Helm Hosts Directory :: Universe

The Planet Appoints Senior Marketing Executive

2010-06-17T02:21:00.003+03:00

(The Hosting News) – The Planet, the global leader in IT hosting, today announced the appointment of Matthew R. Benner as vice president of Marketing and Product Management. Benner reports to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Douglas J. Erwin. He holds responsibilities for the company’s entire span of marketing and product management functions, including advertising, the company’s web presence and development, product management, public relations, social media and corporate communications.

“Matthew Benner’s background and management experience in online marketing, new product development and business strategy is a trifecta for The Planet,” said Erwin. “His track record with four of the worldwide leaders in marketing, and driving growth with small and mid-sized businesses, provides our company with a skill set unique to the hosting industry. Matthew also brings a reputation for creating a strong strategic vision, and building and motivating great teams, which is important to our corporate culture. In addition, his understanding of international business provides The Planet with the expertise we sought as we continue to expand our business beyond North America.”

Benner was most recently the senior vice president for Reliant Energy’s retail marketing and operations, where he directed the business strategy and customer-facing functions for its retail electric business. In this role, he managed key functions spanning marketing, sales, operations, customer care, new product development, and the company’s community affairs and public relations departments.

Immediately preceding his work with Reliant, Benner lived in London for two years where he was the Barclays Bank director of marketing for its international retail and commercial banking sector, and wealth management businesses.

Prior to moving abroad, Benner served in a number of increasingly responsible marketing and general management roles for Fidelity. Among these were senior vice president for the company’s online and indirect/reseller businesses; and senior vice president of marketing for the emerging corporate and middle markets. While at Fidelity, he launched the industry’s first fully automated online; and bundled multi-practice offerings to the small and mid-sized business segments.

He has been classically trained in marketing, strategy and sales. Benner was in the telecom industry with AT&T for five years as a marketing vice president for the company’s consumer and small business division. He also spent seven years with Kraft in both brand management and corporate strategy, and was a category manager in the company’s core cheese business. Benner initially started his career in brand management and sales roles with Procter & Gamble’s packaged soap and detergent division.He earned a B.S.E. in Chemical and Nuclear Engineering from Princeton University.

About The Planet
The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 12 million website worldwide. Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Managed Hosting™ and data center colocation, all backed by 24?7x365 support. With the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class service, backed by state-of-the-art data centers and an enterprise-class network, The Planet turns IT into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to grow their businesses. For additional information, visit www.theplanet.com.

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New Cloud Services Certification Program by Parallels

2010-02-07T11:21:00.000+02:00

The Hosting News – Worldwide cloud enablement leader, Parallels, today launched its new Cloud Services Certification Program to help its Partners become more profitable.

This new Partner Certification Program will be available to all Parallels partners and individuals and will provide dedicated training for its panel, virtualization and automation products.

“We are proud to be one of the first Cloud enablement companies to offer a Certification program and believe this is critical to increasing our Partners credibility and knowledge of our products. We believe that with this training and certification program, we will help partners reduce their operation and support costs,” said Jack Zubarev, President of Worldwide Service Providers at Parallels.

Attendees to the Parallels Summit 2010 can receive a discount of up to 30% on the costs of training depending on the level of Partnership.

“I found the training to be very thorough. It provided in depth knowledge that was useful for veteran Plesk users. If you want to know the ins and outs of Parallels Plesk, this course will certainly deliver,” said Joe Pavoncordero, Training Manager at Media Temple.

Parallels Certification training will provide many benefits including:

Tier 2 Support that delivers faster response times from professional engineers
More Highly-Skilled Employees trained as self-sufficient Parallels product experts
Expert Recognition through the placement of the Parallels Certified logo, website badges and icons ensuring companies are validated as leaders in hosting and cloud services.

Registration is limited to 15 students per class and will be held at the Fontainbleu Hotel, Miami Beach on February 25 2010 so sign-up today and take advantage of this special offer

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What is Parallels Helm Control Panel - part 1

2010-02-01T08:22:00.000+02:00

In the hosting industry, in order to automate various administration tasks and also to make it easier for the hosting customers to manage their daily tasks (like adding emails, managing databases etc.) a hosting control panel is needed. A control panel is a frontend, a "layer" above the operating system that is user friendly and makes things easier for both administrators and customers. If there were no control panels, then each customer should make support requests to the administrators to complete basic tasks (like creating an email, change the password of an ftp account etc.) - that would drive the work load of a hosting company to crazy levels and would increase the cost of hosting.

Parallels Helm Control Panel is a multiserver control panel for Microsoft Windows Server - it is scalable and supports clustering of services. This means that each service can be installed and run on separate servers. For example you may have 1 box running DNS1 and Mail service, another box running MSSQL and DNS2 and another box running the Web service (IIS). Such setup is highly available and offers better management for the servers and better uptime overall.

For a list of providers, please check our web hosting directory.

The Planet Extends High-Performance SAN to Dedicated Hosting Customers

2009-12-09T01:44:00.001+02:00

(The Hosting News) – HOUSTON – The Planet, a global leader in IT hosting, today announced the availability of the Dell PowerVault MD3000i, a high-performance storage area network (SAN) disk array. Ideal for multi-server environments such as virtual and private racks, the MD3000i offers a cost-effective and scalable storage solution.

The MD3000i uses iSCSI Ethernet technology to enable shared storage across multiple servers, eliminating the need to build out a costly fiber channel infrastructure. Up to 16 servers can share the MD3000i, which has 15 internal drive slots for a total storage capacity up to 15 terabytes (TB). In the event more capacity is required, companies can add up to two MD1000 storage arrays to the MD3000i for an additional 45TB.

“One of the most critical business challenges customers face today is data storage, and all too often it’s also one of the most costly,” said Rob Walters, director of product management for The Planet. “The MD3000i lowers the barrier to entry for high-performance, consolidated storage, and also provides a clear path for expansion for companies that expect to see their storage requirements grow.”

About the Dell PowerVault MD3000i

The iSCSI SAN array provides a scalable and low-cost storage solution, which continually protects daily operations and enables an easy path for expansion:

Cost-effective: The MD3000i, The Planet’s lowest-priced SAN, can be shared by as many as 16 servers, which eliminates the high cost of buying individual storage devices for each server.

Scalable: In addition to its 15 internal drive slots, customers can add up to two 15-drive MD1000 disk arrays to the MD3000i, for up to 45TB of storage.

Capable: With its large capacity and high availability, the MD3000i is ideal for businesses running performance-intensive applications, databases, and file or archive storage.

For more information, visit the Web site at http://www.theplanet.com/storage-area-network/.

Through Dec. 31, the company is offering a promotion on the MD3000i and MD1000. Customers will receive either the SAN or DAS enclosure free with purchase of 15 1TB or 300GB hard drives, a savings up to $650 per month. For details, visit http://www.theplanet.com/Direct-Attached-Storage-Offer/.

About The Planet

The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 18.5 million Web sites worldwide. Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Northstar Managed Hosting™ and data center colocation, all backed by 24?7x365 support.

For additional information, visit http://www.theplanet.com.

Reseller Program for Hosted Exchange 2010 Launched by Intermedia

2009-12-09T01:32:00.001+02:00

(The Hosting News) – Intermedia, today opened its industry-first hosted Exchange 2010 service to its existing and future partners. These managed service providers, value-added resellers and other technology providers can sell and support hosted Exchange 2010 under their own brand as members of Intermedia’s Private Label Partner Program.

Intermedia launched the first hosted Exchange 2010 service on November 9 and remains the only provider of hosted Exchange 2010. The service includes a 100 percent Data Protection Guarantee in addition to Intermedia’s longstanding 99.999 percent uptime service level agreement. Intermedia is able to credibly offer the Data Protection Guarantee, which is enforced by stiff financial penalties, because of the proprietary architecture the company developed to work with hosted Exchange 2010.

“With Intermedia, I can offer clients Exchange 2010 with a 100 percent Data Protection Guarantee, giving me an edge over competitors that offer only Exchange 2007,” says Etorre Dragone, president, Micro Technology Groupe. “I’m always looking for new solutions to help me expand my customer base – Exchange 2010 is definitely one that will help me close more deals with new prospects. Intermedia has proven to be a leader and a valued partner that focuses on offering us the latest in technology, security and reliability so that we can have best-of-breed offerings for our customers.”

According to an Osterman Research survey commissioned by Intermedia, nearly 50 percent of IT decision makers surveyed were on an Exchange 2003 or older platform. Of all IT decision makers surveyed, nearly 65 percent were likely to deploy Exchange 2010 within the next six months – supporting the notion that customers are eager for the new platform.

Intermedia private label partners generate recurring revenue from existing and new customers with high margin Exchange hosting services – all under their own brand – while Intermedia maintains, monitors and upgrades all hardware and software. Intermedia also offers an Affiliate Program for partners that prefer to promote Intermedia solutions and earn a commission for each sale they make. All partners can sell Intermedia’s full suite of hosted communications and collaboration software, including Office Communications Server 2007, SharePoint 3.0 WSS and both Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007. Intermedia enables resellers to sell not only Microsoft products, but a full ecosystem of related offerings including full support for Blackberry Enterprise Server, fax lines and more.

Intermedia combines proprietary technology with Microsoft Exchange 2010 so customers and partners can have the most robust offering. Additional features of Intermedia’s hosted Exchange 2010 include:

Choice of datacenter location per mailbox: Partners can choose, on a mailbox level basis, where their customers’ Exchange account data will be stored in order to minimize latency. Partners with customers that are spread throughout the U.S. will enjoy the ability to host some of their mailboxes on the East coast and some of them on the West coast.
New Outlook Web Application (OWA): Partners’ customers will enjoy the ability to access email, instant messaging, SMS text messaging and more – all in one place and through all major web browsers.
Improved ActiveSync: All the latest features of Exchange are available to any mobile device that has Windows Mobile 6.1 or later.

Intermedia has offered private label Exchange hosting since 2001 and has over 4,000 partners – from one-person firms to some of the world’s largest IT names.

ABOUT INTERMEDIA

Intermedia is the premier provider of communications services, including hosted Microsoft Exchange, to small- and mid-sized businesses. For an affordable monthly fee, customers get business email, telephony, smartphones, instant messaging, fax and other communications delivered as a service with 24?7 support. Intermedia also empowers thousands of smaller VARs and MSPs – as well as select Fortune 500 companies

Visit www.intermedia.net

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Web Hosting Provider, UK2, Earns Recognition, for Consecutive Three Months

2009-09-24T01:40:00.001+03:00

London, United Kingdom - (The Hosting News) - September 10, 2009 -
Web hosting firm, UK2, has been voted 2nd place in the Top 25 most popular web hosting companies on Web Host Directory UK.

The award which is based on the number of votes a company receives and the amount of times their profile has been viewed each month was won by UK2 in June, July and now August 2009.

Martin Baker, Managing Director at UK2 remarked, ''At UK2 we are constantly thinking of ways to add value to our customers. This is why we regularly launch innovative products, unbeatable offers and invest in UK based support for our customers. It is very rewarding to see that customers are responding positively to our efforts, and I am very pleased that we have been voted one of the most popular web hosting companies for three months in a row.''

Web Host Directory established in 1997 is a brand of Serchen Interactive and a market leader in the hosting industry providing free resources and information for customers researching web hosts online.

UK2 is one of the biggest and most innovative web hosting companies in the UK with a comprehensive range of domain name registration, web hosting, e-commerce, reseller, dedicated server and cloud hosting solutions. UK2 specializes in making it easy, cheap, and quick for any consumer, small or large business to have the online presence they need.

UK2 is also a part of the UK-2 Group, a large web hosting organization made up of over 10 web hosting companies such as VI.net, VPS.net, Midphase.com and more. The group operates its services out of several state of the art, multi million pound data centers and is committed to providing reliable, secure and great value products and services underpinned with excellent support.

To learn more, please visit: www.uk2.net.

Parallels Announces Support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

2009-09-24T01:37:00.001+03:00

HERNDON, Va., September 22, 2009 — Automation and virtualization leader, Parallels, today announced support of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 in its Parallels Automation product, which will be available shortly following Microsoft’s official release expected second half of 2009. Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 beta was released in April, 2009, and is the first server in a new generation of Microsoft server technology built from the ground up to work on-premise and as an online service.

Exchange Server 2010 introduces many new features to help achieve new levels of reliability and performance, protect communications, and meet customers’ demands for greater business mobility. Microsoft Hosted Exchange offers small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) a cost-effective alternative to managing an in-house e-mail server. In the Hosted Exchange model, the service provider manages all the technology and support for the SMB.

Building on the native capabilities introduced in Exchange Server 2007, the new high availability architecture in Exchange 2010 provides a simplified, unified framework for both high availability and disaster recovery. The result is greater uptime for end users, increased freedom for administrators, and decreased capital and operational costs for the organization. Exchange Server 2010 also enables organizations to run Exchange Server on a wide range of storage options. The latest version of Exchange Server requires less storage performance and is more tolerant of storage failures and helps SMBs provide larger mailboxes at lower cost without sacrificing system availability.

Parallels Automation enables delivery of SaaS applications including Microsoft Exchange, Windows SharePoint, Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS), etc. in a hosted environment. In the SaaS model, end user customers subscribe to the application instead of purchasing them, typically on a monthly basis. In this pay-as-you go approach, SMBs are afforded an easy-to-use low-cost service.

"Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 represents an exciting opportunity for hosters and cloud services providers to deliver world-class unified communications to meet the growing communications needs of SMBs," said Jack Zubarev, President of Parallels Service Provider Division. "Parallels is proud to enable support for Hosted Microsoft Exchange Server 2010."

About Parallels — Optimized Computing
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with 700 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com.

Layered Tech Ranks Second on 2009 Tech Titans Fast Tech List

2009-09-03T19:39:00.000+03:00

PLANO, Texas - Sept. 2, 2009 - Layered Technologies, Inc. (Layered Tech), a leading worldwide provider of on-demand IT infrastructure, has ranked second on the 2009 Tech Titans Fast Tech Five-Year Listing by the Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC), the largest technology trade organization in Texas. The Tech Titans Fast Tech Award annually recognizes the fastest-growing technology companies in the DFW Metroplex, based on percentage of revenue growth during five-year or one-year periods.

Layered Tech ranked ahead of several other leading technology companies in North Texas, a result of the company's explosive growth since 2004. To qualify for the ranking, companies must own proprietary technology; Layered Tech possesses a fully automated Web hosting platform called Astro that dramatically accelerates the availability and provisioning of servers for customers and channel partners alike.

"Layered Tech is proud to achieve such a high ranking on this prestigious annual list, which features many prominent DFW-area technology providers. The entire Layered Tech team has worked tirelessly to advance our services and offerings and become a leading global Web hosting provider, and being ranked second on the Tech Titan Fast Tech Five-Year List is a testament to our success," said Layered Tech Founder and President Todd Abrams. "Layered Tech strives to meet and exceed customer needs, and our strategic business decisions and technological advancements have allowed us to achieve this goal. Our double-digit growth rate reflects the value that customers receive from Layered Tech and the flexible solutions we provide."

The ranking of the 2009 five-year and one-year list was announced at the annual Tech Titans/Fast Tech Awards Gala Event on Aug. 28, 2009 at the Renaissance Hotel Dallas-Richardson in Richardson, Texas. As a winner in the five-year growth category, Layered Tech is eligible for the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, which recognizes the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in the U.S. and Canada.

"The Tech Titans/Fast Tech Awards provide the premier recognition of fast-growing, highly innovative companies that contribute to the vibrancy of the North Texas economy and make our region an exciting place to live and work," said Cindi Keith, partner/technology marketing industry leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and co-chair of the MTBC's Tech Titans steering committee. "We look forward to showcasing the true leaders in our industry and celebrating their hard work and creativity."

Layered Tech official website: www.layeredtech.com

Reseller Web Hosting Services, Focus of Parallels EMEA Partner Roadshow

2009-08-26T01:53:00.000+03:00

Munich, Germany - (The Hosting News) - August 25, 2009 - Server virtualization, automation and software provider, Parallels, will conduct a seven-country partner roadshow targeting Parallels' partners and other hosters, cloud services providers and ISVs.

The EMEA Partner Roadshow will provide attendees with insights and best practices to deploy applications and services in a hosted environment. The roadshow will also provide practical examples of how hosters can use white-label reselling to create a lucrative indirect sales channel with a wider portfolio of applications, while maintaining brand independence and client loyalty.

Johan Vansimpsen, CTO and co-founder at Network Group Europe remarked, ''Network Group is using Parallels to balance a fine-tuned approach for delivering IT resellers the best possible technology to 'grow with the cloud' from the start. We are committed to delivering a full-blown hosted communications platform reseller solution and with Parallels, we are now able to deploy new services five times faster, so logically we are anticipating five times more revenue. Parallels also allows Network Group systems integrators (SIs) and value added resellers (VARs) a speedy entry to market option that gives them the fastest route to customers who trust them to deliver the most flexible software and services packages at the best price points.''

White-label reselling enables hosters to resell and deliver SaaS applications including Microsoft Exchange, Windows SharePoint, Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS), etc. in a hosted environment. In the SaaS model, end user customers subscribe to applications instead of purchasing them, typically on a monthly basis. In this pay-as-you go approach, SMBs are afforded an easy-to-use low-cost service.

An April 2009, study by IDC finds that growth in the SaaS market will be strong in Europe despite - and in some cases because of - the weak economic conditions. The overall SaaS market will grow from 237 million in 2004 to 6,005 million in 2013 (1). From this and other recent IDC studies, it is clear that SaaS has become accepted by the mainstream of user organizations around Europe. This will result in continued strong growth, making SaaS a rising star in a very largely depressed European software market.

Dan Germain, CTO at Cobweb Solutions remarked, ''Leveraging Parallels we were able to increase our average revenue per user, deploy new services faster and reduce operating costs. It was critical for us to find a provider able to properly support white-label services at a modular and infrastructure level, so that our partners can resell Cobweb services under their own brand. Parallels allows Cobweb and its resellers to provide multiple-vendor solutions and flexible billing and administration across its different service offerings. Parallels enables Cobweb to increase revenue from each and every customer, both now and in the future.''

White-Label Reselling lets hosters delegate service plans to their customers to resell and offer a wider array of applications, without the extended cost of infrastructure involved in creating and distributing the applications themselves. White-label resale also offers an indirect sales channel and lets resellers maintain their unique brand independence, as well as retaining client loyalty. With white-label web hosting, it is possible for anyone to run their own web hosting business, while they rent or buy the actual web server space and services from an established hosting provider. Resellers do not have to take on the huge investment that make-up a web hosting service such as web servers, network connections, data center staff, server administrators, server support technicians and web server software and system licenses.

The 2009 Parallels Partner Roadshow will be take place in: Stockholm, September 1; Amsterdam, September 3; Warsaw, September 7; Cologne, September 10; Paris, September 14; Madrid, September 17 and London, September 21. To register for any of the events, or for more information, please visit www.parallels.com/emea2009.

Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 650 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.

To learn more, please visit: www.parallels.com.

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Parallels Web Hosting Server Virtualization, Releases Panel 10 Public Beta

2009-08-21T02:47:00.000+03:00

Renton, Washington - (The Hosting News) - August 20, 2009 - Server virtualization, automation and software provider, Parallels, has released its Panel 10 SMB Edition, which, along with and Parallels Partner Marketplace, is designed to enable hosters to quickly and easily deliver commercial SaaS offerings in the cloud.

Jack Zubarev, President of Service Provider Division at Parallels noted, ''Parallels has been working on a number of best-of-breed ISVs over recent years to launch these offerings. We're bringing ISVs and hosters together and helping both become more profitable.''

The comprehensive solution introduces Parallels Partner Marketplace, which enables hosters to rapidly enter the growing software-as-a-service market and provides SMBs access to a number of IT and business applications, such as e-commerce, customer relationship management, human resources, accounting, video conferencing, web content management, e-mail and more.

Parallels Partner Marketplace is a central feature of Parallels Panel 10 SMB Edition control panel and lets hosters rapidly profit from the growing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market by offering the most popular applications through the control panel, says the company. It further avers saying that Parallels Panel delivers access to best of breed software and services, such as Interspire's e-mail marketing and Pinnacle Cart's e-Commerce shopping cart. Provider Partners can easily and quickly offer SaaS offerings with no development effort of their own through the combination of the new Parallels Panel 10 SMB Edition and a co-branded Parallels Partner Marketplace storefront that Parallels provides. For independent software vendors (ISVs), Parallels Partner Marketplace offers a straight-forward, cost-efficient way to reach new audiences and create new revenue streams.

Craig Fox, Founder and VP of Product Development, at Pinnacle Cart added, ''We are happy to have joined forces with Parallels Partner Marketplace. Parallels Partner Marketplace lets hosters deliver SaaS quickly and cost-effectively and simultaneously provides SMBs with the applications they need to stay competitive. Now we can easily offer our e-Commerce Shopping Cart to potentially millions of SMBs through Parallels Partner Marketplace.''

Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and service providers across all major hardware, o company with 900 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.

To learn more, please visit: www.parallels.com.

Web Hosting Provider, Layered Technologies, Ranks on 2009 Inc. 5000

2009-08-21T02:11:00.000+03:00

New York, New York - (The Hosting News) - August 20, 2009 - Provider of managed dedicated hosting, and on-demand virtualization/cloud computing and web services, Layered Technologies, Inc., has ranked on Inc. magazine's third annual Inc. 5000, at the No. 622 position.

The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy - America's independent-minded entrepreneurs. Consumer electronics maker Vizio, Internet giant GoDaddy, rental car service Zipcar, and beverage maker Honest Tea are among the prominent brands featured on this year's list.

Jim Melloan, project manager of the Inc. 5000 remarked, ''Savvy trend spotters and those who invest in private companies know that the Inc. 5000 is the best place to find out about young companies that are achieving success through a wide variety of unprecedented business models, as well as older private companies that are still expanding at an impressive rate. That's why our list is so eagerly anticipated every year.''

Layered Tech, a global provider of managed dedicated hosting, on-demand virtualization/cloud computing and Web services, ranked in the top 12 percent of Inc.'s list because of its three-year growth rate of 441 percent. The Plano, Texas-based company invests heavily in R and D to add new technologies and services to remain a top 10 hosting provider globally. Layered Tech evolved from an emerging dedicated hosting company to a recognized Web hosting provider whose scalable infrastructure powers millions of sites and a wide array of Internet-enabled applications.

The 2009 Inc. 5000, unveiled today on Inc.com, serves as a unique report card on the U.S. economy. Despite the ongoing recession, aggregate revenue among the companies on the list actually increased to $214 billion, up $29 billion from last year, with a median three-year growth rate of 126 percent. The Inc. 5000 are responsible for creating more than 1 million jobs since their founding, making the list perhaps the best example of the impact private, fast-growing companies can have on the economy. Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found on Inc.com.

This year's list also offers a preview of which industries are poised for growth in coming years. With an average growth rate of 667 percent, Insurance ranked as the top industry overall. Government Services was the top industry gainer with 252 companies on this year's list, up from 135 last year. Health is the top industry by both total revenue ($22.7 billion) and total employment (156,223 jobs).

Once again, California tops the Inc. 5000 with the most companies of any state with 612. The Golden State is followed by Texas (393), New York (316), Florida (263), and Virginia (261). All 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, are represented on this year's list.

New York boasts 371 Inc. 5000 companies, making it the top metropolitan area, followed by Washington, D.C. (317), Los Angeles (253), Atlanta (209), and Chicago (203).

Bolstered by this year's No. 1 company, Northern Capital Insurance, Insurance emerged as the top industry, with an average growth rate of 667 percent. Other strong performers include Energy (523 percent) and Government Services (491 percent).

In total, the companies on the Inc. 5000 have created more than 1 million jobs. Health is the top employer with 156,223 jobs, followed by Business Products and Services (122,911), IT Services (89,632), Food and Beverage (86,572), and Construction (65,494).

IT Services had the most companies on this year's list with 658, followed by Business Products and Services (502), Advertising and Marketing (398), Construction (354), and Manufacturing (342).

Topping this year's list is Northern Capital Insurance, a Miami-based firm that is helping to revolutionize Florida's ailing insurance industry. The company generated $95 million in revenue in 2008 and an impressive three-year growth rate of 19,812 percent.

The top woman-owned company is P3S (No. 17 overall), a San Antonio - based firm that provides IT network security and physical security services, mostly to the Defense Department. P3S, owned by Mary Ellen Trevino, recorded revenue of $13.5 million in 2008 and a three-year growth rate of 5,898 percent. The top minority-owned company is Harley Stanfield (No. 3 overall), a Washington, D.C. - based real estate investment firm that buys existing properties, makes them energy efficient, and then resells them as investment properties. Harley Stanfield, founded by Cedric Franklin, posted revenue of $38.4 million in 2008 and a three-year growth rate of 13,350 percent.

The Inc. 5000 posted an aggregate revenue of $214 billion in 2008, up nearly 16 percent from the previous year. The top five industries by total revenue include Health ($22.7 billion), Business Products and Services ($19.6 billion), Construction ($18.8 billion), Energy ($14.7 billion), and IT Services ($13.2 billion).

The Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2005 through 2008. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by the first week of 2005, and therefore able to show four full calendar years of sales. Additionally, they have to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent -- not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies -- as of December 31, 2008. Revenue in 2005 must have been at least $200,000, and revenue in 2008 must have been at least $2 million. The top 10 percent of companies on the list comprise the Inc. 500, now in its 28th year.

Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures LLC, Inc. (www.inc.com) is the only major business magazine dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies that delivers real solutions for today's innovative company builders. With a total paid circulation of 712,961, Inc. provides hands-on tools and market-tested strategies for managing people, finances, sales, marketing, and technology. Visit us online at Inc.com.

Each year, Inc. and Inc.com celebrate the remarkable achievements of today's entrepreneurial superstars - the privately held small businesses that drive our economy. The Inc. 500|5000 Conference and Awards Ceremony brings together members of the Inc. 5000 community, both a new class of Inc. 5000 honorees and the list's alumni, for three days of powerful networking, inspired learning, and momentous celebration. Please join us September 23 - 25, 2009, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. For more information about the 2009 Inc. 500|5000 Conference and Awards Ceremony, and to register, visit www.Inc5000event.com. Stay connected with Inc. Events by following @IncEvents on Twitter.

Layered Technologies is a leading global provider of managed dedicated hosting, on-demand virtualization/cloud computing and Web services. By providing high-quality technology, infrastructure and support, Layered Tech enables customers to eliminate capital expenses and save on operating costs while focusing on core business issues. Layered Tech's scalable infrastructure powers millions of sites and Internet-enabled applications including e-commerce, software as a service (SaaS), content distribution and more. Our clients range from leading-edge Web 2.0 startups, successful mid-sized enterprises and some the world's largest consultancy and integration firms.

For more information about Layered Technologies, please visit: www.LayeredTech.com.

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Web Hosting Company, Layered Technologies, Named on 2009 Tech Titans List

2009-08-07T04:37:00.002+03:00

Plano, Texas - (The Hosting News) - August 5, 2009 - Worldwide provider of on-demand IT infrastructure, Layered Technologies, Inc. (Layered Tech), has been named to the 2009 Tech Titans Fast Tech Five Year Listing by the Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC), the largest technology trade organization in Texas.

The Tech Titans Fast Tech Award annually recognizes the fastest-growing technology companies in the DFW Metroplex, based on percentage of revenue growth during five-year or one-year periods.

Jack Finlayson,CEO of Layered Tech noted, "Layered Tech is pleased to be mentioned alongside other DFW-area technology providers and to be recognized for the technology innovation and growth that our team has worked so hard to achieve. Layered Tech's double-digit growth rate is driven by our ability to meet customers' needs by continually evolving, enhancing and broadening our solution sets with an emphasis on automated solutions that create operational and cost efficiencies for our customers and Layered Tech. While we measure our performance by contributing to our customers' success, industry recognition like the Tech Titans Fast Tech Award reflects our strong market position."

North Texas is one of the nation's technology epicenters, and Layered Tech was listed among powerhouses such as AT&T and emerging leaders like MetroPCS. Companies considered for the Tech Titans Fast Tech Award can be public or private and from any technology segment, including communications, computer and peripherals, Internet, life sciences, semiconductors, software and media. To qualify for the ranking, companies must own proprietary technology; Layered Tech possesses a fully automated Web hosting platform called Astro that dramatically accelerates the availability and provisioning of servers for customers and channel partners alike. As a winner in the five-year growth category, Layered Tech is eligible for the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, which recognizes the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in the U.S. and Canada.

The ranking of the 2009 five-year and one-year list will be announced at the annual Tech Titans/Fast Tech Awards Gala Event on Aug. 28, 2009 at the Renaissance Hotel Dallas-Richardson in Richardson, Texas. More information about the event is available at www.metroplextbc.org/techtitans.

Cindi Keith, partner/technology marketing industry leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and co-chair of the MTBC's Tech Titans steering committee added, "The Tech Titans and Tech Titans Fast Tech Awards provide the premier recognition of fast-growing, highly innovative companies that contribute to the vibrancy of the North Texas economy and make our region an exciting place to live and work. We look forward to showcasing the true leaders in our industry and celebrating their hard work and creativity."

The Tech Titans Awards were launched in 2001 by the Metroplex Technology Business Council, North Texas' most comprehensive organization supporting technology. The prestigious annual contest recognizes outstanding technology companies and individuals in the North Texas area who have made contributions during the past year locally, as well as to the technology industry overall. The Tech Titans committee is a group of dedicated volunteers who organize the awards ceremony each year, and judges for the contest are drawn from a variety of disciplines in technology, leaders in the DFW area and past winners.

Founded in 1994, the Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC) is a non-profit organization composed of approximately 300 members that include technology businesses and providers from across the DFW Metroplex. The MTBC produces numerous events, including monthly Management Luncheons, Technical Luncheons, RFID Special Interest Group events, CEO Forums, Tech Week in Austin and the annual Tech Titans Awards and Fast Tech event.

Layered Technologies is a leading global provider of managed dedicated hosting, on-demand virtualization/cloud computing and Web services. By providing high-quality technology, infrastructure and support, Layered Tech enables customers to eliminate capital expenses and save on operating costs while focusing on core business issues. Layered Tech's scalable infrastructure powers millions of sites and Internet-enabled applications including e-commerce, software as a service (SaaS), content distribution and more. Our clients range from leading-edge Web 2.0 startups, successful mid-sized enterprises and some the world's largest consultancy and integration firms.

For more information about Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC), please visit: www.metroplextbc.org/techtitans.

To learn more information about Layered Technologies, please visit: www.LayeredTech.com.

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Web Hosting Data Center Firm, SoftLayer, Debuts Parallels CloudLayer Panel

2009-08-05T04:01:00.000+03:00

Dallas, Texas - (The Hosting News) - August 4, 2009 - On-demand data center services provider, SoftLayer Technologies, began offering Parallels Plesk Panel as an optional service with CloudLayer Computing Instances. The extension of Parallels Panel to the company's cloud computing solution gives SoftLayer customers even more control and operational efficiency for these exceptionally scalable environments.

Jack Zubarev, President of Service Provider Worldwide for Parallels remarked, "Parallels Panel was designed to enable our partners like SoftLayer to build more flexibility and value into their solutions, and extend all of its benefits to their customers. We're excited to see it extended to SoftLayer's cloud customers. Parallels Panel helps SMBs maximize their IT investments and provides access to new applications and services on-demand. We believe in meeting customers evolving needs, and cloud services are truly redefining the hosting industry."

Used by service providers and system administrators around the world, Parallels Panel automates and simplifies management and administration for dedicated, shared, and virtual systems. It provides a wide range of features for optimizing operations and maximizing return, including an easy-to-use interface, powerful backup and restore functionality, and robust tools for managing and reselling applications and services.

CloudLayer Computing provides cloud-based computing instances running enterprise-grade and open source operating systems delivered in as few as five minutes. These instances give enterprises massive scalability and can seamlessly integrate with SoftLayer dedicated servers, automated services, and other CloudLayer services (including CloudLayer Storage and CloudLayer CDN) to create a fully unified computing solution. Monthly billing is based on hourly usage or a monthly rate with no long-term commitment, providing an exceptional degree of flexibility. Other advantages include:

Image Library-Capture, template, and store images for accelerated provisioning and management
Ease of Use-Full access and control via Customer Portal and API
Full Virtualization-Virtualized networking, security, storage, and management optimizes "beyond the box"

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer provides on-demand virtual data center services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC. SoftLayer integrates all facets of IT to innovate industry-leading solutions that are fully automated. This empowers customers with complete control, security, scalability, and ease-of-management for their IT environment.

To learn more information about CloudLayer Computing, or the entire CloudLayer line of services, please visit: www.softlayer.com/cloudlayer.html.

For more information, please visit: www.softlayer.com.

Yahoo! Web Hosting Provider, to Enter into Global Microsoft Deal

2009-07-31T02:04:00.003+03:00

Sunnyvale, California - (The Hosting News) - July 29, 2009 - Web hosting provider, Yahoo!, and Microsoft will enter into an agreement that is designed to improve the web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry.

According to information released by the companies, Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers. Under this agreement, Yahoo! will focus on its core business of providing consumers with great experiences with the world's favorite online destinations and Web products.

Carol Bartz, Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo! noted, "This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry, and I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development. Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities and mobile experiences."

For web users and advertisers, this deal will accelerate the pace and breadth of innovation by combining both companies' complementary strengths and search platforms into a market competitor with the scale to fuel sustained development in search and search advertising. Users will find what they care about faster and with more personal relevance. Microsoft's competitive search platforms will lead to more value for advertisers, better results for Web publishers, and increased innovation and efficiency across the Internet.

Providing a viable alternative to advertisers, this deal will combine Yahoo! and Microsoft search marketplaces so that advertisers no longer have to rely on one company that dominates more than 70 percent of all search. With the addition of Yahoo!'s search volume, Microsoft will achieve the size and scale required to unleash competition and innovation in the market, for consumers as well as advertisers.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said the agreement will provide Microsoft's search engine, Bing, the scale necessary to more effectively compete, attracting more users and advertisers, which in turn will lead to more relevant ads and search results.

Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft added, "Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company. Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we've created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there's so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search."

Roy Bostock, Chairman, Yahoo! Inc. remarked, "This deal fits the long-term strategic direction of Yahoo! to remain the world's leading online media company and Carol Bartz has the full and unanimous support of the Yahoo! Board behind this deal. This is a significant opportunity for us. Microsoft is an industry innovator in search and it is a great opportunity for us to focus our investments in other areas critical to our future."

The key terms of the agreement are as follows:

The term of the agreement is 10 years;
Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!'s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing Web search platforms;
Microsoft's Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology;
Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft's AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter's automated auction process;
Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force;
Yahoo! will innovate and "own" the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology;
Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!'s network of both owned and operated (O and O) and affiliate sites;
- Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue generated on Yahoo!'s O and O sites during the first five years of the agreement; and
- Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.
Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!'s O and O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country;
At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million; and
The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

The agreement does not cover each company's web properties and products, email, instant messaging, display advertising, or any other aspect of the companies' businesses. In those areas, the companies will continue to compete vigorously.

The transaction will be subject to regulatory review. The agreement entered into today anticipates that the parties will enter into more detailed definitive agreements prior to closing. Microsoft and Yahoo! expect the agreement to be closely reviewed by the industry and government regulators, and welcome questions. The companies are hopeful that closing can occur in early 2010.

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Web Hosting Dedicated Servers with 10TB Free Bandwidth, Offered by The Planet

2009-07-30T23:43:00.000+03:00

Houston, Texas - (The Hosting News) - July 29, 2009 - Global IT hosting provider, The Planet, is offering a promotion that includes 10TB of bandwidth at no additional cost to new dedicated server orders, for a limited time.

The promotion, which ends July 31, applies to servers hosted in the company's world-class Houston and Dallas data centers. The free bandwidth offer can be combined with current special pricing on The Planet's dedicated servers, starting from $69.

Urvish Vashi, general manager of dedicated hosting at The Planet remarked, "By extending this promotion to virtually every server in our product portfolio, customers with any size business or budget can benefit. We continue to invest in our hosting infrastructure, adding network points of presence on the East and West coasts; broadening the company footprint with an eighth data center in London; and increasing transit capacity to our seven Tier 1 network providers. By extending this promotion to virtually every server in our product portfolio, customers with any size business or budget can benefit."

The offer is available on standard dedicated servers, excluding Monster configurations and Ready To Go Servers®. For more information, please visit www.theplanet.com/10TB-Bandwidth.

The Planet is a provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 18.5 million Web sites worldwide. Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Northstar Managed Hosting and data center colocation, all backed by 24x7x365 support. With the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class service, backed by state-of-the-art data centers and an enterprise-class network, The Planet turns IT into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to grow their businesses.

For additional information, please visit: www.theplanet.com.

The Planet Web Hosting Provider, Becomes Microsoft BizSpark Partner

2009-07-30T23:38:00.002+03:00

Houston, Texas - (The Hosting News) - July 30, 2009 - The Planet IT hosting provider, has joined the Microsoft BizSpark Program, where The Planet can provide early-stage startups with free Microsoft software, which otherwise may be unaffordable for certain companies.

As a gold-certified Microsoft partner, The Planet offers the program to qualified companies through its status as an official Network Partner and Hosting Provider. Eligibility requirements, as outlined by Microsoft, are simple and direct. Companies must be actively engaged in the development of a software-based product or service; the company must be privately held and in business for less than three years; and it must generate less than U.S. $1 million in annual revenue.

Urvish Vashi, general manager for The Planet's Dedicated Servers line of business offered, "Both The Planet and Microsoft are committed to lowering the barrier to entry for small and emerging companies,. As entrepreneurs develop business plans and face the stark reality of start-up costs, they look to save money so they're able to preserve hard-fought capital for their development resources, particularly in today's difficult economic environment. Coupled with a hosting solution from The Planet, the BizSpark program offers extraordinary value."

The BizSpark program provides qualified start-ups with access to vast resources that would otherwise be unavailable to emerging companies:

Software: Companies gain access to full-featured development tools, including Visual Studio Team System, plus production licensing for Windows Server and SQL Server. The only fee is a $100 program offering, payable to Microsoft at the end of participation in the program.
Support: BizSpark provides professional technical support from Microsoft, connecting participants to a global community of business experts who can help guide start-up companies through the hurdles of growing a business.
Visibility: Companies gain global visibility to audiences of potential investors, clients and partners.

The Planet is a leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 18.5 million Web sites worldwide. Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Northstar Managed Hosting and data center colocation, all backed by 24x7x365 support. With the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class service, backed by state-of-the-art data centers and an enterprise-class network.

For additional information, please visit: www.theplanet.com.

Layered Technologies Named to Leading Industry Analyst Firm’s Magic Quadrant for Web Hosting and Hosted Cloud System Infrastructure Services

2009-07-29T14:22:00.006+03:00

Plano, Texas – Layered Technologies, Inc. (Layered Tech), a leading worldwide provider of on-demand IT infrastructure, today announced that it has been named to the Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Web Hosting and Hosted Cloud System Infrastructure Services (On Demand)” published July 2, 2009, and written by Gartner analysts Lydia Leong and Ted Chamberlin.

According to the Gartner report which evaluated 16 companies overall, “The Web hosting market is evolving rapidly and converging with cloud system infrastructure services, creating new opportunities for cost savings and business agility.” Gartner based its 2009 evaluation on five use cases for hosting: self-managed hosting, mainstream-managed hosting, highly complex managed hosting, global solutions portfolio, and enterprise applications hosting.

“There are hundreds of hosting companies, so Layered Tech is particularly pleased to be named to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant because we believe that industry recognition like this validates the strategies we have been implementing during the past year,” said Layered Tech CEO Jack Finlayson. “Layered Tech is committed to delivering a broad range of managed solutions to our customers. As a technology innovator, we continue to enhance our solution set while broadening our roadmap to include automated solutions that support our customers’ evolving needs.”

Layered Tech offerings introduced during the past year include:

Launch of Astro, Layered Tech’s proprietary platform for rapid server deployment
The deployment of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 to Astro for rapid server deployments broadening the existing portfolio which includes Linux and Unix operating systems
Expanding Astro offerings to include Virtual Firewall Solutions from Fortinet
Expansion of its DEFCON managed services to include virtual machines

About the Magic Quadrant
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2009, by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis on how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Layered Tech

Layered Technologies, Inc. is a leading global provider of on-demand hosting and utility computing solutions whose infrastructure powers millions of sites and Internet enabled applications including e-Commerce, Software as a Service (“SaaS”), content distribution and more.

Layered Technologies enables customers to forego capital expenses and save on operating costs while focusing on core business issues. Clients range from leading-edge Web 2.0 startups, successful mid-sized enterprises and some the world’s largest consultancy and integration firms.

For more information, visit www.layeredtech.com.

Lunarpages Advances Virtual Private Server Offering; Leverages Parallels Virtuozzo Containers to Power Hosted Solution

2009-07-29T14:18:00.002+03:00

HERNDON, Va., July 21, 2009 — Virtualization and automation leader Parallels, today announced that Lunarpages, a leading Web hosting company, is leveraging Parallels Virtuozzo Containers to deliver its customers Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting services. The solution is available on both Windows and Linux servers and provides a cost effective solution for businesses that have outgrown shared hosting, and do not need the full capacity of a dedicated server.

“Parallels, and Parallels Containers in particular, contribute significantly to sales conversions and support,” said Amy Armitage, Director of Business Development at Lunarpages. “In the last month alone, Lunarpages has seen an increase of 55% in VPS sales and a 43% increase for the previous two-months. We attribute the growth to Parallels robust VPS container solution and also their commitment to service and support, such as helping Lunarpages improve its Web site.”

VPS gives companies more control and flexibility of their outsourced Web sites and Web applications — allowing users to install applications and gain direct access to the underlying operating system, but at a more affordable price than getting an entire dedicated server. End-users will now be able to run needed applications, multiple domains, Web sites and configure a customized VPS while Lunarpages manages the complex operating systems and hardware maintenance.

Lunarpages is utilizing technology enabled through Parallels Virtuozzo Containers with the Parallels Plesk Panel inside. Parallels Containers create isolated virtual environments or “containers” on a single physical server and OS instance — data is protected and isolated from everyone else. The technology also has burstable memory so the user can scale-up performance as needed. When used with the Parallels Plesk Panel, the user is presented with a single seamless interface to manage both the control panel and virtual private server simultaneously.

“Parallels’ virtualization software together with Lunarpage’s dedicated support, is ideal for SMBs and resellers that require more server space and enhanced scalability than standard shared hosting plans provide,” said Jack Zubarev, President of Service Provider Division at Parallels. “This aggressively priced VPS plan comes with fully managed hardware and operating systems and delivers high-capacity functionality for growing businesses.”

###

About Lunarpages

Lunarpages Web Hosting launched in 1998 in order to provide affordable and reliable hosting for personal websites, small business, ecommerce shops, Fortune 100 corporations, dedicated customers, and more. Lunarpages hosts the biggest and the best in the industry, utilizing the knowledge that has made us the largest web host in the world. Since 1998, Lunarpages has tailored each web hosting solution to fit the unique needs of its clientele, ensuring that every level webmaster can build, design, and launch their businesses and projects with our help every step of the way. For more information, visit http://www.lunarpages.com/virtual-private-server/.

About Parallels — Optimized Computing
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 650 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com.

Hosted Grid-based VPS starting at $49/month >>

Hosting Providers Offered Microsoft Communication Services Partner Program

2009-07-29T13:52:00.000+03:00

New Orleans, Louisiana - (The Hosting News) - July 28, 2009 - At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 (WPC09), Microsoft Corp. announced the global availability of partner program to help hosting providers and their resellers market hosted unified communications to small and midsize business (SMB) customers.

Microsoft Communication Services provides a common set of marketing collateral and the ability to utilize the Microsoft brand beyond individual product brands for better recognition in the SMB marketplace. The initiative is open to Microsoft partners that have attained the Hosting Solutions competency, part of the broader Microsoft Partner Network. John Zanni, general manager of the Worldwide Software plus Services Industry team for the Communications Sector at Microsoft, will outline Microsoft Communication Services and its benefits to hosting providers and their resellers in a software-plus-services breakout session today titled "Bringing It All Together Across MS Online Services, Partner Hosted and Windows Azure."

Mr. Zanni noted, "SMBs are increasingly interested in communication and collaboration tools to improve productivity and reduce costs. The majority of customers in the SMB segment want to purchase Microsoft Hosted Exchange and Microsoft Office Communications Server services from companies that package these offerings. With Microsoft Communication Services, hosting providers and their resellers are speaking the language of their customers."

Microsoft Communication Services was designed with Comcast, the leading provider of entertainment, information and communications products and services in the U.S., to help enable service providers to offer higher-margin services, create customer loyalty and become a trusted advisor. Collateral and guidance focuses on marketing a solution of collaborative hosted services, including hosted Microsoft Exchange Server, Hosted Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Live Meeting. Microsoft-branded collateral includes demo videos, marketing guidance and telesales scripts.

Also, today Microsoft announced that Outsourcery Ltd. (formerly Genesis Communications Ltd.), a U.K. hosting and communications provider and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, will use Microsoft Communication Services in the United Kingdom, enabling it to better market Microsoft-branded solution bundles to its customers.

Mark Seemann, Product Strategy Director at Outsourcery added, "Outsourcery is delighted to be involved in the launch of Microsoft Communication Services to U.K. SMBs. We've found that the Microsoft brand name resonates very well with our SMB customers, and that Microsoft Communication Services allows us to talk about entire solutions rather than just individual products. This alliance is totally aligned with our business strategy to become Europe's No. 1 outsourced IT and unified communications provider for Microsoft-hosted solutions."

Microsoft and Comcast piloted the program in November 2007, helping Comcast market business-class e-mail, calendaring and document sharing to its SMB customers. To date, Comcast has more than 100,000 e-mail users on Microsoft Hosted Exchange. Based on the success of the pilot for Comcast and its customers, Microsoft will now offer Microsoft Communication Services worldwide to all its hosting partners.

Bill Stemper, President, Comcast Business Services remarked, "Microsoft Communication Services from Comcast is an integral part of our Business Class Internet service and truly differentiates us from our competition. Not only does it help small-business owners be more productive but it also helps them save money by dramatically reducing their need for communication servers and IT support."

Information on how to find a certified hosting partner is available at www.microsoft.com/hosting/catalogs/reseller/private-label-hosting.mspx. More information about announcements at WPC is available at www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/wwpc/default.aspx. More information on Outsourcery is available at www.outsourcery.co.uk. More information on Comcast is available at http://business.comcast.com/internet/business-tools.aspx.

To learn more about Microsoft Communication Services, please visit: www.partner.microsoft.com/communicationservices.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SoftLayer Listed in Web Hosting, Cloud Infrastructure Services Magic Quadrant

2009-07-10T09:12:00.001+03:00

Dallas, Texas - (The Hosting News) - July 8, 2009 - The Gartner Magic Quadrant for ''Web Hosting and Cloud Infrastructure Services (On-Demand),'' written by Gartner analysts Lydia Leong and Ted Chamberlain, includes SoftLayer Technologies as a ''Niche Player.''

Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer noted, ''In my opinion, being evaluated in this report is proof that our unique approach is redefining hosting. Of course, our greatest pride and core goal is to provide solutions and scalability that make an impact on our customers' business. But to me, being in the Magic Quadrant shows that we're making a difference throughout the industry.''

SoftLayer has consistently built an effective solution through the complete integration of multiple IT environments - both in-house and outsourced - through a common management console and provisioning system. The firm has established a record of innovation and thought leadership that includes multiple industry firsts: Private Network for managing servers; fully featured and integrated portal; and a standards oriented and fully featured API. Most recently, SoftLayer launched a set of cloud services that include:

CDN
Storage
Computing

All of these are available as standalone services (i.e. no dedicated server required) as well as being fully integrated with all other SoftLayer offerings. SoftLayer Also offers hourly billing for its CloudLayer Computing platform, which is available across all SoftLayer data centers.

Each company in the Magic Quadrant was evaluated on its completeness of vision and ability to execute within five use cases: self-managed hosting, mainstream-managed hosting, highly complex managed hosting, and global.

solutions portfolio, and enterprise applications hosting.

George Karidis, Chief Strategy Officer at SoftLayer noted, ''We truly are a different breed. Our on-demand data services provide far more than hosting, and our commitment to fully automated solutions and complete customer access and control really moves us out of either the managed or unmanaged categories. With each offering we introduce, we're not just extending our portfolio - we're transforming how those services are provided. And I'm excited about the new ideas we have on the way.''

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted July 2, 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the Leaders' quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer delivers world-class, on-demand virtual data center services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC. SoftLayer integrates all facets of IT to innovate industry-leading solutions that are fully automated. This empowers customers with complete control, security, scalability, and ease-of-management for their IT environment.

To learn more, please visit: www.softlayer.com.

Demowolf - New Tutorials Released! HostingCon, Twitter, etc...

2009-07-10T08:36:00.002+03:00

Demowolf released 46 new tutorials for the latest version of the WHMCS billing system, version 4. These new tutorials are split into 3 separate series, with the "end-user" series replacing our old WHMCS 3 tutorials.

All tutorials (including these new ones, and all 3,300+ other ones) can be viewed from our Hosting Tutorials page at: http://www.demowolf.com/pricing.php. Voice versions of these new tutorials will be available within a couple of weeks.

When purchased, these tutorials will be branded with your own company logo in the first and last frame of every tutorial. Adding DemoWolf support tutorials to your website will greatly reduce your support costs, as your customers will be able to get the help they need themselves instead of calling you. They will also serve as an added benefit... a service you give to your customers.

HostingCon 2009
For the 3rd consecutive year, we will be attending and exhibiting at HostingCon. This year HostingCon 2009 is in Washington, DC from August 10-12 at the Gaylord National Convention Center. Learn about all the new things we have planned for the coming year... or just drop by to say hi! Both Lisa and I will be there, and we'll be at booth 318.

Twitter
You can now follow DemoWolf on Twitter! All new DemoWolf tutorial releases and news announcements will be announced through twitter in addition to our regular method of sending email announcements. To follow us on twitter, go to http://twitter.com/demowolf.

Custom Tutorials
If you have any custom requirements that involve more than just replacing the logo in the first and last frame of the tutorials... perhaps you want full custom tutorials for your own particular software application or website... we can help! We build tutorials with or without voice audio, text boxes, background music, interactivity, and they can be screenshot type tutorials, presentations, demonstrations, slideshows, or any combination of these. Contact us today for a free, no obligation quote.

EIRCA Ltd unveils The Genius Network, new product lines

2009-07-09T05:53:00.003+03:00

Shelburne, Nova Scotia - July 8, 2009 - EIRCA Ltd, the multi-platform managed web hosting service provider, has unveiled its new infrastructure, named "The Genius Network™", a core platform based on cloud computing, spread across multiple locations with multiple layers of redundancy.

"The Genius Network is a combination of Cloud Computing, standard-breaking and fully redundant hardware, incredible network connectivity and redundancy across three locations," according to CEO and Founder of EIRCA Ltd, Simon O'Rourke.

The new infrastructure has been rolled out officially by the company as of July 8th, 2009, and is a core component of the company's existing shared, reseller, and managed dedicated hosting product lines.

With the introduction of The Genius Network, EIRCA Ltd has also added VPS, and various cloud based services to the product line.

"Unlike many offerings within the market, most of which are single-network and with multiple points of potential failure, The Genius Network is fully redundant, faster than any of our competitors, more modern than our competitors, and more secure," commented O'Rourke, "Better yet, we won't raise the price of our service offerings in order to bring this to the market".

About EIRCA Ltd.
EIRCA Ltd. (http://www.eirca.net/). The mission of establishing EIRCA Ltd. has been premium technical support and complete automation. The company is best known for its specific dedication to multi-platform hosting services. To find out more on EIRCA Ltd. or The Genius Network™, please visit http://www.eirca.net

Note: Eirca's website is not mentioning Parallels HELM as a control panel add-on option for the cloud servers, but you can ask for it as Eirca is reselling SOFTLAYER's cloud offerings.

The Planet Galvanizes Dedicated Hosting Demand; Partners with Parallels to Offer One-Month Free "Hosting-in-a-Box" Bundle

2009-07-09T04:19:00.001+03:00

Promotion Delivers Resellers and Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Complete Hosting Solution to Maximize Revenue

HERNDON, Va., July 6, 2009 – Automation and virtualization leader Parallels, today announced that The Planet, the global leader in IT Hosting, will offer its hosting reseller channel a special bundled offering that combines Parallels Plesk Panel, together with Parallels Plesk Billing. The promotion also delivers to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) a free bundled promotion that includes Parallels Panel with 100 domains, in addition to The Planet’s Alpha Monitoring service. The promotion, which launches July 6, 2009, offers the Parallels bundle free of charge, for one-month. It is available on all dedicated servers, and includes 24/7 server and service monitoring.

“The Planet and Parallels are committed to helping resellers increase hosting revenues,” said Urvish Vashi, general manager of The Planet’s Dedicated Servers line of business. “Few companies are in a position to offer a promotion of this significance. Combining the power of Parallels Panel and Parallels Billing, with The Planet’s enterprise-quality data centers and network, ensures our reseller channel has access to the most competitive and the best technology available today.”

The promotion provides The Planet’s reseller channel with a dedicated hosting solution targeted specifically to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Details for the reseller and SMB promotions can be found at: http://www.theplanet.com/parallels-plesk-offer. The robust solution combines Parallels Plesk Panel – an integrated hosting automation control panel software, with Parallels Plesk Billing. Parallels Panel is the only control panel that gives users direct availability to hundreds of applications via the Application Packaging Standard (APS). Parallels Plesk Billing automates billing operations and is designed specifically for any business that needs recurring billing support– from taking orders, provisioning services, managing invoices and collecting payments.

Each server automation application shares a seamless interface, ensuring end-users can easily navigate and perform tasks quickly. The advanced bundle gives resellers and their customers an intuitive, easy-to-use Web-based managed hosting solution.

“The Parallels Plesk Panel bundle presents the ideal path to generate IT revenue, particularly in today’s difficult economic environment,” said Jack Zubarev, President, Service Provider Division, Parallels. “Parallels and The Planet created the dedicated server promotion to ensure resellers are armed with the best dedicated hosting service, at the best price-point. These applications are designed to allow anyone to setup their system in minutes and begin selling immediately.”

About The Planet

The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 17.8 million Web sites worldwide. Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Northstar Managed Hosting™ and data center colocation, all backed by 24×7x365 support. With the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class service, backed by state-of-the-art data centers and an enterprise-class network, The Planet turns IT into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to grow their businesses. For additional information, visit www.theplanet.com.

About Parallels — Optimized Computing

Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with 700 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com.

Parallels Helm 4.1.1 Available

2009-07-03T04:02:00.000+03:00

SOURCE: Web Host Automation Forums
http://forums.webhostautomation.com

Dear Helm Users,

A new updated version of Parallels Helm is available for download, this new version introduces a set of new features including support of APS standard, an application packaging standard that allows to extend the hosting offerings with more than 150 applications, additional features has been also included and the stability of Helm improved.

Release Date: 6 of May 2009
Version Release: 4.1.1

New Features:

APS Controller, which enables provisioning APS applications: Thanks to this new feature service providers can include in their server offerings hundreds of applications packaged with APS Standard, the list of available applications can be obtained from APS Standard catalog on this link.

Added ability to set default login language other than English.
To set default CP language:
1. Go to Helm System > Control Panel Settings page.
2. Select a default language next to the Language.
3. Save changes.

Added possibility to test notifications without sending them to customers directly. The Test and save button was added to the Edit Action Notification Template page. If you click this button, the notification will be saved and sent to the current account. Notifications of Child Created Customer and Delete Customer type cannot be tested because of their specific characteristics.

Added possibility to create virtual directory which points to physical directory outside of site document root. This directory can be shared between different virtual hosts. To create a virtual directory:
1. Go to Add Plan Template.
2. Specify the template name and template resources.
3. Save the template.
4. On the page that appears, click Add in the Provisioning Method section.
5. Choose the Create Physical Virtual Directory method from the drop-down box.
6. Specify Folder to point to property.
Virtual directory created this way cannot be removed from a Virtual Directories page of a domain.

For IIS 7 providers added possibility to switch between x64 and x32 mode for the particular application pool. It means that you can configure some application pool(s) to work in x32 while other will be in x64 at the same time. To specify the mode:
1. Go to My Domains > > Advanced Website Options > Website Settings page.
2. Choose the Application Pool tab.
3. On the page that appears in the Bittness combo box, choose the x32 or x64 mode. If you see the Unknown/Not applicable value, it means that your backend system doesn't support the bittness option.
4. Click Save.

Implemented an option to enable/disable write permissions under customer’s home directory which means the ability of anonymous user to make write changes (create files or directories, modify existing files) in a particular domain directory tree. To enable/disable write permissions for a particular domain:
1. Go to My Domains > > Advanced Website Options > Website Settings page.
2. Choose the Options tab.
3. Check/uncheck the Grant "Write" access for Anonymous User box.

Added an option of choosing a Database name prefix property for MSSQL or MySQL service. Now it is possible to choose between the following database name prefixes:
* Nothing - no prefix will be used during database creation.
* DomainName - domain name will be used as a prefix during database creation. Dots in the domain name will be replaced with an underscore symbol in the prefix.
* AccountName - account name will be added as a prefix during database creation.

Changing this value does not affect existing databases. The Database Name Prefix option can be controlled by admin/reseller only (user has no possibility to choose how the database will be created). For existing database services, admin/reseller should perform the Save action to propagate new service settings into database (even if it wasn’t changed).

Added control over Enable POP retrieval option for SmarterMail mail server which will allow you to access email on another mail server through SmarterMail. To enable SmarterMail POP Retrieval:
1. Go to SmarterMail Provider Services page.
2. Enter necessary Custom Domain Properties (semicolon delimited key/value pairs) which will be passed as custom properties to SmarterMail server when SmarterMail service is enabled for a particular domain. By default the value is set to "enablepopretrieval=True". For a complete list of supported properties, refer to SmarterMail documentation.
3. Save the changes.

The behavior can be controlled only by admin/reseller. For existing SmarterMail services, admin/reseller should perform the Save action to propagate new service settings into Helm database (even if it was not changed). There is no way to enable Pop Retrieval feature for existing domains in Helm without re-enabling the mail service.

Introduced Shared data processing into Overusage Notification engine. To configure your Parallels Helm to process Shared Data:
1. Go to Account Settings > Action Notifications page.
2. On the page that appears, create new or edit an exisitng Overusage notification.
3. Check the Process Shared data box on the Generic tab of the Edit Action Notification Template page.
4. Go to the Internal Notification tab and change the following values:
* [$PackageLimit.Value] to [$PackageLimit.SharedValue]
* [$PackageLimit.UsagePercent] to [$PackageLimit.SharedUsagePercent].
5. Save the changes.

Improvements:

Added MySQL 5.1 support.
Added ability to stop uploading files if reaching disk space limit for GeneFTP providers.
Merak disk space and bandwidth usage are included in statistics.

Issues Fixed:

Fixed problem with Helm API and Turkish locale. (HLM-1775)
Fixed bug with creating an Email Alias that has all numeric values preceeding the "@" symbol in an email address. (HMSM-84)
Fixed problem with IIS password on IIS 6. (HMWEIISP-12)
Fixed problem with unassigning Module in License Web Services. (HLM-1757)
Fixed problem with MySQL5 on a port different from the standard. (HMMYSQLFIVE-35)
Fixed problem with tag text and CSS styling in the HTML field for notification. (HLM-1127)
Fixed problem with backup DNS after re-enabling DNS. (HMMSDNSS-4)
Fixed problem with FP extensions and "Integrated Windows Authentication". (HMWEFP-8)
Fixed problem with creating domains using Simple DNS. (HMSDNS-18)
Fixed the System Diskspace and Bandwidth Tasks error handling. (HLM-1459)
Fixed bug with admin level permissions under reseller account. (HLM-1598)
Fixed wording and behaviour of SQL Server dbo option. (HLM-1756)
Fixed bug with empty resource list in the package. (HLM-1768)
Fixed creating subdomain problem when Simple DNS is used. (HLM-1721)
Fixed server logs deletion. (HLM-50)
Bugfixes and improvements: A number of issues reported by the customers, detected by support team and discovered on QA stage were fixed, multiple other bugfixes and improvements were made.

Release notes with installation and upgrade instructions for this new version can be found here

Installation Instructions

Please download the Parallels Helm 4.1.1 installation package and follow the installation instructions according to the Parallels Helm 4.1.1 documentation in the Installation and Configuration section.

Upgrade Instructions

4.0.x to 4.1.1 Upgrade

The upgrade to Parallels Helm 4.1.1 requires a valid license with Upgrade Protection, or, in terms of Parallels licensing, a license that provides Software Update Service (SUS) which entitles you to version upgrade licenses throughout the life of your SUS. Read more about SUS: http://www.parallels.com/en/support/sus.
You can validate your license by going to the Parallels Helm member area: http://www.webhostautomation.com/members.
If you have a license without SUS, go to http://www.parallels.com/store/support/helm/ and reinstate your license. Otherwise, you will not be able to upgrade to Parallels Helm 4.1.1
Download the Parallels Helm 4.0 to 4.1.1 Upgrade Tool from the following location: http://helm.download.webhostautomati...pgradeTool.exe.
Run the tool and follow its instructions.

4.1 to 4.1.1 Upgrade

Launch the Configuration Tool.
The Configuration Tool should indicate in the left bottom corner that a new version is available. If there is no indication, make sure that the current version of Configuration Tool is 4.1.1.xxxx.
Click the link in the left bottom corner of the Configuration Tool to upgrade it to the latest version.
Launch the updated Configuration Tool.
Tab to Software Updates, and click Update Now.
If anything goes wrong, check the install.log file located in the Helm installation directory.