September was a great month for web hosting. The biggest news though was not strictly web hosting related, but would have ramifications for just about every aspect of the Internet. I am talking of course about the launch of Chrome, Google's new browser. Described as 'an operating system for the Internet', Chrome has quickly leapfrogged the likes of Opera in terms of usage, although that still means no more than 2% of a market that is (strangely) still dominated by Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) 6. Let's see what happens!
September was also a month when DediPower celebrated 10 years in hosting -- a particularly significant milestone given the churn in the industry. It was also a month where providers went on the offensive. The Planet joined an anti-phishing group and Go Daddy's efforts paid off when a bill designed to keep the Internet safe for children went live in the US. Good to see people care. Memset is another company that cares, and they have always got one eye on the environment. They recently suggested "ripping and replacing" servers over 3 years old because they were inefficient - if you have the cash to invest, probably a wise move. MessageLabs also paid attention to the Internet's immediate environment, with a report that suggested spammers abuse free services. Keep up the good work -- let's make a pact to eradicate spam by 2010!
A bit of financial news related to web hosts in September. While unfortunately Rackspace Hosting Inc. reported an income downturn, iMergent, Inc. announced a quarterly dividend. People on the move in September included Phillip Spencer, new Chief Executive Officer of Aplus.Net, and acquisitions in September were spearheaded by Carolinanet's acquisition of Inter-Tech Communications' web services division. Masses of partnerships reported in September though - Rackable Systems and NetApp partnered to offer storage for customized data center solutions, Daily.co.uk partnered with Clickstream Technologies Plc to offer new on-demand Internet marketing tools for website owners, RSHosting partnered with TheVisionWorld and WHMCS, Uniserver Internet partnered with R1Soft to deliver continuous data protection, 1&1 Internet Ltd. partnered with Open-Xchange Inc. on MailXchange, and 1&1 also offered free RatePoint for business websites. In addition, hosting and data center service provider Stealth Dedicated Server and Colocation store offered 'specials' during September, and WebFusion teamed up with Dell to deliver savings.
Always good to see hosts winning awards - Memset was in the news again in September for being shortlisted for 'Best Web Host' by PC Pro Magazine for the third consecutive year, while Attenda Limited was awarded ISO 20000 certification for IT Service Management and SoftLayer was awarded Microsoft Hosting Competency. Plenty of news also on the domain name front in September - 123-reg boosted security for domain name customers, while Hostway recommended '.Pro' domains as registration rules relaxed, Host Color added '.ME' domain registration to shared and VPS hosting, and Host Color offered cut-price '.ASIA' domains with web hosting plans. And whether it's becoming a buzzword or a bandwagon I don't know, but "Cloud Computing" certainly go a lot of press in September. 3Tera, Inc.announced global cloud services, Amazon.com offered video on demand, 3Tera and Citrix partnered on cloud computing, Nirvanix decided to add a Mid-Continent Node at The Planet, and Hosting.com announced a Cloud Computing solution general release. In addition, managed services provider eLINIA launched a "Cloud" storage service. It was good to see so many contracts won in the industry in September. Brazilian hosting company EW3 selected SingleHop to provide servers, infrastructure and managed services, Hosted Solutions announced its EQmentor deal, CNM Online selected managed hosting specialist DediPower, the US Public Service Institute chose NaviSite to provide managed application services, the Atlanta Falcons selected Hosted Solutions, and The Planet was chosen by Stone Bond Technologies for its software test bed services.
Of course, as ever, masses of promotions in September. 724 Hosting announced special pricing, Doteasy.com offered free web hosting alongside domain name registration services, Bonphire offered a free Outlook 2007 download, C I Host offered its DoublePlusGood promotion and Host595 offered "One Year, One Dollar" for shared plans. In addition, The Planet announced an advanced services promotion, ResellerClub announced a September promotion, and AIT also announced a promotion. Alongside these, tyBit offered free web hosting and domain registration, Web Hosting Pad extended its 6 months free web hosting offer, HostMySite.com offered cut-price ColdFusion licenses, Host Color offered low cost .TW and .CN domains with plans, and MochaHost.com offered "Fall Specials".
Rather than offering promotions, many hosts enhanced what they already offered in September. BLUE MAGIC HOSTING offered a Site Builder with RSS feeds, myLittleTools announced new versions of myLittleAdmin and myLittleBackup, Cirrus Tech updated its shared hosting with Windows Server 2008 and Plesk 8.6, ServePath introduced Continuous Data Protection for dedicated servers, Appliedi.net introduced additional shared hosting and managed servers with IIS7, MS SQL 2008, and Open-Xchange announced a comprehensive feature update for the Open-Xchange hosting edition. In addition, SmarterTools released SmarterTrack 3.5 customer service software, Infrenion.com doubled its bandwidth, SiteGround announced advanced technology updates, and Valcato Hosting announced increased quotas.
September also saw a plethora of new products brought online. The Rackspace email arm announced a Hosted Exchange offering, monitoring technology provider Monitis, Inc. offered a new unlimited plan, ManageMyBox introduced proactive, all-inclusive management services, Easyspace launched custom and Ruby on Rails virtual servers, and Rackspace announced dedicated Virtualized servers. Alongside these, Network Solutions announced web hosting offering web designers and developers 'more features and flexibility', RagingWire launched an automated managed server hosting environment, DemoWolf released DotNetPanel tutorials, Rackspace launched platform hosting, and Web Drive launched virtualization to cut IT costs.
Clearly a bumper month for web hosting -- let's hope October is the same!
