September has come and gone leaving a mass of web hosting industry activity in its wake. It was a big month for us - HostSearch.com launched a Value Added Service for its Support Members that provides discounts and other benefits for products and services provided by key web hosting industry vendors and suppliers... definitely a boon for web hosts, especially those just starting out in the business or relatively new, although there is something for everyone. We were also pleased to hear that Host Department was offering exclusive hosting to HostSearch.com visitors -- thanks for that!
Elsewhere in the hostosphere (sorry -- couldn't resist it... but still can't say it) Tier 1 said it as it is with research that highlighted mass-market web hosting sector challenges and opportunities. As no doubt the research suggests, in September telecoms and Internet Service Providers continue to make inroads into the web hosting business and they are also snapping up SWsoft solutions.
Of course, Go Daddy was in the news, this time announcing they would sponsor US college football and revealing Chad Johnson would be in the next Go Daddy commercials. Also this month, Easy CGI became one of the untouchables by joining the Better Business Bureau, while AIT filed a TRO against Fayetteville Publishing Company and WeBuyHostingCompanies.com acquired more two web hosting companies to show us there is a way out if it all goes wrong!
Good times also at Netcetera in September... they are in the world's uptime top ten according to Netcraft. Also, good times at Microsoft. The company is organizing a free worldwide road show to help IT professionals and architects capitalize on IIS7. In addition, a report shows that IIS "outserves" Apache on Fortune 1000 websites. Bad times though at Layered Technologies where hackers accessed its client support database. However, worse times may come for Google ... After trying to convince people to abandon web hosting and store their important information on their servers, it seems that Google Apps content may belong to Google according to the company's terms!
Of course, web hosts did their bit for the environment in September. German web hosting provider Strato announced it would be carbon-free by January 2008, A2 Hosting, Inc. partnered with Carbonfund.org to offset carbon emissions, and Earthlab chose Terremark as strategic hosting partner for a Green-focused website.
Mergers and acquisitions were also plentiful in September, showing the trend for consolidation continues unabated. SWsoft acquired Sphera to speed up Software-as-a-Service delivery, Globat.com acquired CompleteHostingSolutions.com, and Web.com and Website Pros Shareholders approved 'merger-related matters'. Meanwhile, as ever, there were plenty of promotions around to grease the web hosting industry's wheels! Host Department got in there offering free .INFO domains, SupremeCenterHosting.com announced a "Buy 1 Get 1" promotion, The Planet kicked off a weeklong promotion, and also re-launched its Double Down promotion. In addition, Secure128 offered web hosting companies and ISPs reseller discounts on SSL certificates and AIT held domain prices.
Plenty of partnerships and people winning contracts in September... DiscountASP.NET partnered with Znode ASP.NET Storefront, Easy CGI partnered with eBridge Marketing Solutions, 1&1 partnered with DomainsBot, and ComponentOne teamed up with WebECS to provide customers with web hosting. OVH also selected Infinera for a high-performance French Internet network. In addition, SharePointHQ and SharePoint hosting provider Alentus Internet Services partnered, as did BizLand Partners and BoomTime, and FusionXHost and SmarterTools Software. Verio joined the GlobalSign Partner Program and Go Daddy Works and Intel worked on secure remote configuration. Contracts won in September include a multi-year managed services contract for Hosted Solutions, Fat Jack Hosting signed a virtualization deal with SWSoft and Zogmo won a contract to host Screen Imaging Technology's software systems.
A few people on the move in September -- George Reyes retired as Google CFO for instance. Likewise, quite a few expansions to be seen - Go Daddy's expansion into Denver, as well as British-based Nuclear Internet's relocation. In addition, lots of hosts announced meeting key milestones and received awards. CrystalTech hit 100,000 hosted domains, HostMySite.com celebrated 10 years in the industry, and Smartyhost claimed 40,000 customers. As far as awards were concerned, Inc. Magazine puts C I Host among 5,000 fastest growing private companies in the US, Go Daddy was recognized by the 2007 Arizona Corporate Excellence (ACE) awards, Hosted Solutions was recognized as one of the fastest growing private companies in the US, Aress Software and Hosting Support Division became Microsoft Gold Certified Partners, and Macquarie Hosting's data center achieved the defense signals directorate's (DSD) highest level of accreditation.
As ever, September saw a plethora of hosts launching new products and services. Cartika Hosting unveiled the industry's first virtual dedicated cluster service, InetServices introduced affordable dedicated backup servers, MindGenies launched an SSL reseller program, R1Soft released CDP Server 2.0 after a year of development, Cirrushosting announced Windows VPS solutions on the Windows 2003 x64 Operating System, and The Planet announced the launch of new servers and load balancers. In addition, Server Intellect introduced service monitoring for dedicated servers, Lunarpages offered dedicated servers, NetWideHost.com launched servers in the United Kingdom, and Integral Impressions, LLC offered managed rails hosting.
Alongside the wealth of new products and services introduced, other hosts enhanced their offerings to keep ahead of the curve. Frontpages Web Hosting Network offered free SharePoint Designer 2007, Cirrushosting offered content management systems with hosting plans, StartLogic upgraded its shared hosting plan, and SpiralHosting.com offered double disk space on reseller hosting.
All in all, September offered a lot and let's hope October has just as much!
