This week, the biggest names in the Internet industry will gather in Austin for HostingCon. Many of these companies, including Codero Hosting, are also members of the Internet Infrastructure Coalition, or i2Coalition, an organization founded to support the growth of the $46 billion Internet infrastructure industry. A leading dedicated, managed and cloud hosting provider, Codero has worked with i2Coalition to protect and continue the Internet’s free flow of information and commerce. As the CEO of Codero, I look forward to joining with other Texas-based tech companies to welcome the industry to Austin.

Our capital is a great place for a national event like HostingCon. I have been part of this wonderful city since 1986. I have seen it grow, evolve and change into a true center of gravity for information technology. Internet infrastructure leaders and proud members of the i2Coalition such as SoftLayer, cPanel, Data Foundry Inc., Rackspace and Codero have established their headquarters and main offices in Texas, helping the Lone Star State obtain Cyberstates’ second ranking nationally for industry jobs in Internet, telecommunication and engineering services as well as semiconductor manufacturing.

Companies such as Cisco Systems Honeywell, and Amazon have recognized Texas’ growing technological industry and have set up divisional and corporate headquarters here. At the same time, Texas’ universities are producing tech-savvy graduates and advancements in the technological sector.

As Texas grows and matures in the high-tech industry, it’s imperative that it protects the ideas, innovation and new technology that are being developed by businesses.

At HostingCon, the i2Coalition is sponsoring a number of panels that examine some of the greatest threats to our industry, including a panel called “Money Stealing Trolls.” Of particular concern when it comes to threats to innovation are attacks by Patent Assertion Entities, or “patent trolls,” who seek to undermine technological progress for quick financial gain. These trolls have taken advantage of a broken patent system, allowing them to bring up patent infringement cases on small and large businesses. These lawsuits can cost a company millions of dollars in litigation alone.

For this reason, many of the larger companies settle out of court. However, smaller companies like Codero attempting to grow in our economy also face these frivolous lawsuits. Patent trolls can cause small to medium-size companies to lose revenue, forcing them to cut salaries and jobs, and even in extreme cases file for bankruptcy. The tactics of the trolls are stifling innovation. Because of their actions, many companies hesitate to produce new products for fear of violating an unknown frivolous patent.

One of the i2Coalition’s top priorities is to bring about patent reform, and both the i2Coalition and Codero applaud Texas Sen. John Cornyn for introducing a bill known as the “Patent Abuse Reduction Act of 2013.” The act will “bring fairness to the discovery process,” Senator Cornyn says. The bill will also shift responsibility for the cost of litigation to the losing party. This will relieve small business from hefty litigation cost and punish patent trolls. The act also calls for “Transparency in Enforcement,” meaning all parties and persons that have direct financial interest in the outcome of the lawsuit must be revealed.

Cornyn is attempting to put an end to the chaos and economic stagnation these money stealing trolls create. We must stand up and support his efforts and the efforts of Texans as a whole to grow and develop in the technological world.

When industry giants and Texas-based high-tech businesses gather this week for HostingCon, we need to make sure it spells trouble for the trolls. We need to make sure that trolls don’t “Mess with Texas jobs.” The companies that power the Internet that we all cherish, essentially the nuts and bolts that hold this industry together, shouldn’t be messed with by patent trolls.

Source: i2Coalition Talks HostingCon

The move is significant because it lets companies to bring dedicated offerings into the mix.

“Service providers have to change from thinking about the cloud as another silo of infrastructure, to thinking about the value of their infrastructure as a whole,” commented OnApp CEO Ditlev Bredahl via a press release.

He continued, “With OnApp you can put workloads where it makes sense to put them – on bare metal, on a smart server or in a public or private cloud. You get a single pane of glass into the different services running across your infrastructure, and so do your customers. It’s how everyone gets the most out of legacy and cloud hosting.”

Meanwhile, primary features of the offering include Smart Servers (on demand via the OnApp control panel), bare metal servers, Recipes (automation) and Blueprints (a way to deploy a “complete distributed application”).

Pricing has yet to be announced but is expected soon.

Set for the release sometime this summer, version 3.1 is available as a free upgrade for current OnApp customers.

Source: OnApp Delivers Hybrid Cloud with v3.1

Although, unless I’m mistaken, there seems to be less pre-planned networking opportunities this time round. Kudos to the teams at cPanel and SoftLayer for keeping that tradition going at Maggie Mae’s on Monday night.

But should you find a lull in the schedule and are in search of celebratory refreshments, there are some terrific watering holes in Austin. We recommend The Cloak Room, The Ginger Man, Bangers and Jackalope.

As you discuss business and get set to rip it up for the rest of the year, remember there is always sales opportunities for those that plan for it.

Super 8 is not your four or five star hotel by any stretch, but in Austin on November 18, 2012, they scooped up a cool $500 a room!

True, that was a supply and demand issue created by Formula One that day, but Super 8 was ready for crush in Austin, and so am I.

Cheers!

Hostingcon by the Numbers

Brought to you by TopHosts.com

Source: Hosting Texas Style: HostingCon 2013

OneCloud Networks delivers reliable and cost-effective Cloud-based Unified Communications Services to growing enterprises. Its comprehensive set of solutions is delivered over intelligent and high performance managed network. “OneCloud Networks provides a full range of cloud-based UC solutions, including latency sensitive applications, which require direct connectivity to a broad choice of carriers,” stated Haider Mirjat, Chief Solutions Officer, OneCloud Networks. “Cologix’s Dallas INFOMART data center meets these requirements and provides state-of-the-art, scalable infrastructure to address our growth needs.”

“We are pleased that OneCloud Networks has chosen our new INFOMART data center to deploy their fully redundant and managed network,” stated Rob DeVita, General Manager, Cologix Dallas. “We look forward to supporting their connectivity and growth demands and introducing their services to our growing list of enterprise customers.”

With data centers in Dallas, Minneapolis, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Cologix provides one of North America’s largest neutral marketplaces where network operators and network buyers interconnect. Cologix offers more than 330 network choices, manages thousands of interconnections and has over 550 customers that utilize Cologix’s colocation and interconnection services to scale their networks’ needs rapidly and cost-effectively.

About Cologix, Inc.

Cologix, Inc. is a network neutral interconnection and colocation company headquartered in Denver, Colorado, that provides massively scalable interconnection services and secure, reliable colocation services in densely connected, strategically located facilities in Dallas, Minneapolis, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. With more than 330 network choices and twelve prime interconnection locations, Cologix currently serves over 550 carrier, managed services, cloud, media, content, financial services and enterprise customers. The company’s experienced team of communications infrastructure professionals is committed to providing its customers the highest standard of local customer support. For more information about Cologix, please visit the company’s website at http://www.cologix.com.

About OneCloud Networks

OneCloud Networks is a Managed Solutions Provider delivering reliable and cost effective voice and data applications. Our comprehensive set of Managed Solutions is integrated with converged applications providing high value IP services to enterprise customers. OneCloud Networks is a single solution for the cloud-based unified communication needs of growing enterprise businesses. For more information about OneCloud Networks, please visit company’s website at http://www.onecloudnet.com.

Source: OneCloud Networks Selects Cologix

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About CM-AG:

Robert Schovenberg and Cornel Schnietz founded Content Management AG (CM-AG) in 1999. Headquartered in Cologne, Germany, CM-AG develops and distributes software and infrastructure solutions based on CM4all’s scalable software, which enables the creation, maintenance and easy updating of websites, while also providing highly effective online file storage, management and sharing solutions.

The company’s core products are the website building solutions CM4all Sites and CM4all WebsiteCreator which are adapted for and licensed to individual OEM partners and are available in 25+ languages.

With over three million paying customers worldwide, CM4all is a leading developer of web-based applications for the Internet. CM4all software is currently being distributed worldwide via leading telcos, MSOs, ISPs and web hosting companies, like 1&1 Internet AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Endurance International Group Inc., Hostway, NTT Communications, Telefónica de España S.A.U, Terra Networks S.A., UK2 Group, Unitymedia GmbH and Verio Inc.

More information is available at www.cm4all.com.

Source: CM4all Presents Latest Version of Sites

“We are grateful to Senators Cornyn and Cruz’s staff for taking the time to be with us today, and we appreciate Data Foundry helping educate lawmakers about the Internet infrastructure industry,” said Christian Dawson, i2Coalition Co-Founder and Board Chair. “As one of our founding members, Data Foundry is a valued partner of i2Coalition, and they continue to be a leader in our fight to protect an open and free Internet. We look forward to working with them and all of our members as we educate members of Congress about the importance of protecting customer privacy because we believe there must be greater transparency about U.S. government access to private data stored online.”

Founded in 1994, Data Foundry was the first Internet Service Provider in San Antonio and one of the first 50 Internet Service Providers in the United States. Data Foundry is the premier experience-based data center outsourcing, colocation,disaster recovery and managed services provider. The company provides its customers with secure premium facilities for servers and equipment, emergency workspace and carrier-neutral network accessibility, supported by experienced onsite technicians and customer support 24/7/365. With a global presence, the company supports more than 1,000 enterprise customers across a variety of industries including energy, healthcare and financial services.

“We thank i2Coalition and the Senators’ offices for joining us here today, and look forward to continuing the discussion on the importance of electronic privacy,” said Ron Yokubaitis, Founder and Co-CEO of Data Foundry. “Texas’ recent privacy-enhancing update to its version of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act will be the nation’s strongest email privacy bill. We hope the U.S. Senate and House will use Texas as an example for the rest of the nation.”

The i2Coalition has been at the forefront of the discussions to reform ECPA at the federal level, which the group discussed today while at Data Foundry. Enacted in 1986, ECPA specified standards for law enforcement agencies’ access to electronic communications and other data, and gave important privacy protections to subscribers of emerging wireless and Internet technologies. Technology has advanced dramatically since 1986, and there are currently efforts in Congress to reform ECPA to bring it up to date.

“The i2Coalition supports a warrant requirement for all government searches of email and other electronic communications, which would establish consistent privacy protections,” said Dawson. “The fourth amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring a warrant supported by probable cause, and revision to ECPA should ensure that constitutional guarantees of due process are upheld. ECPA reform needs to be addressed now, which is why we will be discussing it tomorrow during HostingCon.”

i2Coalition has organized a series of “Issues and Trends” panels tomorrow at HostingCon in Austin. Among the panels are one moderated by Dawson entitled The Internet in 2020: The Fight for Our Future and The Future of Customer Privacy, looking at ECPA and other privacy issues. To see the full schedule of the i2Coalition’s panels click here.

Data Foundry “Texas 1” Tour Participants

Amy Bowen, Ghandi.net

Chris Boyd, Midas Green Tech

Grover Bynum, Austin Technology Council

Jim Cardle, Texas Insider

Michael Cohen, Data Foundry

Elizabeth Cox, Senator Cornyn’s Central Texas Deputy Regional Director

Christian Dawson, Internet Infrastructure Coalition

Sandy Edwards, Senator Cornyn’s Central Texas Regional Director

Justin Freeman, Rackspace

Kurt Hagerman, Firehost

Edward Henigin, Data Foundry

Andy MacFarlane, Data Foundry

Katie McAuliffe, Americans for Tax Reform

Jon McClellan, Senator Cruz’s State Outreach Director

Mike McGeary, Engine Advocacy

Shane Menking, Data Foundry

Ryan Neading, eBay

Greg Nojeim, Center for Democracy and Technology

Lela Pittenger, Senator Cruz’s Central Texas Regional Director

Mick Siebert, eBay

Thomas Stocking, Ghandi.net

Source: i2Coalition, Senators Offices Tour Data Foundry

“The network capabilities of Verne Global’s data center and efficiencies of Iceland’s energy infrastructure enable Datapipe to provide a one-of-a-kind green HPC cloud solution,” commented Datapipe CEO Rob Allen via a press release.

High performance solutions utilized with HPC include the likes of Apache, Redis, MongoDB, Hadoop and more.

Immediate access to the new HPC location is available in addition to other presences such as New York, Silicon Valley, London, Ashburn, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The Iceland data center location itself is based on renewable power and cooling efficiencies.

Clientele utilizing the solution are able to configure HPC with either public or private resources in addition to 32 physical core equivalents per instance.

Datapipe Launches HPC in Iceland

“HostingCon is a very important event to the CloudLinux team,” says Igor Seletskiy, Founder and CEO at CloudLinux. “The event gives hosting companies, service providers, and innovators a place to get together for learning, networking, and creating new partnerships. With so many opportunities for work, we wanted to give attendees a place to relax and experience the life of a CloudLinux administrator.”

CloudLinux will transform booth #425 into the “CloudLinux Comfort Zone,” a relaxed environment with massage chairs and chocolates. As attendees take a few moments out of their busy days, they will discover how relaxing life can be with the CloudLinux OS. The CloudLinux OS is a unique operating system designed for the requirements of shared hosting providers. With hardware resource limits defined for each user, system administrators using CloudLinux can forget about the “bad neighbor” effect and spend less time worrying about performance and server stability.

“CloudLinux makes life easier for hosts, and we wanted to give visitors to our booth at HostingCon 2013 a taste of that lifestyle,” says Seletskiy. “Of course, HostingCon is also a place for networking and growing your business. The event gives attendees deep insights into the entire web hosting industry, particularly through sessions, talks, and panels. This year, I will be delivering a speech that brings together data from more than a hundred different shared hosting companies to show attendees what their competitors are doing to ensure success.”

In “What Are Your Competitors Doing? Shared Hosting in Numbers,” Igor Seletskiy will present technical data collected from shared hosting providers. The detailed statistics will show how much RAM servers have, which software they are running, the number of cores per server, and much more. While Seletskiy’s session will offer invaluable technical insight, CloudLinux is also taking part in a giveaway that will provide hosts with the software they need to grow. Attendees can enter a contest from email security company SpamExperts to win “The Complete Service Provider Package” made up of $65,000 worth of licenses from major names in the hosting industry. The package includes 100 server licenses from CloudLinux, worth $12,000 alone.

“The Complete Service Provider Package is the biggest giveaway in the history of HostingCon, and CloudLinux is the ideal, high compatibility OS for the included software to be installed on,” says Seletskiy. “I would like to encourage everybody to visit booth #425 for some relaxation, attend my talk for some insider advice, and take part in this incredible contest.”

Since 2009, CloudLinux has developed a reputation for making the life of web hosts easier and more relaxed. HostingCon 2013 is an excellent opportunity to experience the feeling of CloudLinux first-hand.

CloudLinux will be at HostingCon 2013 in booth #425. Igor Seletskiy’s session, “What Are Your Competitors Doing? Shared Hosting in Numbers,” takes place on Wednesday, June 19th at 10:00am.

To learn more about CloudLinux and the CloudLinux OS, visit http://www.cloudlinux.com.

About CloudLinux

CloudLinux was founded in 2009 to address the distinctive needs of web hosting providers. The company’s headquarters are in Princeton, New Jersey, and its development team, composed of employees with an appreciable proficiency in the hosting business, is based in Donetsk, Ukraine. CloudLinux is a stable, privately funded company geared toward providing the ideal operating system (OS) to make even the most intricate and divergent hosting needs more straightforward. The company’s flagship OS is optimized to help hosting providers deliver more stable shared hosting services, with account isolation and resource allocation on an OS level.

Located in the heart of the city, near the University Square, the new office will accomodate a team of marketing and IT specialists. Recruitment for new positions at the new office is in progress, with the company expecting to double in size in the next 6 months.

Commenting on SpamExperts’ continuing success, Sam Renkema, CEO said: “We have enjoyed 5 years of stunning growth and further investment into our infrastructure will help continue that success. The expansion of our office in Bucharest marks a significant milestone in the company’s growth and we are excited about the opportunity. One year ago, we had only just started up in Romania; we’ve now got a much bigger team and a matching office space to continue our growth.”

SpamExperts already has worldwide presence with its headquarters in Amsterdam, a second largest office in Bucharest and development offices around the globe serving clients in over 100 countries.

For more information, please visit: http://www.spamexperts.com/

SpamExperts Expands with Office in Bucharest

After the issuance of SOC reporting framework in June, 2011, most data centers which had a SAS 70 certification initially obtained SOC 1 (SSAE 16) examination. SOC 1 (SSAE 16) is primarily for ensuring control over financial reporting by the user organizations. AICPA came up with SOC 2 for service organization like colocations and web hosts to provide a standard benchmark by which two data centers could be compared with. The top reasons for obtaining SOC compliance cited by data centers are: client needs (42%), competition (21%), and marketing advantage (17%).

“SOC 2 reports cover for the deficiencies of SSAE 16 by providing a standard benchmark by which two data centers’ audit reports could be compared,” said Hassan Sultan, Partner at Reckenen Inc. “Looking forward, SOC 1 coupled with SOC 2 audits are becoming the standard for data centers and cloud based service providers.”

SOC 2 reports are designed to meet the needs of existing or potential customers who need assurance about the effectiveness of controls at a service organization that are relevant to the security, availability, or processing integrity of the system used by the service organization to process customers’ information, or the confidentiality or privacy of that information. The following principles and related criteria have been developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) for use by practitioners in the performance of SOC 2 engagements:

• Security. The system is protected against unauthorized access (both physical and logical).
• Availability. The system is available for operation and use as committed or agreed.
• Processing integrity. System processing is complete, accurate, timely and authorized.
• Confidentiality. Information designated as confidential is protected as committed or agreed.
• Privacy. Personal information is collected, used, retained, disclosed and destroyed in conformity with the commitments in the entity’s privacy notice and with criteria set forth in generally accepted privacy principles issued by the AICPA and CICA.

The Reckenen’s report, SOC/SSAE16 Insights, is based on a survey of 91 data centers located in United States by data centers by size, sophistication, and ownership. The report provides the data center owners and decision makers with the industry trends in SOC reporting standards, the time when the reports and the audits are conducted, and the top reasons why data centers are choosing to get audited.

About Reckenen:

Reckenen provides SOC audit services to data centers and other service organization. It offers a sophisticated array of services and capabilities to clients, combined with the personal attention of experienced professionals. Its professional staff is driven to understand each client’s business and fully prepare it to meet unique challenges in a manner that’s personal, proactive, and progressive. To learn more, please visit http://reckenen.com.

SOC 2 Reporting Standard Gains Popularity

InfoRelay Online Systems, Inc., founded in 1995 is a leading data center provider with 15 locations across the US that offers services such as colocation, cloud hosting and network bandwidth. The Herndon, VA-based IT company recently announced its Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Cloud, which it plans to pair with ATS managed hosting services to provide clients with a complete IT solution for needs such as cloud migration and management, enterprise email and application support, website design & development with expertise in .Net-based CMS platforms and more, according to a spokesperson at InfoRelay.

ATS, founded in 1994, serves mid-market businesses, associations, nonprofits, financial institutions, consultancies, and government contractors from its headquarters in Fairfax, VA. ATS is dedicated to comprehensive solutions in information technology, providing three primary lines of business: network and end-user support, website design & development, and fully managed hosting services.

ATS chose InfoRelay as a partner as a result of ideal product pairing and solutions that lead to reduced costs for end users, according to ATS VP Alex Koludrovic. Koludrovic explains, “ATS is always seeking ways to better meet the needs of our clients. InfoRelay and ATS bring the right mix of Cloud and software expertise, including systems management and end-user support. ATS has been growing rapidly in integrated cloud services, and InfoRelay is a catalyst for that growth. With InfoRelay’s expertise, ATS can streamline client’s IT integration and improve their operational practices.”

The unique partnership is intended to improve IT efficiencies as well as offer competitively priced front-to-back IT solutions for each firms’ current and prospective clientele, according to Josh Abraham, Technical Director at InfoRelay. InfoRelay is primarily a hardware hosting company, providing data center solutions, such as server colocation, cloud, dedicated servers, server backup, and point-to-point Metro Ethernet connectivity. Abraham explains, “With InfoRelay’s experience in data center engineering and ATS’s knowledge of cloud software implementation, clients in mid-market industries can jumpstart their move toward virtualization by utilizing InfoRelay and ATS’ new collaborative offerings.”

About InfoRelay Online Systems, Inc

InfoRelay Online Systems, Inc., founded in 1995, is a leading national data center and colocation provider with value-added services designed to alleviate the strain on IT budgets while providing superior customer support. The InfoRelay network is made up of a robust carrier blend, world class SSAE16II data centers, a portfolio of network and data center products, a wealth of in-house technical knowledge, and a passionate support team. The InfoRelay network is home to healthcare firms, federal and state government, legal services, non-profit, and e-commerce platforms.

About American Technology Services, Inc. (ATS®)

ATS, headquartered in Fairfax, VA, is a leading provider of comprehensive IT services for small and mid-sized organizations. Founded in 1994, the company has a strong track record of providing high-quality services to associations and other nonprofits, financial institutions, government contractors, and professional services firms. ATS’ broad experience includes network support, web design & development, and hosting & cloud services. As one of the leading managed services providers and cloud management and delivery companies, ATS provides tailored services for total outsourcing and project-based support. Visit ATS’ website at networkATS.com.

InfoRelay & American Tech Services Partner