technologies, Inc.

To learn more about Aventure Host, please visit: www.aventurehost.com.

For more information about R1Soft and Continuous Data Protection, please visit: www.r1soft.com.

]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-reseller-hosting-solutions-enhanced-by-hyperspin-monitoring-services-4253.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-reseller-hosting-solutions-enhanced-by-hyperspin-monitoring-services-4253.html Fri, 09 May 2008 13:05:54 GMT Singapore, Asia - (Cheap Web Hosting Directory) - May 9, 2008 - Internet reliability solutions provider, Hyperspin Internet Services, has upgraded the application programming interface (API) for its reseller platform to support external payment systems.

Designed to enable resellers to accept online payments through virtually any payment gateway or system. In the past, Hyperspin's reseller platform required payments to be made through PayPal or 2Checkout.com. However, as the company's resellers have become increasingly international, the need has developed for greater flexibility in payment processors.

ChoonKeng Chua, Managing Director, Hyperspin noted, ''By supporting external payment systems, our resellers are able to resell our services more easily to their target clients. Resellers can link their reseller website with any external payment system they wish to use, just by implementing a simple API. This new improvement bolsters the ability of our resellers to make sales quickly and efficiently.''

Hyperspin has created a library of literature outlining the parameters of its API. Resellers can access this through the company's website. There are no additional fees for using the API. Hyperspin allows website owners and server administrators to maximize uptime by constantly monitoring the status of web services. The platform can monitor virtually any service, including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SSH, SMTP, DNS, POP3, IMAP, MySQL, and any arbitrary services running on TCP/IP. If the system detects downtime, Hyperspin sends a notification through email or cell phone text message (SMS).

Hyperspin Internet Services is a registered online reliability solutions provider based in Singapore. Launched in 2002, the company's flagship website and server monitoring service provides SMS and email updates of website downtime, allowing server administrators and webmasters to rectify reliability problems and maximize sales and ROI. Hyperspin currently monitors the reliability of more than 20,000 websites and servers.

For more information about Hyperspin, please visit: www.hyperspin.com.

To learn more about the Hyperspin reseller program, please visit: www.hyperspin.com/reseller.php.

]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-clustered-web-hosting-service-premieres-at-hostingplex-4252.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-clustered-web-hosting-service-premieres-at-hostingplex-4252.html Fri, 09 May 2008 12:58:32 GMT Toronto, Canada - (The Hosting News) - May 9, 2008 - Web hosting services provider, Hostingplex, has launched its new proprietary clustered hosting service, designed for use with the cPanel control panel.

According to the company, customers will still be able to enjoy the benefits of a cPanel web host, while taking advantage of a robust scalable clustered web hosting infrastructure.

Kevin Moonlight, Senior Systems Administrator with Hostingplex noted, ''We're really excited about our clustered web hosting service. We've invested a great deal of time and money into this superior infrastructure and now our customers will be able to benefit from that.''

The clustered hosting service starts from $7.50 per month and is available immediately to new and existing customers.

Hostingplex, an Inverdigm company founded in 2000, is a world-wide leading web hosting solutions provider, helping small businesses create and maintain their online presence. With fully-featured, attractively priced hosting plans, backed with our unconditional 30-day money back guarantee and strive towards providing industry leading customer satisfaction, Hostingplex has become a trusted name for small businesses.

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

]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-dedicated-server-web-hosting-firm-fasthosts-unveils-online-identity-study-4251.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-dedicated-server-web-hosting-firm-fasthosts-unveils-online-identity-study-4251.html Fri, 09 May 2008 12:49:54 GMT Gloucester, United Kingdom - (The Hosting News) - May 9, 2008 - Independent web hosting company, Fasthosts, has unveiled new research, based upon an online identity study, which details how website publishing can affect online business image.

The study has determined that nearly half of British consumers (49 per cent) admit to having concerns about how they appear online as a result of personal material placed on the Internet. From those who actively publish personal material online, an alarming 79 per cent admit to now having concerns about their online image.

Mark Jeffries, CTO of Fasthosts Internet Ltd remarked, ''Today, the issue of online identity is clearly a concern for the British public. With it now being commonplace to search individuals online, one should take care to present their own personal online material carefully and keep an eye on their online image accordingly.''

The survey of 1,500 UK consumers also found that 62 per cent of Britons now believe there to be personal material relating to them online, with 1 in 4 people (25 per cent) worried about what others may be posting about them. 1 in 4 (25 per cent) of us now routinely "Google" new people we meet socially. Another survey of 300 people who publish their own personal website, as opposed to just social networking, found that 84 per cent of those believed this offered more control over their online image, and 70 per cent saw their website as providing a better impression than social network.

The 'Fasthosts Online Identity Survey' found that around half of the British public now has some degree of concern regarding the issue of 'online identity'. Significantly, the majority of Britons, 62 per cent, now believe there to be personal material relating to them (such as photos, blog entries, Facebook profiles) on the Internet. 1 in 4 (25 per cent) people surveyed had a specific concern that what others may be publishing may have a negative effect on them. Of those who regularly post personal material online, more than 1 in 3 (35 per cent) have regretted posting one or more items.

Whilst publishing material online is highly popular and enjoyable, some 42 per cent of Britons surveyed recognised that the online image it creates for an individual is something that needs to be carefully managed. The extent of alarm varies according to gender, with 47 per cent of women seeing a clear need to manage identity, in contrast to only 33 per cent of men. The level of public concern on the issue of online material mirrors how heavily Britons now use the web for researching others.

Around 1 in 4 of those surveyed (24 per cent) admit to browsing the Internet in search of material relating to people they meet socially. Interestingly, on a regional level, a staggering 41 per cent of those from Belfast regularly research people they meet, compared to only 10 per cent in Leeds. Overall, 9 per cent of Britons regularly search both potential romantic suitors and new work colleagues.

In addition, personal fears also reflect the swiftness with which Britons judge those they see online. Significantly, 47 per cent of the public have made a judgment on at least one individual based solely on their online personal material. Unsurprisingly, this rose to 78 per cent in those under 25 years of age, who in general spend more time on social networks.

More than 1 in 3 people surveyed (37 per cent) believe that it is possible to make a reliable overall assessment of a person from their personal online material. The need for prudence when publishing personal material can be seen from just how quickly we judge those we see online. Some 29 per cent of those surveyed admitted to regularly judging people online 'quickly'.

However, it is not all bad news when it comes to how we manage our online image or identity. A further survey of 300 people who publish their own personal website as opposed to just a social networking page, found that 84 per cent felt significantly more in control over their online image using this medium.

Some 71 per cent of people using a personal website, linked to the Internet with their own domain name, believe that their website has given them a favourable online image, and 67 per cent viewed their resultant online image to be overall representative. Significantly, 70 per cent stated that their website has created a more favourable overall online image for them than a social networking page could. Furthermore, 79 per cent of personal website owners were happy to recommend the tool as a means of creating or changing an individual's online image or identity. The research lends weight to the argument that personal websites can be a useful means to generate or make modifications to an online identity.

Individual personal websites appear to be highly sociable just like social networking, with the average owner being contacted by 11-15 new people per year, and 21 per cent being approached by 50+ new people per year. Of these personal publishers, 65 per cent view their websites as an enjoyable activity, and over three quarters (76 per cent) believe it has made a positive contribution to their lives. In relation to social networks, 68 per cent of personal site owners valued their own sites as allowing more creativity and only 26 per cent suspected that a social networking page could be more communicative.

Mr. Jeffries added, ''With the right approach, personal publishing is an enjoyable and effective way to interact with the world. Our research highlights that personal websites in particular appear to offer a high level of control over online image, and can allow this to be modified effectively.''

Fasthosts offers a comprehensive range of web solutions including web hosting with inclusive blog tool and easy to use SiteBuilder for creating a web presence with ease. Further Fasthosts products include domain name registrations, email solutions (including mobile email services), shared web hosting, dedicated servers, online payment services, reseller web hosting, software-as-a-service and feature-rich broadband packages. Fasthosts was voted the number one webhost by tophosts.com in September 2005; and won the Web Host Directory 'eCommerce webhosting award' and was also announced as the Best Dedicated Server Package in August 2005 by HostReview.

For more information on Fasthosts, please visit: www.fasthosts.co.uk

]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-liquid-web-hosting-services-powered-by-server-virtualization-firm-parallels-4250.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-liquid-web-hosting-services-powered-by-server-virtualization-firm-parallels-4250.html Thu, 08 May 2008 13:03:50 GMT Renton, Washington - (The Hosting News) - May 8, 2008 - Server virtualization firm, Parallels' Virtuozzo Containers, have been chosen to power managed hosting provider, Liquid Web's new Microsoft Windows virtual private server (VPS) offering.

The offering will be delivered from Liquid Web's two fully owned and operated mid-western datacenters. This represents an expanded partnership with Parallels, who already supplies Liquid Web with Parallels Plesk Control Panel software, which is bundled with all Windows dedicated server offerings.

Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels noted, ''We are pleased that Liquid Web has selected Parallels Virtuozzo Containers and the Parallels Open Platform for this important new offering and that our two companies are deepening our partnership. Parallels Virtuozzo Containers offers the highest levels of density, manageability and scalability, which makes it an ideal solution for datacenter owners who want to offer a wide variety of fully managed services.''

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers includes the Parallels Infrastructure Manager, a robust set of management tools that helps Liquid Web personnel deliver its ''Heroic Support,'' which has become a trademark of their services. Using the Parallels Infrastructure Manager and Parallels Plesk control panel software, Liquid Web can offer their customers a control panel for adding software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications as well as the ability to scale the size of their VPS.

Liquid Web takes advantage of the Parallels Virtuozzo Containers' architecture to offer burstable memory for example, temporarily adding more memory to a container during a short period of high activity, so clients may have access to more server resources than they actually pay for. The architecture provides this capability while guaranteeing minimal levels of service so clients never have less memory than they contract for.

Travis Stoliker, Marketing Director of Liquid Web commented, ''Our VPS offerings give a significant competitive advantage over hypervisor-based solutions. The high density, reliability, power savings, and management tools of Parallels Virtuozzo Containers allow us to provide our customers with more attractive offerings.''

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers is the world's leading operating system (OS) virtualization solution. On a single physical server and single OS installation, it enables users to run workloads in multiple, simultaneously running execution environments called ''containers.'' Compared to other virtualization technologies, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers offers the highest levels of density, performance and manageability.

The Parallels Open Platform enables hosting with Parallels virtualization and automation technology through integration with a wide range of third-party applications and systems. The Application Packaging Standard (APS), a key element of the platform, is used by independent software vendors (ISVs) and service providers to seamlessly integrate applications to offer to the more than 10 million businesses and individuals that use Parallels products.

Liquid Web Inc. is a privately held company founded in 1997, with two wholly owned data center facilities located in Lansing, Michigan. Liquid Web is a leader in the professional web hosting market with an unwavering dedication to providing the best hosting products available. Liquid Web has over 130 employees to service 15,000 clients in over 100 countries. The company has assembled a world class heroic support staff who are professionally educated and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Parallels (formerly SWsoft) is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and service providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with 900 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.

To learn more about Liquid Web Inc., please visit: www.liquidweb.com.

For more information about Parallels, please visit: www.parallels.com.

]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-reseller-web-hosting-provider-resellerchoice-expands-with-peer1-4249.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-reseller-web-hosting-provider-resellerchoice-expands-with-peer1-4249.html Thu, 08 May 2008 12:55:29 GMT New York, New York - (The Hosting News) - May 8, 2008 - Web hosting provider, ResellerChoice, in response to demands from clients for better east coast geographic diversity, has expanded its New York City data center.

Rob Conley, CEO of ResellerChoice noted, ''Our customers demanded a east coast location and we selected to expand in Peer1 NYC due to the low latency and zero packet loss and fastest possible routes for data. Using the Peer1 NYC data center, expands our network from our current central and west coast locations in Dallas, TX, Huston TX and Seattle Washington.''

Peer1 utilizes multiple major upstream providers and more than 200 peering partners to ensure continuous Internet connectivity, greater route diversity, and ultimately, enhanced Internet performance. This strategic combination allows customer traffic to be routed over the best available connections.

Peer1 is an online IT infrastructure provider, with over 10,000 customers. Peer1 delivers highly scalable managed hosting and co-location solutions to ensure customers' online presence is always fast, always available. Since 1999, Peer1 has grown to include data centers and network points of presence in 17 major cities across North America and Europe. Serving a variety of companies, Peer1 offers solutions that grow through every stage of web commerce, regardless of company size. The company's headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and the stock is traded on the TSX Venture exchange under the symbol PIX.

ResellerChoice provides advanced Microsoft based reseller, application, high availability and dedicated server hosting. The company is located in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, and operates out of data centers in Dallas, Texas, Huston Texas, Seattle WA, and New York City.

For more information about Peer1, please visit: www.peer1.com.

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

]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-dedicated-server-web-hosting-firms-encouraged-to-enter-awards-program-4248.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-dedicated-server-web-hosting-firms-encouraged-to-enter-awards-program-4248.html Thu, 08 May 2008 12:43:50 GMT San Francisco, California - (The Hosting News) - May 8, 2008 - Dedicated Hosting Reviews organization, Top 10 Dedicated Server Hosting, providing information to clients, consultancy and training to web hosting providers and end users, has issued a call for entries in connection with its 2008 Dedicated Hosting Award Program.

There will be separate award for each category and subcategory and an overall best dedicated hosting provider Award for an outstanding service provider who continues to inspire the industry.

Submissions are now being accepted for the following categories and subcategories:
- Server and O/S Hosting

IBM AIX, AS/400, HP-UX Linux, Solaris, VMware, Windows

- Database Hosting

IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server Cluster, MySQL Oracle 9i / 10g / 11g, Oracle RAC

- Application Hosting

AspenTech, BEA WebLogic, Blackberry Enterprise Server, Citrix, Custom Software, IBM WebSphere, Lotus, Microsoft Exchange, SupportSoft, Verity Hosting, VMware

- Service Provider Hosting

Application Service Provider (ASP), Software as a Service (SaaS)

- Solutions By Industry

Construction, Education, Energy/Utilities, Financial, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Marketing/Media, Retail/Distribution, Technology and Transportation

The options in managed dedicated web hosting have grown exponentially in recent years. Dedicated servers are now available at prices even the smallest businesses can afford, and the future of Web Hosting is Dedicated Servers.

Top 10 Dedicated Hosting Website categorically defines Dedicated server hosting providers as Cheap Dedicated hosting, Best Dedicated hosting and Managed Dedicated services based on both Linux and Windows platforms and offering options such as Celeron, Pentium 4, Dual Xeon, Xeon Quad Core, Kentsfield, Conroe, Woodcrest and Clovertown Processors, Dual Core AMD Opteron, cPanel, Plesk, WHM, Redhat, Debian, FreeBSD, CentOS and Windows 2003.

Top 10 Dedicated Hosting is a team of skilled professionals focused on providing Dedicated Server Hosting Reviews to clients, Consultancy and Training to Web Hosting Providers, End Users and others. Expertise and experience is provided to help businesses grow, reduce overall costs, and simplify the web environments.

To learn more about submitting an entry, please visit: www.top10dedicatedhosting.com/awards.html.

]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-web-solutions-provider-sonic-foundry-mediasite-earns-usdla-award-4247.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-web-solutions-provider-sonic-foundry-mediasite-earns-usdla-award-4247.html Thu, 08 May 2008 12:33:27 GMT Madison, Wisconsin - (The Hosting News) - May 8, 2008 - Automated rich media communications technology firm, Sonic Foundry, Inc.'s Mediasite solution, has been honored with the USDLA Award, for its innovation.

Last week. Professor Diane Zorn, a professor at New York University, won the highest accolades at the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) National Conference, with the USDLA Excellence in Teaching for Online Distance Learning award for Sonic Foundry's webcasting platform.

Dr. John G. Flores, Chief Executive Officer of USDLA noted, ''As a premier organization for the entire distance learning profession, we are honoring Diane Zorn and Sonic Foundry as leaders in their industries. Together they have raised the bar of excellence, and we are truly honored by their contributions to the distance learning industry.''

Facing skepticism from other faculty members that a distance learning course could fulfill the course requirements, Ms. Zorn applied for and won a grant to develop a rich media coursecast powered by Mediasite by Sonic Foundry. Her goal for students taking the online course was for them to learn tangible skills, not only concepts.

Ms. Zorn explained, ''The design of the course, which wouldn't be possible without Mediasite, assumes that greater quality means greater individualization of learning.''

Ms. Zorn uses the Mediasite platform to create student-centered, highly interactive rich media courses that promote deep and durable learning. She incorporates built-in continuous assessment, asynchronous discussion, clarification of expectations, website orientation and synchronous, real-time interactions. Her courses-which teach business ethics and philosophy to first, second and third-year undergraduate level students-range in class size from 50 to 90 students. About 10 percent of her students are adult learners from age 30 to 50. The enrolled students are learning remotely from the Greater Toronto area, across Canada and the United States, Australia, Pakistan, the Middle East and Europe.

Students can select the content delivery mode they prefer: about 10 percent use video hand-held devices to view the lectures, such as video iPods, another 30 percent use mp3 players to listen to the lectures while the majority of students view the lectures on their PCs or Macs.

Rimas Buinevicius, Chairman and CEO of Sonic Foundry added, ''In our opinion and many others, Professor Zorn has taken lecture capture to an entirely new level. We are immensely proud of the ways she has capitalized on Mediasite's capabilities. She is truly on the leading edge of meeting the diverse needs of her students within a flexible, interactive learning community.''

The USDLA presented the award on April 23 at the 2008 International Distance Learning Awards in conjunction with its 2008 National Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 1987, USDLA has been the world's premier distance learning association. The USDLA International Awards program annually awards outstanding individuals and organizations engaged in the development and delivery of distance learning programs.

Through her pioneering use of Mediasite in the classroom, Ms. Zorn also won York's University-Wide Teaching Award in 2007, and has been nominated for the Commonwealth of Learning Excellence in Distance Education Award in 2008.

Founded in 1991, Sonic Foundry provides rich media communications and knowledge management, providing enterprise solutions and services that link an information-driven world. Based in Madison, Wisconsin, the company has received numerous awards including the 2007 Frost and Sullivan Global Market Leadership Award, Ziff Davis Media's Baseline Magazine's sixth fastest-growing software company with sales under $150 million and Deloitte's Technology Fast 500. Named a Bersin and Associates 2007 Learning Leader, Sonic Foundry's webcasting and knowledge management solutions are trusted by education institutions, Fortune 500 companies and government agencies for a variety of critical communication needs.

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

]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-web-hosting-company-assets-of-tucows-to-be-acquired-by-hostopia-4246.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-web-hosting-company-assets-of-tucows-to-be-acquired-by-hostopia-4246.html Wed, 07 May 2008 13:01:36 GMT Toronto, Canada - (The Hosting News) - May 7, 2008 - Web hosting company specializing in small and medium business support, Hostopia, will acquire certain hosting customer assets, of the Tucows Retail Service Group.

The companies have signed a definitive agreement for Hostopia to purchase customer assets including approximately 14,000 Domain Direct, NetIdentity and ItsYourDomain.com (IYD) customer accounts. The companies indicated that accounts involved in the transaction will continue to be served under the familiar Domain Direct brand, which will operate as a managed service by Hostopia.

Elliot Noss, President and CEO, Tucows noted, ''I am confident these shared hosting customers will enjoy quality service and support with Hostopia directly. This move is the first part of a strategy to reposition our retail business to help individuals and small businesses build their identities online.''

Hostopia will pay US$1.6 million in cash for these assets, with adjustments made on closing. This amount is payable 20% on signing of the agreement and 80% upon the closing of the transaction, which is scheduled to occur on May 15, 2008. The companies plan to migrate these accounts to Hostopia's unified web service platform by July 2008.

Colin Campbell, CEO, Hostopia remarked, ''We are very pleased to have concluded this transaction. We are already hosting some of the Tucows Retail Service Group's users so the impact on customers should be minimal. Our plan is to provide customers with numerous upgrades and additional value-added services to earn their loyalty and continued business. Traditional web hosting is fast evolving to the SaaS (software as a service) model and Hostopia is perfectly positioned to offer these services to these customers.''

Tucows provides Internet services for web hosting companies and ISPs. Through its global network of over 9,000 service providers it provides millions of email boxes and manages over eight million domains. Tucows is an accredited registrar with ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Tucows holds a domain name portfolio of approximately 150,000 domain names that are available for sale, monetized through advertising and support our wholesale Personal Names Service. Our Retail division sells Tucows services to consumers and small business owners through Domain Direct, ItsYourDomain.com and NetIdentity. Tucows.com remains one of the most popular software download sites on the Internet.

Hostopia is a provider of web services that are designed to enable small and medium-sized businesses to establish and maintain an Internet presence. The company's customers are communication services providers, including telecommunication carriers, cable companies, internet service providers, domain registrars, and web hosting service providers. Hostopia's customers purchase its web services on a wholesale basis and resell these services under their own brands to small and medium-sized businesses. The company provides customers with the technology, infrastructure, and support services to enable them to offer web services, while saving research and development as well as capital and operating costs typically associated with the design, development, and delivery of web services.

For more information please visit: http://about.tucows.com.

To learn more about Hostopia, please visit: www.hostopia.com.

]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-web-hosting-services-provider-i9biz-enlists-gigafin-networks-for-ddos-securit-4245.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-web-hosting-services-provider-i9biz-enlists-gigafin-networks-for-ddos-securit-4245.html Wed, 07 May 2008 12:52:50 GMT Cupertino, California - (The Hosting News) - May 7, 2008 - Internet hosting service provider, i9Biz, has chosen to utilize Distributed Denial-of-service (DDoS) attack technology, from GigaFin Networks, in an effort to preserve server performance.

i9Biz has installed FlowLine 500 network analysis and remediation appliances from GigaFin after an extensive competitive evaluation to determine the most reliable, stable and cost-effective solution.

Mathew Suh, President of i9Biz noted, ''I evaluated solutions from the leading vendors but all were geared towards perimeter deployments and offering general security features rather than stopping the types of attacks my customers are experiencing. Also, because they were general-purpose firewall and intrusion prevention or detection products, they were quite expensive for gigabit performance.''

i9Biz found that Korean sites hosted on its servers were suffering DDoS attacks on a daily basis. Existing network defenses were ineffective or unreliable, a situation worsened because many customers switched to higher-speed links in the hope of avoiding server and bandwidth overload caused by the attacks. Rather than buffering the sites against DDoS floods, however, these high-speed links encouraged attackers to increase the intensity of their attacks. To prevent negative impact on its customers' operating costs, revenues and user satisfaction levels, i9Biz tested solutions from leading security vendors, and chose GigaFin.

i9Biz initially installed four Flowline 500 appliances for one of its larger customers. In less than an hour, the solution was up and running smoothly, and denied attacks were immediately reported. The appliances are deployed on all the access links to the customer's servers, detecting and mitigating DDoS attacks and preserving server performance against attack.

Mr. Suh commented, ''The FlowLine 500 is the right tool for the job. It provides the anti-DoS features, scalability and performance to put in front of my customer's servers and keeps operating costs down.''

GigaFin has enabled i9Biz's customers to reduce expenses and increase revenues by preventing service disruptions. William Thomas, Chief Executive Officer at GigaFin Networks remarked, ''Recent attacks on CNN, the Church of Scientology and Korean securities companies demonstrate the increasing volume of DDoS traffic. This places extra pressure on hosting providers to ensure servers are online, applications are available and their customers are satisfied. Working with i9Biz and other service providers, we were able to identify the types of traffic causing the most disruptions and offer a solution to a growing problem.''

Designed for optimal performance in the LAN with 2Gbps throughput, GigaFin's affordable, high-speed appliances allow network administrators to see through complex layers of traffic, identify and prioritize applications running over the network, and protect against undesirable network use from internal or external sources.

GigaFin Networks enables organizations of all sizes to keep their networks running at peak efficiency by providing instant insight and control over traffic within the LAN. GigaFin's affordable, high-speed appliances enable users to maximize the value of their networks without performance degradation or infrastructure changes. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, GigaFin was founded in December 2002 and has received funding from leading VC firms Sevin Rosen Funds, Worldview Technology Partners and Incubic Venture Capital.

i9Biz provides hosting services for over 200 companies, many of which are headquartered in South Korea. DDoS has been a particularly serious problem for South Korea, which is one of the leading sources of online gaming and Internet services. Recent DDoS attacks on virtual game item trading companies in Korea have caused a total estimated damage of over US$1 billion.

To learn more about GigaFin, please visit: www.gigafin.com.

]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-dedicated-server-solution-firm-softlayer-opens-washington-d-c-data-center-4244.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-dedicated-server-solution-firm-softlayer-opens-washington-d-c-data-center-4244.html Wed, 07 May 2008 12:41:02 GMT Dallas, Texas - (The Hosting News) - May 7, 2008 - On-demand hosting services and virtual data center provider for the small to medium enterprise (SME), SoftLayer, has opened a new data center location in the Washington D.C. area.

The addition of this facility increases the company's total capacity to 45,000 servers throughout their facilities located in Dallas, Seattle, and now D.C.

Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer noted, ''Now with three geographically diverse data centers, we will bring even more new services to our customers in the coming months. As we searched for the best site for expanding our presence to the East Coast, the D.C. area was an easy choice. It has one of the highest concentrations of fiber connectivity in the U.S., providing us and our customers multiple network options and world class performance.''

SoftLayer Washington D.C. is located just 7 miles from Dulles International Airport in a facility designed to full Tier IV standards. It features multiple redundant power connections in addition to the three 2-megawatt generators and eight, fully redundant, 750 kVA UPS systems. As with all SoftLayer data centers, the facility has 24x7 onsite support and multiple security protocols controlling entrance to the building. In addition, the facility boasts infrastructure features including:

• 34 x 480v 3-Phase PDUs
• Redundant 30-ton CRAC Units
• FM-200 Fire Suppression System with VESDA
• Biometric Security System
• Digital Security Video Surveillance

SoftLayer has already begun pre-selling servers in the new data center to current customers, receiving an unprecedented level of demand resulting in a high backlog of server requests. Mr. Crosby added, ''We knew interest in the new location would be high, from both existing and new customers. We wanted to give our current customers an opportunity to request servers here and meet their demand prior to opening sales to the general market.''

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer provides next-generation web hosting and on-demand datacenter services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX and Seattle, WA. Utilizing proprietary management tools coupled with the industry's first network-within-a-network topology, the company delivers unprecedented power and control to securely manage IT environments while providing unparalleled scalability.

To learn more about SoftLayer, please visit: www.softlayer.com.

]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-web-hosting-datacenter-firn-digital-realty-trust-reports-first-quarter-leasing-4243.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-web-hosting-datacenter-firn-digital-realty-trust-reports-first-quarter-leasing-4243.html Wed, 07 May 2008 12:34:36 GMT San Francisco, California - (The Hosting News) - May 7, 2008 - Owner and manager of corporate datacenters and Internet gateways, Digital Realty Trust, Inc., has reported strong leasing results for the first quarter of 2008.

The Company commenced leases during the quarter totaling approximately 334,800 rentable square feet of space. This includes 256,200 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $119.25 per square foot, 46,300 square feet of Powered Base Building space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $52.42 per square foot, and 32,300 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $19.31 per square foot.

Michael F. Foust, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty Trust noted, ''We are continuing to experience strong demand for our Turn-Key Datacenter and Powered Base Building solutions from a diverse base of customers throughout our top markets. Those markets include New York Metro, Northern Virginia, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, San Francisco and Silicon Valley in the U.S. and London, Dublin and Paris in Europe.''

Leases were signed during the quarter totaling 260,200 square feet of space for the company, including 106,400 square feet of Turn-Key Datacenter space. The space was leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $100.05 per square foot, nearly 120,000 square feet of Powered Base Building space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $67.60 per square foot, and 33,800 square feet of non-technical space leased at an average annual GAAP rental rate of $25.93 per square foot.

Chris Crosby, Senior Vice President of Sales and Technical Services for Digital Realty Trust noted, ''Customers from a variety of industry sectors, including financial services, corporate enterprise, and Internet enterprise, as well as managed service providers and IT outsourcing companies are seeking both Powered Base Building and Turn-Key Datacenter solutions to meet their own or their customers' requirements for state-of-the-art datacenter space. In fact, we have seen a particular increase in demand for outsourced solutions from customers looking for ways to cut costs under today's challenging market conditions.''

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. owns, acquires, redevelops, develops and manages technology-related real estate. The Company is focused on providing Turn-Key Datacentre and Powered Base Building datacentre solutions for domestic and international tenants across a variety of industry verticals ranging from information technology and internet enterprises, to manufacturing and financial services. Digital Realty Trust's 71 properties, excluding one property held as an investment in an unconsolidated joint venture, contain applications and operations critical to the day-to-day operations of technology industry tenants and corporate enterprise datacentre tenants. Comprising approximately 1.2 million rentable square metres (12.6 million square feet) as of April 1, 2008, including 186,000 square metres (2 million square feet) of space held for redevelopment, Digital Realty Trust's portfolio is located in 26 markets throughout Europe and North America.

To learn more, please visit: www.digitalrealtytrust.com.
]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-the-planet-web-hosting-firm-debuts-firewall-discounts-4242.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-the-planet-web-hosting-firm-debuts-firewall-discounts-4242.html Tue, 06 May 2008 13:10:23 GMT Houston, Texas - (The Hosting News) - May 6, 2008 - Privately held dedicated web hosting company, The Planet, has unveiled six new promotions for May, including savings of up to 26 percent on its two Check Point solutions, as the company's first-ever firewall discount.

Urvish Vashi, Director of Product Management at The Planet explained, ''The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard requires companies to have a secure firewall in place when accepting credit card payments. Companies that are compromised face serious risks as well as the loss of revenue and their hard-gained good reputations if there are breaches to their sites. This promotion signals a great time for companies to review their security profile and to consider an upgrade to their hosting infrastructures.''

The following promotions continue through May 31, 2008, or while promotional supplies last:

• Firewall Upgrades: The Check Point X16, formerly priced at $89 per month, is now available for $69, a 22 percent savings. The Check Point XU is now available for $139 per month - reduced from $189 per month - a savings of 26 percent.
• Double Down Select: This promotion provides customers the choice to double their base bandwidth, hard disk or RAM for free on new orders of the Kentsfield SATA or the Dual Xeon 2.8 IDE.
• Dual Xeon 2.4 SCSI: Now priced at $143 per month - down from $219 - customers can take advantage of a 35 percent savings on this popular server.
• Dedicated Backup Servers: For customers looking for special pricing on backup servers, the company is offering savings ranging from 13 percent to 29 percent on 500GB to 6TB servers.
• Component Upgrades: Existing customers can take advantage of disk space, additional bandwidth and backup at 50 percent off current prices.

Ultimately, The Planet endeavors to provide:

• High levels of network capacity and speed to deliver peak performance
• Instant scalability to handle even the largest spikes in network traffic
• Parallel, redundant, multi-tiered network routing and switching architecture to assure reliability and stability
• Multiple layer network security that prevents Delayed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks from harming businesses
• Knowledgeable experts with a passion for excellence and a commitment to operate the best networks in the business

The Planet is a leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting over 22,000 small and medium size businesses and 6.7 million web sites worldwide, using the best choice of servers, software tools and support, backed by enhanced facilities and network connectivity.

For more information about The Planet, please visit: www.theplanet.com.

]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-dedicated-servers-colocation-from-nfsi-telecom-powered-by-r1soft-4241.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-dedicated-servers-colocation-from-nfsi-telecom-powered-by-r1soft-4241.html Tue, 06 May 2008 13:01:47 GMT Linda-a-Velha, Portugal - (The Hosting News) - May 6, 2008 - Developer of near-continuous data protection products for Linux and Windows, R1Soft, has been selected by dedicated server, virtual service, colocation, and local internet access provider, NFSi Telecom.

NFSi has joined R1Soft's Hosting Partner Program, and will deploy the R1Soft's Continuous Data Protection (CDP) solution.

NFSi Telecom will offer Continuous Data Protection as standard on all managed servers. For unmanaged servers, the company will offer Continuous Data Protection as a premium add-on, starting at 30.00 EUR per month.

Nuno Vieira, Chief Technical Officer of NFSi Telecom noted, ''By offering R1Soft's solution, we will be able to reduce customer churn and increase customer satisfaction. Customers who feel confident their data is protected are more likely to remain with the company in the long run.''

NFSi Telecom is the leading Internet Service Provider in Portugal, hosting more than 40,000 Web sites on more than 700 servers in its datacenter. The company works mostly with small to medium sized businesses in Portugal.

David Wartell, Vice President of R1Soft, a division of BBS Technologies remarked, ''We are excited to work with NFSi Telecom in offering our data protection solution for individuals and businesses in Portugal. I hope this partnership will allow NFSi Telecom to offer its customers a higher level of managed serves.''

As a member of R1Soft's Hosting Partner Program, NFSi has access to volume licensing discounts, sales and marketing tools, more detailed product information, and priority technical support.

NFSi Telecom was founded in 2001in the Portuguese Internet services market. Its array of products and services include local Internet access for individuals and businesses; dedicated and virtual servers; server colocation; disaster recovery solutions; turn-key ecommerce services; and network infrastructure for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). NFSi Telecom is based in Linda-a-Velha, Portugal and is licensed with the national regulatory body, ANACOM.

Founded in 2003, R1Soft is a provider of disk-based backup solutions. The company's customer list includes some of the world's largest hosting providers. R1soft products provide Continuous Data Protection (CDP) for over 85,000 mission-critical Linux and Windows servers worldwide. In November, 2007 R1Soft was acquired by BBS Technologies, Inc.

To learn more about NFSi Telecom, please visit: www.nfsi.pt.

For more information about R1Soft and Continuous Data Protection, please visit: www.r1soft.com.

]]> http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-peer-1-dedicated-colocation-hosting-provider-unveils-contest-4240.html http://www.thehostingnews.com/news-peer-1-dedicated-colocation-hosting-provider-unveils-contest-4240.html Tue, 06 May 2008 12:56:19 GMT Sunnyvale, California - (The Hosting News) - May 6, 2008 - Internet infrastructure and hosting solutions provider, PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc., has initiated a contest, in connection with the release of the second episode of its humorous video series, ''Growing Pains.''

The $10,000 Contest premiered at Interop Las Vegas, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Episode two continues the saga of a home business start-up that grew quickly out of control, taking over the house with new employees, computers and servers. Viewers of the episode can create their own growing pains videos highlighting their personal experiences for a chance to win a prize package of 12 months of free managed hosting, a 15-inch MacBook Pro and a Sony HD camcorder, at a total value of $10,000.

Rajan Sodhi, Vice President of marketing at PEER 1 noited, ''We want our customers to focus on the possibilities not the problems of the Internet. With the Growing Pains series we are able to bring people together through humor and show that we truly understand the issues that businesses face today. PEER 1 removes these issues to help online businesses succeed in any industry.''

Many PEER 1 customers experienced their own growing pains before they turned to the company to help gain control of their IT infrastructure. PEER 1 has compiled the top five of these growing pains, which are: 1. High Costs - Running servers from a home office eats up too much capital and keeps small businesses from making other important investments 2. Too Complex - Networks are too complex, too difficult to manage 3. Time Consuming - Businesses suffer because IT takes up too much time, and business owners are not able to focus on generating revenue 4. Unreliable - Lack of redundancy means businesses experience downtime and lose revenue 5. No support - Running a network in a home office means there is not any IT support The Growing Pains video series is a part of PEER 1's ''We Get IT'' campaign, which focuses on the customers behind technology.

The first episode was viewed more than 75,000 times through Viddler and YouTube. To watch the new episode of Growing Pains and enter the Growing Pains $10,000 Contest visit www.peer1.com/growingpains.

PEER 1 is an online IT infrastructure provider, with over 10,000 customers. PEER 1 delivers highly scalable managed hosting and co-location solutions to ensure customers' online presence is always fast, always available. Since 1999, PEER 1 has grown to include data centers and network points of presence in 17 major cities across North America and Europe. Serving a variety of companies, PEER 1 offers solutions that grow through every stage of web commerce, regardless of company size. The company's headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and the stock is traded on the TSX Venture exchange under the symbol PIX.

For more information about PEER 1, please visit: www.peer1.com.

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