The first month in 2009 proved eventful, despite gloom and doom as far the economy is concerned. To help get things moving Network Solutions offered its own "Economic Stimulus Package". Although that's probably not going to be enough to turn this recession around, every little helps, and like with the environment, there's a need for everyone to get involved.
Things are though still pretty bad as far as the economy is concerned. Although this has been on the cards for a while, Lycos Europe announced it would shut down key activities, namely Lycos Mail and Tripod. And as far as the environment is concerned, a lot of people are going to have to do some soul searching. Research carried out in the United States measured Goggle Search in terms of carbon emission and found that search is starting to become a player in the carbon dioxide league. The entire IT industry is contributing only 2% of the total global CO2 emissions, but that's the same as the motor industry, and unlike the latter, the former isn't in decline and is likely to take an increasingly important role in everyone's lives.
Well - never mind... The Cloud will save the economy and the environment, right? Perhaps not - a recent survey suggests UK businesses don't understand Cloud hosting, with the bulk not even able to define it. Another example of the gap between the techies and the people who use what they develop... a gap usually filled by our friends from Redmond. Given their 'Cloud' activities, it's clear they have plans to dominate this area.
Despite global financial woes, Goggle announced decent results for the last quarter and end of fiscal year 2008, as did The Planet for the 4th quarter. And people are still fighting the good fight as far as green issues are concerned - LeaseWeb and HP partnered on green IT while managed services provider Attenda was awarded CarbonNeutral office accreditation. Also, finances must be good at Superb Internet Corporation - they moved to Hawaii. I can certainly think of worse things than that!
In addition, quite a few others were also on the move in January. iMergent announced management changes, and Planet Technologies named John Brown as Director of EMEA. Of course, in times of doubt, there is safety in numbers, and January saw plenty of partnerships and contracts won. Online IT infrastructure provider PEER 1 joined the BizSpark program, DediPower supported a UK government educational initiative, Web.com and Go Daddy partnered on a patent cross-license agreement, managed hosting provider Fpweb.net is now a USAC service provider, and Aplus.net and RatePoint partnered.
It was also encouraging to see plenty of web hosts winning awards and meeting key milestones in January. Go Daddy reported beating its own charity record in January, but don't worry - they can afford it... The company was light years ahead in the SSL market during the period. In addition, Utah host WestHost scored high in reliability, beating some of the bigger boys, Valcato Hosting beat its own server uptime records, and Linux Magazine selected Open-Xchange as one of "20 companies to watch in 2009", Peak 10, Inc. was named finalist in the third annual Stevie Awards, while SoftLayer received SAS 70 Type II certification.
Of course, in a bid to try and beat of recession blues, plenty of companies brought in new products and services.Fpweb.net offered a managed hosting reseller program, Hostway offered a Cloud computing solution, Aplus.net offered new dedicated servers and website design plans, and Aplus.net launched a user-friendly ecommerce solution. In addition, AIT's search branch introduced a web conferencing and video service, E-WebGuru offered reseller plans, Carpathia hosting announces an "Integrated Hosting Package", 34SP.com offered new customer service resources, and Xcedex introduced vitalization planning software.
Then of course masses of other engaged in promotions to keep them ahead of the pack. Tiger Technologies offered web hosting for a low annual fee, The Planet announced value pricing for year-long contracts, Host Color offered Drupal plan rebates, and Netfirms launched free Facebook ads credits. In addition, a number of companies enhanced existing products and services. Terremark upgraded its enterprise Cloud computing platform, Apps4Rent LLC announces additions to its reseller program, iWeb's network reached 50 Gbps, 1&1 offered managed online advertising, and Infrenion.com upgraded US dedicated plans. In addition, openSUSE 10.3 was offered on Cirrus Tech Linux VPS plans, 1&1 launched a new affiliate portal, and JBW Series Hosting Solution boosted its reseller plans.
All in all, a pretty decent month of web hosting news all things consdered! Let's hope February is as good...
