Welcome to a review of the web hosting news in April. Although the big news was Rackspace's IPO, the news was, as ever, dominated by Go Daddy! The company's media machine told us that Bob Parsons, Founder and CEO of Go Daddy, started his own Video Blog in April (just a tad more blusher on the cheeks, Bob), that Bob would be Commencement Speaker for Western International University's 2008 graduation ceremony, that a Go Daddy Girl won the Japan 300 - the first woman in history to win an IndyCar Series race, and that the company was promoting a holiday for webmasters! Phew -- whatever next? Bob Parson's for President!
Of course, Google are never far behind when it comes to 'exposure' -- in April the company inched further toward full blown web hosting with the Google App engine launch... Set up the next killer Internet app on Google and then sell it to... er... Google? Well, where else could it go? April also saw the quiet sensation taking more of a hold - AT&T Inc. offered web hosting services to small- to medium-sized businesses. Telcos and web hosting? A strong combination... Keep and eye out for it! And contrary to popular belief, Microsoft said in April that it does like the idea of web-streamed MS Office after all -- they should have told that to Fasthosts! Microsoft was also in the news for other reasons in April... a massive hack attack impacted 500,000 web pages, getting through issues with Internet Information Services (ISS) at an alarming rate!
Web host AIT was also in the news in April. This time the tables turned a bit with the company being sued for libel -- why don't The Fayetteville Observer and AIT just have a soccer match or something -- winner takes all? Might pay off in the end... On a lighter note Network Solutions inspired a bunch of kids to be the next big Internet thing with their 'Take a Child to Work' initiative... We need more of this stuff!
Lots of milestones and achievements celebrated in April - Netcetera celebrated data center success, while ResellersPanel celebrated its 5th birthday with the launch of a new advanced file manager. Being that time of year, a few people let us know their financial position for the 1st quarter - The Planet posted a record first quarter, and UK2.net posted good results for the same period. Plenty of people on the move as well in April - Aplus.Net added Alexander Yevelev to its Executive Management Team, Eleven2 Hosting appointed Cory Beavers as Customer Service Director, and Hosted Solutions added Christopher Turco to its executive team.
Where is web hosting going? Well, possibly into the hands of fewer and fewer people! Masses of acquisitions in April... Irish web host Digiweb bought Novara, ABRY Partners bought Hosted Solutions, Alentus acquired two web hosts in April, and TriZetto agreed to be acquired by Apax Partners. In addition, Hostopia said it would acquire uplinkearth, and mindSHIFT acquired Collaboration Online. Luckily for our children's children, the green trend in hosting continued in April. An "ultra ecological search engine" was launched, and web host NSDesign also decided to go green.
Lots of awards and recognitions in April... The Planet won the Landmark 08 Award for Best Corporate Headquarters Relocation, the Founder of Memset was shortlisted in the BlackBerry Women and Technology Awards, Attenda was Best Managed Services Provider for Second Time, Parallels was named a Red Herring 100 award finalist, and VARBusiness recognized Verio. And good to see SO MANY partnerships forming and contracts won in April -
Applied Innovations and Kentico partnered on .NET user groups solution, UK domain name registrar 123-reg.co.uk partnered with a web design studio to offer custom web design, MaximumASP joined the new BrowserHawk Certified Hosting Partner Program offered by cyScape, Inc., and AYKsolutions selected Peer1 facilities for dedicated hosting. In addition, HostMySite.com was selected by eZanga.com, Aplus.Net announced a Microsoft adCenter partnership, groupSPARK's Private Label SaaS Services were announced available through Ingram Micro Seismic, TippingPoint went with Go Daddy on SSL Certificates and Pro-Teck Services chose Rackspace for its ProValue web application. Likewise, Peak 10 had its contract with Carowinds renewed, Verio and GlobalSign introduced the world's first 'One-click SSL' certificates, Layered Technologies and 3Tera agreed to provide 100 grid-servers to Woopra, Steadfast Networks partnered with LiteSpeed Technologies and Triad Computer Systems chose managed hosting provider DediPower. Further a field, Intel Viet Nam and Vietnam's FPT cooperated on web hosting.
Of course, April saw a lot of hosts bring in new products and services. 2Macs released new hosting plans, Host Color adds an SEO service, Bonphire offered Windows Server 2008 with Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7), Cirrus Tech introduces Virtualization for dedicated server plans, and Frontpages Web Hosting Network offered a shared Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 hosting option. In addition, DemoWolf launched a reseller program, Intermedia offered Adobe ColdFusion 8 plans, The Planet launched Windows Server 2008, and UK hosting 34SP.com launched a website design service.
Like all months, April also saw its share of promotions - eLINIA offered charities a free hosting service, JaguarPC launched Endless Disk Space promotion, Aplus.Net offered a range of promotions, and Lunarpages got into promotion mood, offering $1,000 cash & 5 years free web hosting. In addition, Nirvanix announced a 30-dAY "UPLOAD HOLIDAY", FFmpeg hosting provider iNFRENION.com offered 50% off it first payment, and showing off, The Planet ran three concurrent promotions in April.
To keep ahead of the curve, plenty of companies enhanced their products and services in April. Concentric added SQL server, The Planet offered automated self-restore, WebFaction announced a resources upgrade, Parallels added support for Google message filtering, eApps Hosting added Postini to VPS plans, and Dutch carrier-neutral data center EvoSwitch said it would double capacity.Plenty going on in April -- let's hope May is as busy!
