July was another sterling month for the web hosting industry, with the jewel in the crown of web hosting activity of course being HostingCon 2006 -the industry's annual pilgrimage and knees up, this year set against the backdrop of the Nevada desert in the Mirage, Las Vegas -just how many hosting companies will close because their CEOs spent the company's bank balance at the roulette table? Only time will tell!
During the run up to HostingCon 2006 a number of companies announced their intentions for the conference. WhiteHat Inc. told us of the 'Iron Chef' security challenge that would take place, Web Host Industry Review (WHIR) suggested they would highlight game hosting at the conference, while attendees were also invited to peruse a Roaring Penguin.
Verio announced its presence at HostingCon, and we were told the CEO of C I Host would speak. When the event came along Microsoft announced a new version of its Windows-based web hosting tool, a new WebsiteCreator edition was released, and to allow delegates to let their hair down, HostingCon saw a charity golf tournament. After the event, the CEO of HostMySite.com Lou Honick lauded proceedings and their benefit to the industry.
Outside of HostingCon though, there was still plenty going on within the industry. Eiledon Solutions moved into the hosting arena, as did WebCinch. Hostopia.com Inc. filed for Initial Public Offering, the Mindfly Web Hosting division transitioned into a company in its own right, and Verio Europe was renamed NTT Europe Online. In addition,
BG Hosts launched 'Supported Hosting', EIRCA re-entered the H-Sphere market, Sonasoft announced record growth alongside GeoTrust's 40 percent growth. Probably the most alarming was that web hosting's own nation state, Sealand, was hit by fire and its 'citizens' had to be saved by the British Navy! And it was also a month when
EURid suspended 74,000 '.eu' domain names - I guess Bob Parsons was right!!!
Good to the see the battle against the dark side continuing in July with LINX members uniting against spam and Intermedia.NET offering SpamStopper for Exchange Hosting.
There were a number of notable awards dished out to web hosts during July - C I Host became PCI compliant and was then awarded SAS 70 Type II certification, as was
Hosted Solutions. ColoServe meanwhile completed an SAS 70 Type I audit and SingaporeWebHosting received the TrustSg seal.
As ever though, July was a month when companies enhanced their plans and packages. Web Solutions added PHP5 and MySQL5 support, Intermedia.NET offered free ActiveSync with hosted exchange and MochaHost added domain identity protection. And there were of course a number of promotions - ResellerClub extended its domain promotion,
Easyspace offered a summer promotion, HostICan was involved in an iPod giveaway, Host Color offered rebates to American Express card holders, Zen Internet offered free bandwidth and a 30-day money back guarantee, CrystalTech offered dedicated server promotions, SiteGround released new Mambo and Joomla templates, and
USONYX offered what they called a 'One-for-One'. In addition, VPSLink launched Gentoo Linux, Intermedia.NET launched Private Label Exchange Hosting and free blogging, Again in July, The Planet and EV1Servers announced new server offerings, Relio Hosting offered Microsoft Exchange Hosting, and Easy CGI announced new increased bandwidth and enhanced services. Following a fairly robust trend, Brazaweb provided Ruby On Rails support, while Host Depot announced ecommerce options and
MochaHost.com announced new JSP Hosting.
A number of companies though made key upgrades to the features their plans offer in July. Midwestkel Hosting Solutions offered new control panel features as did
SCPanel, and DomainRightNow enhanced its website builder. Other companies though added new features. Website Source, Inc. added unlimited domains,Aplus.Net offered Web-a-Photo for TiVo, and a business locator tool, and Host Depot announced 'Rollover Bandwidth'.
July saw a few people moving on, notably Ensim appointing a new Director of Engineering, and Douglas J. Erwin joining EV1Servers and The Planet. Some companies, including Global Netoptex Inc., opened new operations. In addition, other companies where bought out by others and others partnered or went into agreements. eNom bought BulkRegister, Spiderhost penned an agreement with Siemens, Hostopia licensed Web.com's patents, Internet Facilitators Limited chose Simply Mail Solutions, Covad chose Samsung, and MaximumASP partnered with sqlSentry.
All in a month - not bad, eh! Let's hope the next month is bigger and brighter and better!
