The Planet Web Hosting Provider Director, Opens 2008 cPanel Event

Houston, Texas - (The Hosting News) - June 16, 2008 - The Planet privately held dedicated hosting company's Director of Product Management, recently delivered remarks at the third annual cPanel Conference, including a discussion on the transition from shared to dedicated hosting, and the long-term implications for the reseller community.

Mr. Vashi explained, ''As the hosting market matures, our resellers frequently discuss with us their strategies for adding dedicated hosting to their portfolios. We have seen some of our most successful resellers grow through a combination of both shared and dedicated hosting offerings, and a number of our customers attend the cPanel Conference since it is one of the most popular control panels among resellers.''

The conference was held at the Westin Oaks Houston. The conference agenda covers topics related to the cPanel server control panel, including sessions on the new cPanel Server Suite and its improvements to Windows-based hosting operations. The Planet is also a featured exhibitor at the conference.

Also of note, Vice President of Facilities at The Planet, Jeff Lowenberg, was recently been awarded with the first-ever ''Data Center Manager of the Year'' award from SearchDataCenter.com. The award recognizes excellence in data center project management, according to senior site editor Matt Stansberry. Mr. Lowenberg was recognized for his work that will save the company over $1 million on energy costs in 2008 alone, based on the implementation of new ''green'' data center efficiencies.

Mr. Lowenberg conducted a six-month trial to reduce power consumption and increase data center operating efficiency. Initial results demonstrate that while critical server loads increased by 5 percent, power used for cooling decreased by 31 percent. Overall, the company experienced power reductions of up to 13.5 percent through a broad range of improvements. The new green initiatives were conducted across its six world-class data centers.

Armin Heinlein with Panalpina Group was a runner-up, followed by finalists Ben Stewart with Terremark and William Stewart with Sempra Energy.

The Planet operates more than 150 30-ton computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units across its six data centers. In one data center alone, the company was able to turn off four of the units. The cooling requirement on two of the units was reduced to 50 percent of capacity, while another nine now operate at 25 percent of capacity. The company also extended the return air plenums on all of its down-flow CRAC units to optimize efficiency. In some cases, The Planet team was able to increase CRAC unit temperature settings by as much as 10 degrees while still meeting the thermal guidelines for data processing environments set by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

Across the board, the company evaluated both its data center footprint and recommended guidelines from the Site Uptime Network, an invitation-only consortium of companies that operate data centers around the globe. The Planet also evaluated standards for air conditioning efficiency from ASHRAE to optimize operating performance. Among these improvements are the following:

Rearranged floor tiles to better manage cold airflow
Installed seals and grommets in the ceilings, walls and floors to reduce bypass airflow
Installed blanking plates in server cabinets to direct airflow more efficiently
Sealed power distribution units to reduce bypass airflow

Last month, The Planet added an automated recovery solution, which is now available on all of its new and existing servers within the company's extensive offerings. The Automated Rescue Environment (ARE) allows customers to self-restore and repair their servers directly from The Planet customer portal in the event of a critical software failure.

Ultimately, The Planet endeavors to provide the following:

High level 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 more than 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 state-of-the-art facilities and network connectivity.

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

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