Although this time of year is often a bit quiet, November saw a decent month of web hosting news.
Good news was one of the key Russian web hosting providers linked to cyber crime appeared to have ceased operations... unless of course they pop up somewhere else on the net! One way to get rid of cyber crime though would be to get rid of the Internet, and a new report suggests that just might happen - billions of dollars in infrastructure development are required to stop an Internet meltdown. One positive note though, legislation was passed in November to help protect children on the Internet. Things also picked up at NaviSite, who fixed up 60%-65% of the sites that went down in their recent outage - hope things sort themselves out for everyone concerned.
In the 'green scene' in November, Pipe Ten Hosting announced it would sponsor a climate change conference. All that good work could be underdone though - Tucows announced it would share $1 million with resellers and they will all probably go out and buy new cars! The big boys also continued their move into realms traditionally handled by web hosting companies in November. Amazon.com launched Amazon S3 in Europe, while Google though seemed to have been given a helping hand - Go Daddy worked with Google to integrate Webmaster Tools into their web hosting accounts. Eircom though offered a Euro 100,000 fund and broadband and web hosting assistance and so they might come up with their own future Google! Nice to see initiatives that are designed to push new ideas along.
Lots of acquisitions and partnerships in November - Webair bought web hosting provider Wisol, while 123Video.nl chose LeaseWeb for web hosting. In addition, groupSPARK was chosen by Microsoft for the Technology Adoption Program (TAP), Canada Web Hosting partnered with Eventi, Yap selected managed hosting provider Hosted Solutions (as did Broadleaf Services), while WiredTree selected 427 LaSalle for its second Chicago data center and REDPLAID selected Acronis Backup Solution from SWsoft. Plenty of new contracts also won in November - Frontpages Web Hosting Network announced a new contract to provide secure dedicated hosting services and IT support for the US Federal Aviation Administration, HostWorks won a multi-year hosting contract extension with Colorado Lottery and Powerball, and Digiweb Hosting won a Euro 125,000 hotel-booking site contract.
We wouldn't be hurtling towards the holiday season without there being plenty of promotions! AIT announced its Happy Hosting Holidays and Power Buy promotions, Host Color discounted hosting plans for Thanksgiving, IPOWER announced a fall promotion, and StartLogic also offered a promotion. In addition, The Planet launched a private rack promotion, 1&1 Internet Inc. offered 60% discounts on products that provide businesses with a professional web presence. Rather than offering promotions, many companies decided to introduce new products as a means of enticing customers. Web hosting provider Henley Hosting UK introduced mobile phone website tools, UK web host eUKhost Ltd. unveiled a new range of Linux/Windows semi-dedicated server hosting plans, Applied Innovations launched Windows 2008 hosting for dedicated servers, ResellerChoice announced private label SharePoint 2007, and WebHosting UK added a new range of dedicated servers. In addition, Singaporean managed hosting provider ReadySpace launched a Virtuozzo powered VPS service, iNFRENION.com offered YouTube-type FFMpeg Hosting and Re-invent launched ASP.NET 3.5 hosting. In addition, FastNext offered dedicated servers, and CrystalTech announced new 64-bit dedicated servers.
Again, rather than going to the expense of adding new products to their range, many providers decided to upgrade what they already have. Go Daddy integrated email accounts with a BlackBerry service, VPS Hosting provider SilverRack launched a number of new features, scgdomains.com enhanced its web-based email with SMS, and Easy CGI added DotNetNuke. In addition, Easy CGI increased VPS disk space and bandwidth, and CWCS Managed Hosting upgraded its VPS to offer unlimited bandwidth. Plenty of activity in the world of domains as well - Hosting3i.com offered 50% discount on .MOBI domain names, and Go Daddy saw .US domain registrations increase.
A lot of companies achieved important milestones or won awards in November. Frontpages Web Hosting Network's datacenter achieved SAS 70 Type II certification, Arsys Internet became one of less than 4,000 companies worldwide awarded ISO 27001 certification for Information Security, Cheval Capital made it 100 web hosting transactions, Hosted Solutions was in the Triangle Business Journal's Annual Fast 50, DemoWolf now caters for over 550 web hosting companies and Memset was short-listed in industry awards. In addition, Enterhost was awarded Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status, and Future Hosting attained exclusive SWsoft Platinum Partner status.
Let's hope December is just as good!
