August was another outstanding month in the web hosting industry. It was a month that saw Vurta enter the market, MonsterHosting teach a man to fish (?), Tribolis re-launch under the CenixHOST brand, IPOWER lease a new data center, and Host Gator enter the VoIP market. It was also a month when AIT went mainstream converting its resellers into high street dealers BannersMall reached its 25,000 banners milestone in August, while 1&1 Internet opened a new data center in Kansas City, EIRCA introduced a "new brand" and Planet Technologies discontinued its "eQuest" name.
There was also more than the usual number of partnerships taking place in August. Adhost and Seattle24x7.com formed what they called a "unique alliance", Globat.com and Template Monster partnered, and Easy CGI announced a partnership with e-onlinedata. In addition, Iomega and C I Host forged a partnership, Hostworks partnered with Activ Australia, and Convera announced a web search partnership with a Tokyo-based web hosting firm. VitalStream was also chosen by ABC Radio to provide ad-insertion and streaming services, and Open Solutions was selected by ESL Federal Credit Union.
August was also a curious month for financial activity - Go Daddy and its related websites claimed to beat the opposition but later in the month the company withdrew its IPO registration. Meanwhile iWeb Group Inc. announced third quarter results and Netopia, Inc.'s common stock was approved for NASDAQ listing. The month also saw plenty of domain activity - Britain saw a young artist in a domain name dispute and ResellerClub marked 1 million domains with the "Mega Bargains Month". AIT's Domain name arm offered ".MOBI" domains in August and also added web hosting. Meanwhile, Purohits.com marked their 1000th domain name registration.
As ever, August was a month of promotions, special offers and competitions. Host Color announced free web site optimization, eBoundHost.com announced a number of "exciting offerings", TycoonServer.com offered "Summer Special" hosting, and eHosting.ca launched its 6th anniversary WestJet Gift Certificate contest. HostingSpot.com did a good thing in August, offering students free web hosting accounts, and Host Color announced a series of reductions.
Of course, as with every month, a numerous web hosts changed their packages to remain competitive. GoDaddy.Com enhanced key plans, DiscountASP.NET launched free SQL tools, eApps Hosting offered Virtual Private network hosting and Host Department launched "No Limit" plans. In addition, Zen Internet offered new broadband options, ArielHost announced Windows hosting with merchant services, VistaPages announced a new dedicated hosting service, Host Gator introduced RoundCube webmail, and
Brinkster announced the introduction of CM4all. August also saw
Hosting.com enhance security measures, DiscountASP.NET offer IIS management tools for developers,
Bonphire introduce a 6-in-1 SSL certificate, and eApps hosting offer Ruby on Rails VPS hosting.
A few hosts received awards in August, CrystalTech was awarded type 1 SAS No. 70, and Web Host Magazine voted netZentry Editor's Choice for security hardware. There were also a number of key acquisitions in August - Peak 10, Inc. acquired RenTech, GMP Services Inc. bought nine search engine optimization companies (greedy!), and
web hosting tutorial provider DemoWolf.com acquired HostingTutorials.biz. There was also activity of the affiliate program front -
Cirtex Hosting improved its program and Tycoonserver and WebFaction announced brand new affiliate programs. Finally, there were also a good few people on the move in web hosting in August. A former Speedera Sales Executive joined VitalStream alongside Eric L. Mersch, Covad gained a new Chief Marketing Officer, and Klausmeyer and Horzepa joined The Planet and EV1Servers as CFO and General Counsel.
All in all, yet another fascinating month in web hosting!
