A flurry of activity and then a slow wind down as people hurtled towards the holidays… that’s probably how we can best describe web hosting in December... The big news for everyone brought up in a web hosting family was that an old friend is changing its name -
SWsoft is to become Parallels! You can read more about this in this month’s interview with Serguei Beloussov. Of course, Christmas this year was always going to be mega for online shopping, and Netcetera
offered some advice on how e-tailers could benefit most from Christmas. If you have an online shop, or any other type of site for that matter, don’t forget to add your contact details!
Research released by 1&1 Internet suggests that in Britain, many people are negatively affected by being unable to find contact details on a business website.
It seems more and more Web hosts are getting big enough to join stock markets.
NaviSite and
Interwoven both joined the new NASDAQ Internet Index in December. In addition, a number of hosts are honing their approaches and helping set quality standards – for example,
Logicworks has established an Independent Advisory Board and
DataPipe was included in a standards setting body. Of course, there is always more than one way of doing things, and
Amazon announced the limited-release of a new Web-based database – nothing special, just the basics… delivered online! A great idea and one that will probably reinforce its achievements within the industry to date. And Amazon have in fact started to inspire others…
UK host XCalibre launched a “pay-as-you-go” server program based on the model introduced by Amazon.com!
December was a big month for partnerships and hosts winning contracts.
Financial services provider Aviva chose NTT Europe Online,
Kforce Professional Staffing renewed its arrangement with Qwest Hosting and Routing Services, and
Hosted Solutions was chosen by North Carolina Museum of Life and Science AND by
PromoPipeline to deliver managed hosting services. In addition to this,
Logicworks joined the VMware Service Provider program,
Tucows Inc. retained the MKR Group for investor relations and corporate communications,
Web host Macquarie Hosting chose Sun Microsystems as its preferred data center supplier.
To keep ahead of the pack, a lot of companies introduced new products in December.
QualiSpace launched free Windows Server 2008 beta hosting, and TemplateMonster launched two new product types - Joomla! and Mambo templates. There was a bit of a run on people launching ASP.NET 3.5 hosting -
Applied Innovations,
CrystalTech,
DiscountASP.NET,
DNK Web Solutions, and
Easy CGI all kicking off or upgrading to 3.5 solutions. As ever, there were numerous companies that enhanced their product and service line to fight off competition.
KnownHost LLC upgraded to fully managed services,
Infrenion Networks announced BoonEx-Dolphin 6.0 on shared and reseller servers, FastNext updated two frameworks, and
The Planet extended entry-level server configurability. In addition,
MS Exchange Host 123Together.com offered Hosted Exchange 2007 with Service Pack 1,
eUKhost upgraded VPS, Verizon offered more features,
Hyperspin added multi-language support for website monitoring services, and
WebFaction upgraded plans and launched a new website. Coming up to the holiday season, obviously there were herds of promotions.
UK2 offered a Christmas special, as did
The Planet,
SiteGround,
Netfirms, and
ePresenceSolutions.com. In addition,
HostGator offered free web templates,
AIT offered enterprise server savings,
Purohits reintroduced its .INFO promotion,
Surpass Hosting offered a Holiday Magic 12 dollar promotion, and
Aplus.Net introduced gift cards.
Acquisitions, acquisitions and more acquisitions! That’s something else that can be said about December. Plenty of companies gave themselves an early Christmas present.
Red Fox Hosting acquired AGUK Hosting,
SWsoft acquired Helm,
The Carlyle Group was set to acquire Spanish host Arsys,
UK2 acquired the assets of midPhase Services Inc.,
Hostworks was taken over by Broadcast Australia, and
Fat Jack Hosting acquired NWAHosting. In addition, there were a few people on the move last month. Our old friend
Mr. Derek Vaughan was appointed VP of Marketing at HostMySite.com – good luck Derek – and
Logicworks promoted Kenneth Ziegler to President and Chief Operating Officer. Alongside all of that, there were plenty of milestones reached and awards handed out.
Webhostingpad.com reached 75,000 domains,
Frontpages Web Hosting Network received a chamber of commerce award, and
LeaseWeb was awarded Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status.
All in all, another good month! Let’s hope January, and the whole of 2008 is even better!
