Game servers are usually developed in a form of a standard component that can be found in many games that have a multiplayer option. After this kind of business became popular, hosting companies immediately responded to the growing demand and started offering dedicated servers for online gaming to both those who want to make business and to those who are simply enthusiastic. Generally game server hosting caters to two main groups of online games – those available from the main server, and those that operate through a series of distributed ones.
Centralized servers are mostly often used to host games that require these servers to be able to host thousands of users playing at the same time. The main server stores all the necessary data about the game environment and the cyber world is there 24 hours 7 days a week. The game goes on no matter if the user is online or offline. To participate in the game, a player usually needs special client software that connects to the main server. One of the most popular game using the technology of centralized servers is the World of Warcraft.
Another model is the distributed servers technology. This one is usually utilized by enthusiasts and small businesses. In this model the software is distributed onto several dedicated game servers. As an example, real-time strategies are usually based on this technology. They need frequent updates of the game world that is executed through messaging between users and servers. There should be a master server in this chain to control messaging between the whole bunch of distributed servers. Low latency and fast ping time - that is what needed for this model to be successful and ensure the fast speed of messages reaching the server and coming back to the user. Users usually choose servers with the best ping rates and connect to them to play online. That is why game server hosting companies connect their servers to the fastest networks. Security, operating system and applications tweaking and thorough configuration are also very important.
Hosting providers usually supply their clients with game server hosting services that include the most technologically advanced servers and network connections, very often with the preinstalled software to start online gaming business immediately. The most popular games using the technology of distributed servers are: Doom 3, Medal of Honor, Halo, Unreal Tournament, Counter Strike, Quake 3 etc.
Game server hosting providers are expected to significantly increase their revenue due to such rapid growth figures of online gaming. Many hosting companies have already build up a wide range of special game server hosting offers including even those for $30-40 a month. This is significantly cheaper than many low-performance dedicated servers.
There are thousands of web hosts around today with thousands of plans to choose from making what was once a simple procedure seem like a daunting task for both newbie and pro alike.
Whether you're looking for your first host or looking to move on to a better one there are 7 simple steps you must follow to succeed in choosing a great host.
1. Platform
The first and most crucial step in choosing a web host is determining the platform the web server should run, usually a choice between Unix/Linux and Windows.
Your choice is largely determined by your website and the technologies used to create it, generally a website created with Microsoft technologies (ASP, VB) will run on Windows servers while most other sites using open source technologies (PHP, Perl, Python etc) will run on Linux based systems.
2. Features
Once you've chosen your platform the next step is determining the features you'll need from your web host. Take your time with this step as the feature lists of web hosts are getting longer and longer every day and while some plans may look similar on the surface, a good look at the feature lists may tell another story.
Only you can determine the specific features you'll need, but some key things to keep an eye on are:
Disk Space
Bandwidth
Backups
Uptime
Money Back Guarantee
Domains Allowed
Databases (Number & type)
CGI, PHP, Perl, Python, SSI
Cron
Email accounts
The list goes on and on, just remember to take your time and make sure your new web host is going to provide you with everything you need.
3. Cost
Often this is the only thing people consider when choosing their first web host, funds are usually tight and on the surface most hosts look very similar. Sometimes you get lucky and choose a good host, but more often than not it turns out to be a horror story.
I can't stress enough that choosing a web host based on price alone is asking for trouble, remember that the cost of your web hosting is more than just the monthly fee, think about the total cost of ownership. TCO includes lost sales due to downtime & slow speeds, downtime rebates, extra bandwidth charges, setup costs, extra feature costs, and your monthly fee.
Many hosts will require you to pay yearly to get the best price available though there are some that allow you to pay by the month and still get the best price, it's really a matter of personal choice as to what payment method works best for you.
4. Customer Service
Customer service is another aspect that is often forgotten about until it is too late, something breaks and you need it fixed and those wonderfully handy sales people who were more than helpful in taking your money are now nowhere to be seen, all the while you're losing out on sales every minute.
You shouldn't settle for anything less than 24/7/365 service, your website needs to be running all the time so it's no good if your hosting company doesn't work during the holidays. Don't take the web hosting companies word for it, they all claim 24/7 support but few back it up with consistent performance. Be sure to test them out at various times of the day and night via phone, email and live chat if they offer it.
5. Support
An extensive knowledge base or faq can be a real time saver as well as being an indication of the level of customer service support and expertise you can expect to receive. Spend some time browsing the support sections of the website and see for yourself the level of support provided.
Are questions in the knowledge base answered thoroughly? Are real solutions provided or are they just “cut and pasteâ replies?
6. Longevity
Do a whois on the web host's domain name and find out the creation date, anything less than a year ago and the risk that they won't be around next year increases. They could be a great host, but considering more then 95% of new hosts go out of business within a year that really isn't something you should be taking a chance on.
7. Uptime
It's a fact of life that a web host cannot be online 100% of the time, servers need to be rebooted for security and software updates and any web host that doesn't get updated faces the increased risk of being successfully hacked.
99.9% uptime guarantees are pretty standard in the industry however a guarantee is only as good as how it is defined and the company behind it. Look for no less than a full months free hosting should they not meet their guarantee, a prorated refund based on the amount of downtime is virtually worthless. Say you pay $10 for a month of hosting and your site is down for 24 hours. They will refund you for one day of downtime which ends up being about 33 cents.
There you go, 7 simple steps for choosing a great web host. It's not rocket science, just a little research and investigating that can save a lot of heartache in the future.
Whether you're looking for your first host or looking to move on to a better one there are 7 simple steps you must follow to succeed in choosing a great host.
1. Platform
The first and most crucial step in choosing a web host is determining the platform the web server should run, usually a choice between Unix/Linux and Windows.
Your choice is largely determined by your website and the technologies used to create it, generally a website created with Microsoft technologies (ASP, VB) will run on Windows servers while most other sites using open source technologies (PHP, Perl, Python etc) will run on Linux based systems.
2. Features
Once you've chosen your platform the next step is determining the features you'll need from your web host. Take your time with this step as the feature lists of web hosts are getting longer and longer every day and while some plans may look similar on the surface, a good look at the feature lists may tell another story.
Only you can determine the specific features you'll need, but some key things to keep an eye on are:
Disk Space
Bandwidth
Backups
Uptime
Money Back Guarantee
Domains Allowed
Databases (Number & type)
CGI, PHP, Perl, Python, SSI
Cron
Email accounts
The list goes on and on, just remember to take your time and make sure your new web host is going to provide you with everything you need.
3. Cost
Often this is the only thing people consider when choosing their first web host, funds are usually tight and on the surface most hosts look very similar. Sometimes you get lucky and choose a good host, but more often than not it turns out to be a horror story.
I can't stress enough that choosing a web host based on price alone is asking for trouble, remember that the cost of your web hosting is more than just the monthly fee, think about the total cost of ownership. TCO includes lost sales due to downtime & slow speeds, downtime rebates, extra bandwidth charges, setup costs, extra feature costs, and your monthly fee.
Many hosts will require you to pay yearly to get the best price available though there are some that allow you to pay by the month and still get the best price, it's really a matter of personal choice as to what payment method works best for you.
4. Customer Service
Customer service is another aspect that is often forgotten about until it is too late, something breaks and you need it fixed and those wonderfully handy sales people who were more than helpful in taking your money are now nowhere to be seen, all the while you're losing out on sales every minute.
You shouldn't settle for anything less than 24/7/365 service, your website needs to be running all the time so it's no good if your hosting company doesn't work during the holidays. Don't take the web hosting companies word for it, they all claim 24/7 support but few back it up with consistent performance. Be sure to test them out at various times of the day and night via phone, email and live chat if they offer it.
5. Support
An extensive knowledge base or faq can be a real time saver as well as being an indication of the level of customer service support and expertise you can expect to receive. Spend some time browsing the support sections of the website and see for yourself the level of support provided.
Are questions in the knowledge base answered thoroughly? Are real solutions provided or are they just “cut and pasteâ replies?
6. Longevity
Do a whois on the web host's domain name and find out the creation date, anything less than a year ago and the risk that they won't be around next year increases. They could be a great host, but considering more then 95% of new hosts go out of business within a year that really isn't something you should be taking a chance on.
7. Uptime
It's a fact of life that a web host cannot be online 100% of the time, servers need to be rebooted for security and software updates and any web host that doesn't get updated faces the increased risk of being successfully hacked.
99.9% uptime guarantees are pretty standard in the industry however a guarantee is only as good as how it is defined and the company behind it. Look for no less than a full months free hosting should they not meet their guarantee, a prorated refund based on the amount of downtime is virtually worthless. Say you pay $10 for a month of hosting and your site is down for 24 hours. They will refund you for one day of downtime which ends up being about 33 cents.
There you go, 7 simple steps for choosing a great web host. It's not rocket science, just a little research and investigating that can save a lot of heartache in the future.
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Your small business website needs to be hosted on a web server or simply a server (another name for computer) that is connected to the World Wide Web so that anyone can access your website.
Choosing a web hosting company for your small business website is easy if you follow the guide I have layout for you. Depending on the scale of your business, the type of business you run and your level of technical competency, there will always be a right hosting provider just for your business.
The general rule of thumb in choosing a web hosting provider boils down to:
Excellent Customer Support
Company Stability
Robust Datacenter
Affordability
Excellent Customer Support If all things being equal, I would rate customer support as my number 1 determining factor in choosing a web hosting provider. Relying on testimonials found on the provider's site is a common approach to assess a company's level of customer excellence but it is also quite an outdated one. After all it's not uncommon for some providers to fake the testimonials. Instead I suggest you follow my way of assessing their customer support.
Sizing its level of customer support is sometimes as easy as finding out whether they have enough employees to support their level of business growth. You should look at the Customer to Employee ratio, CE ratio, as a benchmark.
For example, according to our records SiteSell Inc has approximately 15,000 customers and employs about 30 support staff, it has a CE ratio of 500 (15,000/30 = 500), you can expect a much higher level of customer satisfaction and a faster response time when compared to another provider who is serving 100,000 customers but only have 75 support staff. Their CE ratio would stand at approximately 1,333. Basically you should look for a professional hosting provider with a low CE ratio.
Getting As Close As You Can The other accurate way to assess the real status of its customer service is to get as close as you can to the company whenever possible via the following means:
Live Chat - Check to see if it's 24/7. It helps to know that you can have your questions answered almost immediately with a live chat function. Test it out by answering some basic questions to see its response time and also test its level of technical competency. Not critical but it's good to have.
Email - Send them a test mail to see how fast they respond, allowed up to 24 hours. Ask about anything but just do not be afraid to ask.
Number of Telephone Lines - Check to see if there are separate telephone lines for sales, customer service and technical support. I hate companies who use only 1 line to serve everyone. A professional small business hosting provider should have this in place. It is not uncommon for reputable providers to charge for telephone support.
Forum - The real condition of any web hosting company's customer support is really found in its members forum if any. You will get a good dose of complains and praises but if the complains outnumber the compliments; it's time to raise a red flag.
Company Stability A company's stability can be measured by the length of time they have been in business, the number of customers they have served and are serving and lastly their financial standing.
Personally as a business owner myself, a web hosting company that has been around for at least 5 years would have weathered all sorts of ups and downs in the online world, and their chance of being around is much higher than a company that has been around for less than 1 year.
Financial Stability Though public listed web hosting providers have better financial transparency than the privately-owned ones, they are not necessary always in a better financial shape than them. Bottom line, you would host your small business with a company that you know is growing in their customer base. For example, Interland having been in business since 1995 is currently serving less than 200,000 websites and this number has been decreasing. It is most likely less profitable when compared to IPower in operation since 2001 and is serving over 400,000 websites as of this writing!
Another aspect of company stability lies in its ability to remain relevant in this highly competitive industry. For example, as the number of internet users increase and streaming multi-media becomes the norm, you want to place your business with a profitable web hosting company who is able to constantly improve on their offerings so that the performance of your website is able to keep up with visitors' expectations.
Robust Datacenter Datacenters are where the web servers are resided on, and ultimately where your webpages will be accessed from. A strong and credible small business web hosting company would have the ability to own and managed their data centers or through colocation.
On one hand it might seem that is the best thing any decent web hosting company would do, but on the other hand, there seems to be a trend whereby the marketing and sale aspect of the hosting business has been outsourced to resellers.
The rationale behind this is quite simple, a web hosting company should focus on what it does best, i.e. make sure all servers are up and running. And a reseller role is to sell the hosting plans and is to focus entirely on doing just that without getting bogged down by technical issues.
Almost all the state of the art data centers should come equip with high level of security, uninterruptible power supplies and most importantly employs the latest technology to enable your website to be always up and running and is always accessible by high connectivity, i.e. fast access to your website.
Affordability Before I elaborate further, it's important to establish that after qualifying a company with the above points, there is no such thing as the best small business web hosting plan, but only the right hosting plan for your business. This is probably the last thing you should look at before deciding on the hosting provider.
Generally there are 2 main types of hosting that are available for you to choose from. They are the Linux web hosting and windows web hosting. Within these 2 platforms there are also another few subcategories of web hosting types that you need to understand before you can finally decide on the right web hosting for your small business.
To continue reading this article, please visit my site Small-Business-Web-Hosting-Guide.com for a no-nonsense approach to assessing web hosting companies for small business owners.
Choosing a web hosting company for your small business website is easy if you follow the guide I have layout for you. Depending on the scale of your business, the type of business you run and your level of technical competency, there will always be a right hosting provider just for your business.
The general rule of thumb in choosing a web hosting provider boils down to:
Excellent Customer Support
Company Stability
Robust Datacenter
Affordability
Excellent Customer Support If all things being equal, I would rate customer support as my number 1 determining factor in choosing a web hosting provider. Relying on testimonials found on the provider's site is a common approach to assess a company's level of customer excellence but it is also quite an outdated one. After all it's not uncommon for some providers to fake the testimonials. Instead I suggest you follow my way of assessing their customer support.
Sizing its level of customer support is sometimes as easy as finding out whether they have enough employees to support their level of business growth. You should look at the Customer to Employee ratio, CE ratio, as a benchmark.
For example, according to our records SiteSell Inc has approximately 15,000 customers and employs about 30 support staff, it has a CE ratio of 500 (15,000/30 = 500), you can expect a much higher level of customer satisfaction and a faster response time when compared to another provider who is serving 100,000 customers but only have 75 support staff. Their CE ratio would stand at approximately 1,333. Basically you should look for a professional hosting provider with a low CE ratio.
Getting As Close As You Can The other accurate way to assess the real status of its customer service is to get as close as you can to the company whenever possible via the following means:
Live Chat - Check to see if it's 24/7. It helps to know that you can have your questions answered almost immediately with a live chat function. Test it out by answering some basic questions to see its response time and also test its level of technical competency. Not critical but it's good to have.
Email - Send them a test mail to see how fast they respond, allowed up to 24 hours. Ask about anything but just do not be afraid to ask.
Number of Telephone Lines - Check to see if there are separate telephone lines for sales, customer service and technical support. I hate companies who use only 1 line to serve everyone. A professional small business hosting provider should have this in place. It is not uncommon for reputable providers to charge for telephone support.
Forum - The real condition of any web hosting company's customer support is really found in its members forum if any. You will get a good dose of complains and praises but if the complains outnumber the compliments; it's time to raise a red flag.
Company Stability A company's stability can be measured by the length of time they have been in business, the number of customers they have served and are serving and lastly their financial standing.
Personally as a business owner myself, a web hosting company that has been around for at least 5 years would have weathered all sorts of ups and downs in the online world, and their chance of being around is much higher than a company that has been around for less than 1 year.
Financial Stability Though public listed web hosting providers have better financial transparency than the privately-owned ones, they are not necessary always in a better financial shape than them. Bottom line, you would host your small business with a company that you know is growing in their customer base. For example, Interland having been in business since 1995 is currently serving less than 200,000 websites and this number has been decreasing. It is most likely less profitable when compared to IPower in operation since 2001 and is serving over 400,000 websites as of this writing!
Another aspect of company stability lies in its ability to remain relevant in this highly competitive industry. For example, as the number of internet users increase and streaming multi-media becomes the norm, you want to place your business with a profitable web hosting company who is able to constantly improve on their offerings so that the performance of your website is able to keep up with visitors' expectations.
Robust Datacenter Datacenters are where the web servers are resided on, and ultimately where your webpages will be accessed from. A strong and credible small business web hosting company would have the ability to own and managed their data centers or through colocation.
On one hand it might seem that is the best thing any decent web hosting company would do, but on the other hand, there seems to be a trend whereby the marketing and sale aspect of the hosting business has been outsourced to resellers.
The rationale behind this is quite simple, a web hosting company should focus on what it does best, i.e. make sure all servers are up and running. And a reseller role is to sell the hosting plans and is to focus entirely on doing just that without getting bogged down by technical issues.
Almost all the state of the art data centers should come equip with high level of security, uninterruptible power supplies and most importantly employs the latest technology to enable your website to be always up and running and is always accessible by high connectivity, i.e. fast access to your website.
Affordability Before I elaborate further, it's important to establish that after qualifying a company with the above points, there is no such thing as the best small business web hosting plan, but only the right hosting plan for your business. This is probably the last thing you should look at before deciding on the hosting provider.
Generally there are 2 main types of hosting that are available for you to choose from. They are the Linux web hosting and windows web hosting. Within these 2 platforms there are also another few subcategories of web hosting types that you need to understand before you can finally decide on the right web hosting for your small business.
To continue reading this article, please visit my site Small-Business-Web-Hosting-Guide.com for a no-nonsense approach to assessing web hosting companies for small business owners.
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Changing from one web host to another can become necessary if your website becomes popular and your current host can't meet your needs for bandwidth, storage, etc. This can be especially true if your site is hosted on a free web host.
If a move become necessary, be sure to plan it carefully. The first step is to decide on a new hosting company, of course.
Once you have found a host that can meet all your needs, you need to move your site on to the new server. Before making any moves, be sure to back up your website from the old host.
If your website isn't well structured and has been growing haphazardly, this is a good time to consider redesigning things. That could simply mean a new page design or it could mean redesigning your database and content storage.
For the first 48 hours after moving to a new host, you should use a redirect page on your old site, that automatically forwards people to the new one. This will ensure that your visitors will see the new site, even if its IP address hasn't propogated yet.
It takes about 48 hours for a new website to get listed on most domain servers across the internet, so after that you should be fine.
A few more suggestions for an easy transition include:
1. Find out whether your new host is running on Unix or Windows and make sure it will be compatible with everything you're moving from the old host.
2. Check to see how much storage you need for all your files and content on your current site, and make sure you get enough on the new host to give you room to grow.
3. Check to see what services your new host offers, and make sure anything you have been using on your current host (like autoresponders, mail forwarding, etc.) is available.
4. If your current website is created using Microsoft Frontpage, make sure your new host supports Frontpage extensions.
5. Check to see what your new host's policy is for extra bandwidth, in case your site continues to get busier.
6. If the new host's server is a shared server, check to make sure there are no adult sites hosted on the same system. They can get busy and cause all the other sites on the same server to slow down.
7. Check the review sites and forums for customer feedback about your new host before signing up. These are good indicators of the level of service you can expect.
Once you have your data uploaded to your new host, test your site to make sure it's working properly. You should be able to preview your site before you fully switch your domain name to the new address.
If a move become necessary, be sure to plan it carefully. The first step is to decide on a new hosting company, of course.
Once you have found a host that can meet all your needs, you need to move your site on to the new server. Before making any moves, be sure to back up your website from the old host.
If your website isn't well structured and has been growing haphazardly, this is a good time to consider redesigning things. That could simply mean a new page design or it could mean redesigning your database and content storage.
For the first 48 hours after moving to a new host, you should use a redirect page on your old site, that automatically forwards people to the new one. This will ensure that your visitors will see the new site, even if its IP address hasn't propogated yet.
It takes about 48 hours for a new website to get listed on most domain servers across the internet, so after that you should be fine.
A few more suggestions for an easy transition include:
1. Find out whether your new host is running on Unix or Windows and make sure it will be compatible with everything you're moving from the old host.
2. Check to see how much storage you need for all your files and content on your current site, and make sure you get enough on the new host to give you room to grow.
3. Check to see what services your new host offers, and make sure anything you have been using on your current host (like autoresponders, mail forwarding, etc.) is available.
4. If your current website is created using Microsoft Frontpage, make sure your new host supports Frontpage extensions.
5. Check to see what your new host's policy is for extra bandwidth, in case your site continues to get busier.
6. If the new host's server is a shared server, check to make sure there are no adult sites hosted on the same system. They can get busy and cause all the other sites on the same server to slow down.
7. Check the review sites and forums for customer feedback about your new host before signing up. These are good indicators of the level of service you can expect.
Once you have your data uploaded to your new host, test your site to make sure it's working properly. You should be able to preview your site before you fully switch your domain name to the new address.
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ASP stands for Active Server Pages. It is a technology that enables users to design and creative interactive pages for their websites, using something called “server-side scripting. What do we mean by interactive? Forms, in-site search engines, blogs, user forums, newsletters, calendars, WhoIs searches, web-based email, polls, surveys, hit counters and more.
Best of all, with ASP, no longer do webmasters have to concern themselves with what browser a visitor to their site is using. With ASP hosting, your website will appear identically on all computers, on all browsers, a claim that HTML simply cannot make.
Anytime a browser requests a webpage that has the .asp extension where the more familiar .htm or .html would be, the hosting providers web server interprets any ASP scripts in the program first and foremost, before delivering any HTML info to the browser. This is why you cannot simply run ASP websites with just any hosting company. The hosting company you choose must have servers that support ASP, or else the ASP scripts you use will be rendered useless.
When examining web hosting companies to find one that supports ASP, you must look specifically for ASP support. Do not simply assume that because a hosting company supports “most web-based scripts, from CGI to Perl that it supports ASP. If it doesnt say so in an obvious place on the sales site, go to the hosting companys FAQ and look for ASP. And since most FAQs are searchable, this shouldnt be difficult to do. If youre really enamored with a particular hosting company (or their current promotion) but can find no information on ASP support, consider contacting them via email, telephone, or web chat to find out. Its possible that they do support ASP and just have a lousy sales site (which may be an indicator of an altogether different sort).
Microsoft brought ASP to the world, and as such provides the platform - Windows - on which ASP generally works best. In order to play around with ASP scripts on your web pages, youll have to download and install onto your system an ASP server, like Microsofts Internet Information Services (IIS) or Microsofts Personal Web Server (PWS) -- one or both of which is included with most Windows packages for no extra charge. If you use Windows on your machine and have never encountered IIS or PWS, chances are its because you have to the program to your hard drive using the Windows software CD-ROM or through your control panel, since its often not included as part of the “Basic Install.
Incidentally, Windows ME and Windows XP Home Edition are lacking in support for ASP scripts. But were willing to bet the forthcoming Windows Vista probably does.
For those webmasters on a PC that isnt Windows-based, all hope is not lost. Sun Microsystems has developed a program called Chili!Soft ASP that allows other servers -- such as Red Hat, Apache, and Secure Server -- and other operating systems -- such as Linux, Solaris, and AIX -- to support ASP hosting.
Writing and using ASP scripts is easy too -- at least its no harder than HTML, with all commands occurring between and instead of and. Not so big a difference, is there? And you can find an abundance of software tools all over the web (many for free) that helps even the greenest novice create interactive web pages rife with ASP.
ASP is such a versatile language that more and more hosting companies are finding themselves compelled to add ASP support to their hosting packages just to remain competitive. This, of course, is only to your advantage as you can comparison shop around for the best ASP hosting offerings right alongside all the other features youre looking for.
Best of all, with ASP, no longer do webmasters have to concern themselves with what browser a visitor to their site is using. With ASP hosting, your website will appear identically on all computers, on all browsers, a claim that HTML simply cannot make.
Anytime a browser requests a webpage that has the .asp extension where the more familiar .htm or .html would be, the hosting providers web server interprets any ASP scripts in the program first and foremost, before delivering any HTML info to the browser. This is why you cannot simply run ASP websites with just any hosting company. The hosting company you choose must have servers that support ASP, or else the ASP scripts you use will be rendered useless.
When examining web hosting companies to find one that supports ASP, you must look specifically for ASP support. Do not simply assume that because a hosting company supports “most web-based scripts, from CGI to Perl that it supports ASP. If it doesnt say so in an obvious place on the sales site, go to the hosting companys FAQ and look for ASP. And since most FAQs are searchable, this shouldnt be difficult to do. If youre really enamored with a particular hosting company (or their current promotion) but can find no information on ASP support, consider contacting them via email, telephone, or web chat to find out. Its possible that they do support ASP and just have a lousy sales site (which may be an indicator of an altogether different sort).
Microsoft brought ASP to the world, and as such provides the platform - Windows - on which ASP generally works best. In order to play around with ASP scripts on your web pages, youll have to download and install onto your system an ASP server, like Microsofts Internet Information Services (IIS) or Microsofts Personal Web Server (PWS) -- one or both of which is included with most Windows packages for no extra charge. If you use Windows on your machine and have never encountered IIS or PWS, chances are its because you have to the program to your hard drive using the Windows software CD-ROM or through your control panel, since its often not included as part of the “Basic Install.
Incidentally, Windows ME and Windows XP Home Edition are lacking in support for ASP scripts. But were willing to bet the forthcoming Windows Vista probably does.
For those webmasters on a PC that isnt Windows-based, all hope is not lost. Sun Microsystems has developed a program called Chili!Soft ASP that allows other servers -- such as Red Hat, Apache, and Secure Server -- and other operating systems -- such as Linux, Solaris, and AIX -- to support ASP hosting.
Writing and using ASP scripts is easy too -- at least its no harder than HTML, with all commands occurring between and instead of and. Not so big a difference, is there? And you can find an abundance of software tools all over the web (many for free) that helps even the greenest novice create interactive web pages rife with ASP.
ASP is such a versatile language that more and more hosting companies are finding themselves compelled to add ASP support to their hosting packages just to remain competitive. This, of course, is only to your advantage as you can comparison shop around for the best ASP hosting offerings right alongside all the other features youre looking for.
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It means hosting that is provided on Linux/Unix operating systems platforms. There isn't much difference between these two types of operating systems because Linux/Unix is an improved version of Linux/Unix operating system. When just applying for web hosting companies for web hosting that is based on Linux operating system it doesn't matter which one you are using on your computer as it is commensurable with any operating system.
Usability
Some years ago Linux operating system used to be available only for professionals and if you were not an experienced user you had no future with this OS. In the last couple of years the situation has changed. Providers have done their best to make users' web sites administrating more comfortable and easier. In case you're just a beginner you'll find friendly control panels that include Web- interface. And if you are an experienced user you can control your site by means of shell.
Reliability
Experts claim that Unix-based platform is one of the most reliable ones but it will mainly depend on maintenance stuff professionalism. Thus quality and stability of Linux-based web hosting won't depend on some sudden system bugs and the operating system consistency itself secures your web site operating dependability.
Functionality
In this area Linux differs the most from other popular platforms. It can handle a lot of processes that happen at the same time. This gives you a possibility to get more from the server.
What Scripting Languages Are Available For Unix?
Unix supports a wide variety of application languages, more than any other operating system. The most common applications of such kind include C, C++, Shell, Perl, Tcl, Python, Java and PHP.
What Databases Does Unix Support?
Databases available for Unix are mSQL and mySQL. The one you choose would depend on your own needs and your Host Provider's offers. This is important for you to review when choosing a hosting company.
Cost
Linux operating system was developed by Linus Torvalds as an alternative to other operating systems and is being improved by many specialists all around the world. Most of its versions are free of charge. This circumstance makes Linux-based hosting much cheaper than any other. As for Linux versions they are sometimes called Linux Distributions. The most popular Distributions are RedHat and Mandrake. Which are easy to install have a lot of different utilities and suitable for any web hosting type.
Why choose Linux/Unix-based hosting?
So, as it was mentioned before using this platform is cheaper and more convenient than others. All existent scripts, like PHP, function best when using the Linux-based web hosting. Linux/Unix based web hosting upgrading possibilities increase when using Shell and Telnet access. The Linux/Unix-based platform is probably the most stable and reliable.
Usability
Some years ago Linux operating system used to be available only for professionals and if you were not an experienced user you had no future with this OS. In the last couple of years the situation has changed. Providers have done their best to make users' web sites administrating more comfortable and easier. In case you're just a beginner you'll find friendly control panels that include Web- interface. And if you are an experienced user you can control your site by means of shell.
Reliability
Experts claim that Unix-based platform is one of the most reliable ones but it will mainly depend on maintenance stuff professionalism. Thus quality and stability of Linux-based web hosting won't depend on some sudden system bugs and the operating system consistency itself secures your web site operating dependability.
Functionality
In this area Linux differs the most from other popular platforms. It can handle a lot of processes that happen at the same time. This gives you a possibility to get more from the server.
What Scripting Languages Are Available For Unix?
Unix supports a wide variety of application languages, more than any other operating system. The most common applications of such kind include C, C++, Shell, Perl, Tcl, Python, Java and PHP.
What Databases Does Unix Support?
Databases available for Unix are mSQL and mySQL. The one you choose would depend on your own needs and your Host Provider's offers. This is important for you to review when choosing a hosting company.
Cost
Linux operating system was developed by Linus Torvalds as an alternative to other operating systems and is being improved by many specialists all around the world. Most of its versions are free of charge. This circumstance makes Linux-based hosting much cheaper than any other. As for Linux versions they are sometimes called Linux Distributions. The most popular Distributions are RedHat and Mandrake. Which are easy to install have a lot of different utilities and suitable for any web hosting type.
Why choose Linux/Unix-based hosting?
So, as it was mentioned before using this platform is cheaper and more convenient than others. All existent scripts, like PHP, function best when using the Linux-based web hosting. Linux/Unix based web hosting upgrading possibilities increase when using Shell and Telnet access. The Linux/Unix-based platform is probably the most stable and reliable.
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The internet is one of the most important tools in the modern times. What started off as simply a mode of transfer of data is today used for a wide variety of purposes. Today, it plays a very important role in commerce and finance, all across the globe. These days, a large number of products are sold over the net. So, you will find products ranging from safety pins to cars and nails to large factories on sale on the internet. It is perhaps due to this ever growing popularity, that a large number of firms, enter the arena of internet marketing.
As a result of this, more and more websites are coming up each day. As a matter of fact, it does not seem to be a distant reality, that some day, every person would be having a separate website of his or her own. In order to cater to this growing demand for websites, web hosting services have come up as an effective tool. In recent times, a number of portals have come up, which offer web hosting services. These websites offer various web hosting plans that you can choose from, depending upon your requirements. However, one of the most important aspects in this regard, is to select the appropriate web hosting service. It gets typically difficult, to select an appropriate service which can help you achieve your objective.
Web Hosting Geeks can be of great help in this regard, in case you are facing such a dilemma. This particular site, offers you reviews of the various sites, which offer web hosting services, dedicated server hosting and other products. This would help you in analyzing the various plans that are being offered to you and eventually in the selection of the appropriate plan, which suits your requirements. This site provides you with unbiased and independent reviews of web hosting providers, which provide the best in terms of price and value. It provides a view of economical web hosting services with a fee structure of $10 a month. Also, all the web hosting plans offer at least one free domain name registration, as well as thirty days money back guarantee. So, now, you can have a review of the web hosts.
Dedicated servers offer a number of advantages for your business. Irrespective of whether you are running an ecommerce web site or you are looking for extra security, dedicated servers play a very vital role. In this regard, this website also can provide you with adequate assistance.
You can also opt for green hosting services and contribute towards environmental cause. Green web hosts are those, which make use of renewable sources of energy, for running their datacenters.
As a result of this, more and more websites are coming up each day. As a matter of fact, it does not seem to be a distant reality, that some day, every person would be having a separate website of his or her own. In order to cater to this growing demand for websites, web hosting services have come up as an effective tool. In recent times, a number of portals have come up, which offer web hosting services. These websites offer various web hosting plans that you can choose from, depending upon your requirements. However, one of the most important aspects in this regard, is to select the appropriate web hosting service. It gets typically difficult, to select an appropriate service which can help you achieve your objective.
Web Hosting Geeks can be of great help in this regard, in case you are facing such a dilemma. This particular site, offers you reviews of the various sites, which offer web hosting services, dedicated server hosting and other products. This would help you in analyzing the various plans that are being offered to you and eventually in the selection of the appropriate plan, which suits your requirements. This site provides you with unbiased and independent reviews of web hosting providers, which provide the best in terms of price and value. It provides a view of economical web hosting services with a fee structure of $10 a month. Also, all the web hosting plans offer at least one free domain name registration, as well as thirty days money back guarantee. So, now, you can have a review of the web hosts.
Dedicated servers offer a number of advantages for your business. Irrespective of whether you are running an ecommerce web site or you are looking for extra security, dedicated servers play a very vital role. In this regard, this website also can provide you with adequate assistance.
You can also opt for green hosting services and contribute towards environmental cause. Green web hosts are those, which make use of renewable sources of energy, for running their datacenters.
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If you're in the USA, and you're planning to get into the USA reseller web hosting industry, you need to consider one major issue, first and foremost: would you like to offer Unix-ready features along with Microsoft-only ones?
Offering Microsoft-only services may seem to be the smart choice, but supporting Unix is its own asset, which could open a world of opportunities for you as a USA reseller web hosting outfit. In fact, if you have avenues to ask for both Microsoft and Unix support from your web host, all the better!
One downside to reselling web space instead of putting up your own server is that you don't get to control the basics. As a reseller, you may be able to change things around via the standard control panel. You may even have limited access to certain features like merchant accounts and secure site hosting. But when you want to switch between operating systems, or OS-es - it's unfortunately not your call, but your web host's.
Web hosts determine the kind of OS-es that run on their servers. Many web hosts offer both Windows and Unix features, by using Unix machines as servers, and then just running Windows programs and servers within these machines. Over time, Unix server OSes have become increasingly tolerant of Windows programs, which makes a Unix server a sweet deal for web hosts and resellers alike.
Unix servers are cost efficient because they are ideal for running open source programs. Preferring open source programs help save on operational costs, since they're mostly free for use, depending on the specifications of the persons or outfits who developed the codes to be used. When you run paid programs or servers on your machines, you don't only need to think of the cost of buying the software - you also need to consider the potential costs of license renewal.
There is, after all, no assurance that software licensing will cost the same throughout the years! And you have to consider that in your profit projections if you are running a webhost. Thankfully, you don't need to be concerned with that as a reseller. However, as a reseller, you should be aware of what software your potential customers will need.
If your web host only supports Unix and open source features, you run the risk of losing a big part of your clientele. But you run the same risk if your host only supports Microsoft and Windows! As a USA reseller web hosting outfit, you should be intimately aware of the needs of your target market.
Offering Microsoft-only services may seem to be the smart choice, but supporting Unix is its own asset, which could open a world of opportunities for you as a USA reseller web hosting outfit. In fact, if you have avenues to ask for both Microsoft and Unix support from your web host, all the better!
One downside to reselling web space instead of putting up your own server is that you don't get to control the basics. As a reseller, you may be able to change things around via the standard control panel. You may even have limited access to certain features like merchant accounts and secure site hosting. But when you want to switch between operating systems, or OS-es - it's unfortunately not your call, but your web host's.
Web hosts determine the kind of OS-es that run on their servers. Many web hosts offer both Windows and Unix features, by using Unix machines as servers, and then just running Windows programs and servers within these machines. Over time, Unix server OSes have become increasingly tolerant of Windows programs, which makes a Unix server a sweet deal for web hosts and resellers alike.
Unix servers are cost efficient because they are ideal for running open source programs. Preferring open source programs help save on operational costs, since they're mostly free for use, depending on the specifications of the persons or outfits who developed the codes to be used. When you run paid programs or servers on your machines, you don't only need to think of the cost of buying the software - you also need to consider the potential costs of license renewal.
There is, after all, no assurance that software licensing will cost the same throughout the years! And you have to consider that in your profit projections if you are running a webhost. Thankfully, you don't need to be concerned with that as a reseller. However, as a reseller, you should be aware of what software your potential customers will need.
If your web host only supports Unix and open source features, you run the risk of losing a big part of your clientele. But you run the same risk if your host only supports Microsoft and Windows! As a USA reseller web hosting outfit, you should be intimately aware of the needs of your target market.
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Several new features have been recently added to the launched CloudLayer line of cloud services at SoftLayer. Key among these is hourly billing for CloudLayer Computing instances.Nathan Day, Chief Technology Officer for SoftLayer offered, ''Our CloudLayer suite provides comprehensive and powerful on-demand computing resources. With the addition of these new service features, our customers have an even finer degree of scalability at their disposal.''Now available is:
1 Core —$0.15/hour
2 Core —$0.25/hour
4 Core —$0.35/hour
8 Core —$0.50/hour
Outbound bandwidth usage will be charged at $0.10 per GB. As with all SoftLayer computing services, inbound and private network bandwidth is a free service.
Also added was the capability for customers to instantly upgrade computing instances via the company's industry-leading, proprietary Customer Portal. The following can be upgraded:
Core and RAM
Uplink port speed (no reboot required)
Bandwidth allocation (no reboot required)
Additional disks
The upgrades are processed automatically and take only a few minutes to complete. While ordering their upgrade, customers are given the option to specify a time for the upgrade to occur.
CloudLayer was released early last month and includes CloudLayer Computing instances, CloudLayer Storage, and CloudLayer CDN. Each is available as a standalone service, or can be integrated with SoftLayer dedicated servers and automated services to create a unified computing environment. CloudLayer provides a wide-range of benefits, including:
Pay As You Go or Monthly Packages: Monthly billing is based on hourly usage or monthly plans with no long-term commitment, letting customers optimize their return on technology investment by paying only for the resources they need and use. Hourly billing will be offered in the near future.
Immediate Scalability: Services are added in real time to accommodate unexpected or temporary changes in demand, providing exactly the level of IT power and capacity as needed, when needed. Ease of Use and Control: Full control via SoftLayer's Customer Portal and API provides streamlined, simplified management, as well as direct access to all SoftLayer services and tools.
1 Core —$0.15/hour
2 Core —$0.25/hour
4 Core —$0.35/hour
8 Core —$0.50/hour
Outbound bandwidth usage will be charged at $0.10 per GB. As with all SoftLayer computing services, inbound and private network bandwidth is a free service.
Also added was the capability for customers to instantly upgrade computing instances via the company's industry-leading, proprietary Customer Portal. The following can be upgraded:
Core and RAM
Uplink port speed (no reboot required)
Bandwidth allocation (no reboot required)
Additional disks
The upgrades are processed automatically and take only a few minutes to complete. While ordering their upgrade, customers are given the option to specify a time for the upgrade to occur.
CloudLayer was released early last month and includes CloudLayer Computing instances, CloudLayer Storage, and CloudLayer CDN. Each is available as a standalone service, or can be integrated with SoftLayer dedicated servers and automated services to create a unified computing environment. CloudLayer provides a wide-range of benefits, including:
Pay As You Go or Monthly Packages: Monthly billing is based on hourly usage or monthly plans with no long-term commitment, letting customers optimize their return on technology investment by paying only for the resources they need and use. Hourly billing will be offered in the near future.
Immediate Scalability: Services are added in real time to accommodate unexpected or temporary changes in demand, providing exactly the level of IT power and capacity as needed, when needed. Ease of Use and Control: Full control via SoftLayer's Customer Portal and API provides streamlined, simplified management, as well as direct access to all SoftLayer services and tools.
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The Planet, the global leader in IT hosting, today expanded its portfolio of products and services with the addition of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows Server 2008 R2 helps organizations reduce operating costs, and increase efficiencies. The new operating system is available to all dedicated hosting customers across the company’s eight SAS 70 Type II-audited data centers.
Windows Server 2008 R2 enables dynamic provisioning and management of virtual workloads with the much-anticipated update to Microsoft’s Hyper-V™. With its Live Migration-enabling technology, moves between physical hosts now happen in milliseconds. As the first Windows Server operating system with a true 64-bit architecture, R2 also offers powerful hardware and scaling features.
“Our customers around the world are always looking for ways to do more with less, and Windows Server 2008 R2 is optimized to meet those demands,” said Todd Mitchell, general manager for dedicated hosting and global services at The Planet. “As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, we stay in lockstep with new technologies from Microsoft to give our customers more ways to reduce operating costs and increase efficiencies.”
About Windows Server 2008 R2
The latest operating system from Microsoft includes a number of updates that enhance server performance and management control:
Windows Server 2008 R2 enables dynamic provisioning and management of virtual workloads with the much-anticipated update to Microsoft’s Hyper-V™. With its Live Migration-enabling technology, moves between physical hosts now happen in milliseconds. As the first Windows Server operating system with a true 64-bit architecture, R2 also offers powerful hardware and scaling features.
“Our customers around the world are always looking for ways to do more with less, and Windows Server 2008 R2 is optimized to meet those demands,” said Todd Mitchell, general manager for dedicated hosting and global services at The Planet. “As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, we stay in lockstep with new technologies from Microsoft to give our customers more ways to reduce operating costs and increase efficiencies.”
About Windows Server 2008 R2
The latest operating system from Microsoft includes a number of updates that enhance server performance and management control:
- Powerful hardware and scaling features; R2 is the first Windows Server operating system to move solely to a 64-bit architecture, and CPU-specific enhancements enable customers to run up to 256 logical processors.
- Updated Hyper-V augments virtual workload management; Hyper-V enables Live Migration, a new feature for R2 that moves virtual machines in a matter of milliseconds.
- Ubiquitous remote access; DirectAccess allows remote users to seamlessly access corporate resources without a VPN connection or client software.
- Strongest Windows application platform to date; R2 includes the new Internet Information Services 7 (IIS 7.0), which helps applications run faster while using fewer system resources.
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Codero unveils new server networks improving security, performance, backup and ongoing management for any dedicated hosting scenario. Custom network configurations offer complete redundancy and control for high-volume email, websites, databases, application hosting and more. Three custom network configurations are designed to support complex business applications requiring multiple servers. Load-Balanced is fully redundant maintaining network traffic on high-capacity mail and web servers. High Availability is designed for marketing campaigns, high-traffic stores and data-demanding applications. The Cluster network configuration supports social media hosting, large databases and mission-critical infrastructure with optimum privacy.
“These custom configurations are perfect for the medium-to-large enterprise,” says Taylor Giddens, Director, Dedicated Services for Codero. “Whether to secure core data, handle spikes in traffic or support thousands of users at once, each server network delivers a flexible solution with an emphasis on uptime.”
Codero’s network configurations feature high-quality components including dedicated load balancing, Cisco firewall, EVault managed backup, 100MB switch, Gigabit Private VLAN and database (dynamic, replication or cluster). All server setups are available as Linux or Windows and may be further customized to meet any business need.
“These custom configurations are perfect for the medium-to-large enterprise,” says Taylor Giddens, Director, Dedicated Services for Codero. “Whether to secure core data, handle spikes in traffic or support thousands of users at once, each server network delivers a flexible solution with an emphasis on uptime.”
Codero’s network configurations feature high-quality components including dedicated load balancing, Cisco firewall, EVault managed backup, 100MB switch, Gigabit Private VLAN and database (dynamic, replication or cluster). All server setups are available as Linux or Windows and may be further customized to meet any business need.
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PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc today announced a collaboration with InMon to provide precise bandwidth measurement and analysis capability.
PEER 1 will deploy the industry standard sFlow® network monitoring technology and InMon’s Traffic Sentinel, in all of its data centers to provide an industry leading bandwidth billing solution for its Managed Hosting customers.
Bandwidth usage is measured on a per-IP address basis, so PEER 1 is able to ignore traffic occurring inside the data center, and provide precise traffic charges to its customers in a way that is not possible through per-port or physical-layer network traffic monitoring.
For PEER 1 customers, the InMon-powered network traffic monitoring and analysis is accessible in real time through the online customer portal with customizable graphs and downloadable data.
Ted Smith, SVP of Operations at PEER 1 said: “We believe our customers should only pay for the services they use and our collaboration with InMon maximizes our network analysis and measurement capability allowing us to accurately pass on lowest cost bandwidth charges to customers. Our IP-based or layer three approach not only increases transparency and billing accuracy, it also enables our customers to accurately re-charge bandwidth usage to their own customers.”
”The unique scalability of InMon’s sFlow solution makes it the ideal choice for monitoring the fastest of data center networks,” said Peter Phaal, president of InMon Corp. “In the expert hands of the PEER 1 engineers, the detailed traffic database in the Sentinel product can be applied to a wide range of applications, from accounting and capacity planning to troubleshooting and security.”
PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc today announced a collaboration with InMon to provide precise bandwidth measurement and analysis capability.
PEER 1 will deploy the industry standard sFlow® network monitoring technology and InMon’s Traffic Sentinel, in all of its data centers to provide an industry leading bandwidth billing solution for its Managed Hosting customers.
Bandwidth usage is measured on a per-IP address basis, so PEER 1 is able to ignore traffic occurring inside the data center, and provide precise traffic charges to its customers in a way that is not possible through per-port or physical-layer network traffic monitoring.
For PEER 1 customers, the InMon-powered network traffic monitoring and analysis is accessible in real time through the online customer portal with customizable graphs and downloadable data.
Ted Smith, SVP of Operations at PEER 1 said: “We believe our customers should only pay for the services they use and our collaboration with InMon maximizes our network analysis and measurement capability allowing us to accurately pass on lowest cost bandwidth charges to customers. Our IP-based or layer three approach not only increases transparency and billing accuracy, it also enables our customers to accurately re-charge bandwidth usage to their own customers.”
”The unique scalability of InMon’s sFlow solution makes it the ideal choice for monitoring the fastest of data center networks,” said Peter Phaal, president of InMon Corp. “In the expert hands of the PEER 1 engineers, the detailed traffic database in the Sentinel product can be applied to a wide range of applications, from accounting and capacity planning to troubleshooting and security.”
PEER 1 will deploy the industry standard sFlow® network monitoring technology and InMon’s Traffic Sentinel, in all of its data centers to provide an industry leading bandwidth billing solution for its Managed Hosting customers.
Bandwidth usage is measured on a per-IP address basis, so PEER 1 is able to ignore traffic occurring inside the data center, and provide precise traffic charges to its customers in a way that is not possible through per-port or physical-layer network traffic monitoring.
For PEER 1 customers, the InMon-powered network traffic monitoring and analysis is accessible in real time through the online customer portal with customizable graphs and downloadable data.
Ted Smith, SVP of Operations at PEER 1 said: “We believe our customers should only pay for the services they use and our collaboration with InMon maximizes our network analysis and measurement capability allowing us to accurately pass on lowest cost bandwidth charges to customers. Our IP-based or layer three approach not only increases transparency and billing accuracy, it also enables our customers to accurately re-charge bandwidth usage to their own customers.”
”The unique scalability of InMon’s sFlow solution makes it the ideal choice for monitoring the fastest of data center networks,” said Peter Phaal, president of InMon Corp. “In the expert hands of the PEER 1 engineers, the detailed traffic database in the Sentinel product can be applied to a wide range of applications, from accounting and capacity planning to troubleshooting and security.”
PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc today announced a collaboration with InMon to provide precise bandwidth measurement and analysis capability.
PEER 1 will deploy the industry standard sFlow® network monitoring technology and InMon’s Traffic Sentinel, in all of its data centers to provide an industry leading bandwidth billing solution for its Managed Hosting customers.
Bandwidth usage is measured on a per-IP address basis, so PEER 1 is able to ignore traffic occurring inside the data center, and provide precise traffic charges to its customers in a way that is not possible through per-port or physical-layer network traffic monitoring.
For PEER 1 customers, the InMon-powered network traffic monitoring and analysis is accessible in real time through the online customer portal with customizable graphs and downloadable data.
Ted Smith, SVP of Operations at PEER 1 said: “We believe our customers should only pay for the services they use and our collaboration with InMon maximizes our network analysis and measurement capability allowing us to accurately pass on lowest cost bandwidth charges to customers. Our IP-based or layer three approach not only increases transparency and billing accuracy, it also enables our customers to accurately re-charge bandwidth usage to their own customers.”
”The unique scalability of InMon’s sFlow solution makes it the ideal choice for monitoring the fastest of data center networks,” said Peter Phaal, president of InMon Corp. “In the expert hands of the PEER 1 engineers, the detailed traffic database in the Sentinel product can be applied to a wide range of applications, from accounting and capacity planning to troubleshooting and security.”
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Network Solutions® announced today that Kurt Gastrock has been named Senior Vice President. Kurt responsibilities will span three key areas: Product, Sales and Wholesale. Gastrock will be a catalyst for product innovation and customer growth. He is charged with extending the company’s suite of products and services through online and new sales channels and developing new private label offerings to a growing portfolio of partners.
“Kurt brings a wealth of experience in product development and channel strategy to the company,” said Tim Kelly, President of Network Solutions. “He is a great complement to the existing team members.”
Network Solutions is focused on providing businesses with quality products and services that make it easy for them to establish and grow their companies using the Internet. The product portfolio spans a wide range of services – from web hosting to online marketing services – that are supported with free, 24/7 customer service support, certified by JD Power & Associates year after year.
“I am happy to be part of the Network Solutions team,” said Kurt Gastrock. “The company continues to develop, refine and expand its product portfolio and open new sales channels to deliver products and services that deliver results small businesses expect.”
Prior to joining Network Solutions, Gastrock served as the Senior Vice President for Sales and Business Development at NextG Networks. His past experience includes leading the day-to-day operations of Convera Corporation where he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Gastrock also spent a number of years at Sprint Nextel Corporation where he held senior level posts in their wireless site development, hosting, and E|Solutions business units.
Gastrock earned a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University
“Kurt brings a wealth of experience in product development and channel strategy to the company,” said Tim Kelly, President of Network Solutions. “He is a great complement to the existing team members.”
Network Solutions is focused on providing businesses with quality products and services that make it easy for them to establish and grow their companies using the Internet. The product portfolio spans a wide range of services – from web hosting to online marketing services – that are supported with free, 24/7 customer service support, certified by JD Power & Associates year after year.
“I am happy to be part of the Network Solutions team,” said Kurt Gastrock. “The company continues to develop, refine and expand its product portfolio and open new sales channels to deliver products and services that deliver results small businesses expect.”
Prior to joining Network Solutions, Gastrock served as the Senior Vice President for Sales and Business Development at NextG Networks. His past experience includes leading the day-to-day operations of Convera Corporation where he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Gastrock also spent a number of years at Sprint Nextel Corporation where he held senior level posts in their wireless site development, hosting, and E|Solutions business units.
Gastrock earned a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University
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Hosted Solutions, the East Coast’s premier provider of IT infrastructure as a service (IaaS), announced that they have entered into a partnership with the Cavaliers Operating Company, LLC., whereby the Cavaliers will use Hosted Solutions’ Stratus Trusted Cloud(TM) to power the team’s official arena website, theQarena.com.
Because the arena’s website is anticipated to draw much heavier web traffic this year, the Cavaliers selected Hosted Solutions in an effort to increase the availability and robustness of theQarena.com. Reasons for increased traffic include:
– The team and arena recently launched their own single-game primary and secondary market ticket sales service with Veritix – the industry’s most cutting edge digital ticketing, event marketing and relationship management platform. The public is directed to theQarena.com to purchase tickets to all Quicken Loans Arena events including the Cavaliers and AHL Lake Erie Monsters.
– The Cavaliers begin their 40th season with a powerful team of proven players and high expectations and projected record attendance (The Cavs set two franchise records during the 2008-09 season with an average attendance of 20,512 and the number of sellouts – 38 total.)
– The Q now heads into an entertainment season with a jam-packed schedule of special events expected to generate record website traffic levels.
Stratus Trusted Cloud provides the availability needed to handle spikes in traffic at any time. “The upcoming year is sized up to be ‘XL’ in every way, including our fans’ interest in tickets to see the Cavaliers, Lake Erie Monsters, concerts, special events, and family shows,” said Jeff Lillibridge, Web Services Director. “We feel the scalability and dependability of Hosted Solutions’ Stratus Trusted Cloud is a perfect match to support our needs, which in turn allows us to provide our fans the level of service they deserve.”
Introduced earlier this year, Stratus Trusted Cloud dramatically improves the efficiency and availability of IT resources and applications for small and mid-sized enterprises. Stratus offers a massively scalable, multi-tenant infrastructure that enables customers to access a secure, enterprise-class cloud environment with built-in high availability and automated resource balancing. As a result, businesses can move faster without compromising availability or security and significantly reduce both their capital and operating expenditures, whether Stratus is deployed on an enterprise, private or hybrid cloud basis. Moreover, Stratus is designed to provide an added level of assurance to companies that their data and entire infrastructure is being administered in a trusted manner, acting in accordance with a full range of governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) regulations.
“The demand for an ‘always on’ IT environment is not unique to the Cleveland Cavaliers,” said Rich Lee, Hosted Solutions’ founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Any company doing business online requires the highest degree of reliability; even a short amount of downtime in this competitive economy can hurt significantly. The Cavaliers’ decision to deploy the Stratus Trusted Cloud for their arena website confirms its value for firms seeking a reliable, consistent and secure approach to ensuring that their website is up and running when they, and their customers, need it most.”
Lee added that several other companies have chosen the Stratus Trusted Cloud in the last several months. He noted that 80 percent of Hosted Solutions’ clients run their production environments through his firm, a further testament to the superior level of performance delivered by the Hosted Solutions team.
Because the arena’s website is anticipated to draw much heavier web traffic this year, the Cavaliers selected Hosted Solutions in an effort to increase the availability and robustness of theQarena.com. Reasons for increased traffic include:
– The team and arena recently launched their own single-game primary and secondary market ticket sales service with Veritix – the industry’s most cutting edge digital ticketing, event marketing and relationship management platform. The public is directed to theQarena.com to purchase tickets to all Quicken Loans Arena events including the Cavaliers and AHL Lake Erie Monsters.
– The Cavaliers begin their 40th season with a powerful team of proven players and high expectations and projected record attendance (The Cavs set two franchise records during the 2008-09 season with an average attendance of 20,512 and the number of sellouts – 38 total.)
– The Q now heads into an entertainment season with a jam-packed schedule of special events expected to generate record website traffic levels.
Stratus Trusted Cloud provides the availability needed to handle spikes in traffic at any time. “The upcoming year is sized up to be ‘XL’ in every way, including our fans’ interest in tickets to see the Cavaliers, Lake Erie Monsters, concerts, special events, and family shows,” said Jeff Lillibridge, Web Services Director. “We feel the scalability and dependability of Hosted Solutions’ Stratus Trusted Cloud is a perfect match to support our needs, which in turn allows us to provide our fans the level of service they deserve.”
Introduced earlier this year, Stratus Trusted Cloud dramatically improves the efficiency and availability of IT resources and applications for small and mid-sized enterprises. Stratus offers a massively scalable, multi-tenant infrastructure that enables customers to access a secure, enterprise-class cloud environment with built-in high availability and automated resource balancing. As a result, businesses can move faster without compromising availability or security and significantly reduce both their capital and operating expenditures, whether Stratus is deployed on an enterprise, private or hybrid cloud basis. Moreover, Stratus is designed to provide an added level of assurance to companies that their data and entire infrastructure is being administered in a trusted manner, acting in accordance with a full range of governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) regulations.
“The demand for an ‘always on’ IT environment is not unique to the Cleveland Cavaliers,” said Rich Lee, Hosted Solutions’ founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Any company doing business online requires the highest degree of reliability; even a short amount of downtime in this competitive economy can hurt significantly. The Cavaliers’ decision to deploy the Stratus Trusted Cloud for their arena website confirms its value for firms seeking a reliable, consistent and secure approach to ensuring that their website is up and running when they, and their customers, need it most.”
Lee added that several other companies have chosen the Stratus Trusted Cloud in the last several months. He noted that 80 percent of Hosted Solutions’ clients run their production environments through his firm, a further testament to the superior level of performance delivered by the Hosted Solutions team.
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H4Y Technologies LLC, an established leader in web hosting and internet services, today announced its acquisition of iWebFusion Technologies LLC of Oregon (iWebFusion.net). iWebFusion will continue to operate as a separate brand under H4Y Technologies LLC. iWebFusion brings an entirely new customer base to H4Y Technologies LLC. Host4Yourself.com, the primary brand of H4Y Technologies, focuses on development, enterprise class and mission critical managed hosting, dedicated servers, and colocation, while iWebFusion.net has made a successful name for itself based on its economical shared, reseller, and VPS product lines.
Evan Kamlet, LLC Member of H4Y Technologies, said, “As if Host4Yourself.com didn’t already offer a huge range of options to our clients, the purchase of iWebFusion.net should make us attractive to just about every conceivable consumer and business. With the resources and capital on tap at H4Y, we foresee a very rosy picture for iWebFusion.net in the coming months and years. It is very exciting for all of us”.
iWebFusion.net’s staff, billing, and structure will not change. Existing customers will encounter no ill effects as no equipment will be moved. A portion of iWebFusion.net’s equipment was already under the ownership of H4Y Technologies LLC before the acquisition. It is still up for debate whether the pricing model will remain unchanged, but clients have been guaranteed that existing accounts will never increase in price, nor will future sign-ups for clients with existing accounts.
H4Y also worked out a partnership arrangement with USSHC (United States Secure Hosting Center) in Monticello, IA. The underground bomb and EMP resistant datacenter boasts its status as “the most secure datacenter in the United States”. iWebFusion VPS nodes and dedicated servers currently occupy a small portion of datacenter space at this facility. The existing infrastructure will not change, but H4Y Technologies will add to it and offer Host4Yourself.com customers a new line of mission-critical hosting products based on this new partnership.
Host4Yourself.com already offered a linear upgrade path for its clientele. With this acquisition, the entry level for prospective clients is lower than ever before and the scalability options are nearly unlimited with products and plans at nearly every imaginable price point.
Evan Kamlet, LLC Member of H4Y Technologies, said, “As if Host4Yourself.com didn’t already offer a huge range of options to our clients, the purchase of iWebFusion.net should make us attractive to just about every conceivable consumer and business. With the resources and capital on tap at H4Y, we foresee a very rosy picture for iWebFusion.net in the coming months and years. It is very exciting for all of us”.
iWebFusion.net’s staff, billing, and structure will not change. Existing customers will encounter no ill effects as no equipment will be moved. A portion of iWebFusion.net’s equipment was already under the ownership of H4Y Technologies LLC before the acquisition. It is still up for debate whether the pricing model will remain unchanged, but clients have been guaranteed that existing accounts will never increase in price, nor will future sign-ups for clients with existing accounts.
H4Y also worked out a partnership arrangement with USSHC (United States Secure Hosting Center) in Monticello, IA. The underground bomb and EMP resistant datacenter boasts its status as “the most secure datacenter in the United States”. iWebFusion VPS nodes and dedicated servers currently occupy a small portion of datacenter space at this facility. The existing infrastructure will not change, but H4Y Technologies will add to it and offer Host4Yourself.com customers a new line of mission-critical hosting products based on this new partnership.
Host4Yourself.com already offered a linear upgrade path for its clientele. With this acquisition, the entry level for prospective clients is lower than ever before and the scalability options are nearly unlimited with products and plans at nearly every imaginable price point.
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LimeLabs today announced the launch of its new hosting and domain registration service, LimeDomains. An ICANN accredited domain registrar, LimeDomains offers a wide range of hosting solutions, ranging from completely free full-featured websites, to competitively priced premium hosting plans that include more space, bandwidth and the ability to manage several domains and websites from a single account.
“LimeDomains makes it easy for people to get powerful websites running quickly and easily,” said Mark Gorton, Founder of LimeLabs. “LimeDomains offers free hosting and free application installation, and we are finding that many people appreciate the great value we are offering.”
All LimeDomains accounts come with access to an extensive catalog of open source web applications ranging from popular blogs such as Wordpress, to full-featured content management systems such as Drupal and Joomla. Users can also upload their own files or transfer their existing websites — such as their Geocities pages — to LimeDomains via a built-in file manager, or any popular FTP client. Most popular web design applications, such as Adobe Dreamweaver, are also supported.
Unlike other free hosting services, there are no strings attached to the free hosting offer on LimeDomains. Users do not have to sign-up for any third party services, or submit themselves to a barrage of solicitations (e-mail, or otherwise), or place mandatory ads on their website. Most importantly, the free accounts are not crippled in any way — and receive the same quality of service, performance and reliability that most other hosting services charge a premium for.
“We are excited to be first to market with a credible, full-featured free website solution,” said John Enright, VP Marketing & Business Development at LimeLabs. “Our feature set and customer experience is already well ahead of any other hosting service — free or otherwise — and this is just the beginning.”
About Lime Labs, LLC
Lime Labs is an innovative web services company focused on facilitating the exchange of ideas and information through technology. Its portfolio of services includes LimeExchange, a global services marketplace; LimeDomains, a web hosting and domain registration service; and LimeBits, an open source code sharing community.
“LimeDomains makes it easy for people to get powerful websites running quickly and easily,” said Mark Gorton, Founder of LimeLabs. “LimeDomains offers free hosting and free application installation, and we are finding that many people appreciate the great value we are offering.”
All LimeDomains accounts come with access to an extensive catalog of open source web applications ranging from popular blogs such as Wordpress, to full-featured content management systems such as Drupal and Joomla. Users can also upload their own files or transfer their existing websites — such as their Geocities pages — to LimeDomains via a built-in file manager, or any popular FTP client. Most popular web design applications, such as Adobe Dreamweaver, are also supported.
Unlike other free hosting services, there are no strings attached to the free hosting offer on LimeDomains. Users do not have to sign-up for any third party services, or submit themselves to a barrage of solicitations (e-mail, or otherwise), or place mandatory ads on their website. Most importantly, the free accounts are not crippled in any way — and receive the same quality of service, performance and reliability that most other hosting services charge a premium for.
“We are excited to be first to market with a credible, full-featured free website solution,” said John Enright, VP Marketing & Business Development at LimeLabs. “Our feature set and customer experience is already well ahead of any other hosting service — free or otherwise — and this is just the beginning.”
About Lime Labs, LLC
Lime Labs is an innovative web services company focused on facilitating the exchange of ideas and information through technology. Its portfolio of services includes LimeExchange, a global services marketplace; LimeDomains, a web hosting and domain registration service; and LimeBits, an open source code sharing community.
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SoftLayer Technologies™, the innovative on-demand data center services provider, today announced the opening of three new data center pods in the company’s Dallas, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., data center facilities. The new pods add capacity for 20,000 additional servers, bringing SoftLayer’s total capacity to more than 45,000 physical machines.
“We continue gaining momentum every year. We broke more projections and records this year than last, and 2010 will bring even more of the same,” said Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer. “These three new pods meet the customer demand increases that we expect in the very near future. And they are only preliminary measures in our growth strategy for 2010. We have some big plans which we can’t wait to share with everyone.”
“We’re extremely excited to introduce Private Cloud services to our customers. Private Cloud gives Softlayer customers yet another dynamic, scalable infrastructure option,” said Nathan Day, CTO, SoftLayer. “This will provide a service with segregated physical computing hardware giving customers security and peace of mind with the benefits of unlimited, on-demand scalability.”
SoftLayer’s milestones in 2009 included:
“We continue gaining momentum every year. We broke more projections and records this year than last, and 2010 will bring even more of the same,” said Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer. “These three new pods meet the customer demand increases that we expect in the very near future. And they are only preliminary measures in our growth strategy for 2010. We have some big plans which we can’t wait to share with everyone.”
“We’re extremely excited to introduce Private Cloud services to our customers. Private Cloud gives Softlayer customers yet another dynamic, scalable infrastructure option,” said Nathan Day, CTO, SoftLayer. “This will provide a service with segregated physical computing hardware giving customers security and peace of mind with the benefits of unlimited, on-demand scalability.”
SoftLayer’s milestones in 2009 included:
- More than 5,700 active customers across 110+ countries
- More than 23,000 deployed servers
- Placement in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Web Hosting and Cloud Infrastructure Services
- Introduction of CloudLayer™ line of cloud services, including CloudLayer Storage, CloudLayer CDN, CloudLayer Computing, and Bare Metal Cloud™
- Industry’s first deployment of Intel® Nehalem microarchitecture
- IPv6 support across all data centers
- Multiple carrier additions across all data centers for a total of 290Gbps
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The following article will show you how to install “step by step” ffmpeg, ffmpeg-PHP, Mplayer, Mencoder, flv2tool, LAME MP3 Encoder, and Libog from the source. Make sure you have root shell access to your server.
cd /usr/local/src
Download the packages from its source:
wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/9225/flvtool2_1.0.5_rc6.tgz
wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/lame/lame-3.97.tar.gz
wget http://superb-west.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ffmpeg-php/ffmpeg-php-0.5.0.tbz2
wget http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/ogg/libogg-1.1.3.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/vorbis/libvorbis-1.1.2.tar.gz
wget http://www4.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/essential-20061022.tar.bz2
Extracting the packages we just downloaded:
tar zxvf lame-3.97.tar.gz
tar zxvf libogg-1.1.3.tar.gz
tar zxvf libvorbis-1.1.2.tar.gz
tar zxvf flvtool2_1.0.5_rc6.tgz
tar jxvf essential-20061022.tar.bz2
tar jxvf ffmpeg-php-0.5.0.tbz2
tar zxvf flvtool2_1.0.5_rc6.tgz
Creating a directory to store all the codecs:
mkdir /usr/local/lib/codecs/
Now we install the packages:
yum install gcc gmake make libcpp libgcc libstdc++ gcc4 gcc4-c++ gcc4-gfortran
yum install subversion ruby ncurses-devel
svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg
svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk mplayer
cd /usr/local/src/mplayer
svn update
cd /usr/local/src
Lets copy the codecs for mplayer:
mv /usr/local/src/essential-20061022/* /usr/local/lib/codecs/
chmod -R 755 /usr/local/lib/codecs/
Installing Lame:
cd /usr/local/src/lame-3.97
./configure
make && make install
Installing Libogg:
cd /usr/local/src/libogg-1.1.3
./configure && make && make install
Installing libvorbis:
cd /usr/local/src/libvorbis-1.1.2
./configure && make && make install
Installing flvtool2:
cd /usr/local/src/flvtool2_1.0.5_rc6/
ruby setup.rb config
ruby setup.rb setup
ruby setup.rb install
cd /usr/local/src/mplayer
./configure && make && make install
Installing ffmpeg:
cd /usr/local/src/ffmpeg/
./configure –enable-libmp3lame –enable-libogg –enable-libvorbis –disable-mmx –enable-shared
make && make install
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavformat.so.50 /usr/lib/libavformat.so.50
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavcodec.so.51 /usr/lib/libavcodec.so.51
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavutil.so.49 /usr/lib/libavutil.so.49
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libmp3lame.so.0 /usr/lib/libmp3lame.so.0
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavformat.so.51 /usr/lib/libavformat.so.51
Installing ffmpeg-php:
cd /usr/local/src/ffmpeg-php-0.5.0/
phpize
./configure
make
make install
Finally we restart apache server:
service httpd restart
cd /usr/local/src
Download the packages from its source:
wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/9225/flvtool2_1.0.5_rc6.tgz
wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/lame/lame-3.97.tar.gz
wget http://superb-west.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ffmpeg-php/ffmpeg-php-0.5.0.tbz2
wget http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/ogg/libogg-1.1.3.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/vorbis/libvorbis-1.1.2.tar.gz
wget http://www4.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/essential-20061022.tar.bz2
Extracting the packages we just downloaded:
tar zxvf lame-3.97.tar.gz
tar zxvf libogg-1.1.3.tar.gz
tar zxvf libvorbis-1.1.2.tar.gz
tar zxvf flvtool2_1.0.5_rc6.tgz
tar jxvf essential-20061022.tar.bz2
tar jxvf ffmpeg-php-0.5.0.tbz2
tar zxvf flvtool2_1.0.5_rc6.tgz
Creating a directory to store all the codecs:
mkdir /usr/local/lib/codecs/
Now we install the packages:
yum install gcc gmake make libcpp libgcc libstdc++ gcc4 gcc4-c++ gcc4-gfortran
yum install subversion ruby ncurses-devel
svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg
svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk mplayer
cd /usr/local/src/mplayer
svn update
cd /usr/local/src
Lets copy the codecs for mplayer:
mv /usr/local/src/essential-20061022/* /usr/local/lib/codecs/
chmod -R 755 /usr/local/lib/codecs/
Installing Lame:
cd /usr/local/src/lame-3.97
./configure
make && make install
Installing Libogg:
cd /usr/local/src/libogg-1.1.3
./configure && make && make install
Installing libvorbis:
cd /usr/local/src/libvorbis-1.1.2
./configure && make && make install
Installing flvtool2:
cd /usr/local/src/flvtool2_1.0.5_rc6/
ruby setup.rb config
ruby setup.rb setup
ruby setup.rb install
cd /usr/local/src/mplayer
./configure && make && make install
Installing ffmpeg:
cd /usr/local/src/ffmpeg/
./configure –enable-libmp3lame –enable-libogg –enable-libvorbis –disable-mmx –enable-shared
make && make install
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavformat.so.50 /usr/lib/libavformat.so.50
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavcodec.so.51 /usr/lib/libavcodec.so.51
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavutil.so.49 /usr/lib/libavutil.so.49
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libmp3lame.so.0 /usr/lib/libmp3lame.so.0
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavformat.so.51 /usr/lib/libavformat.so.51
Installing ffmpeg-php:
cd /usr/local/src/ffmpeg-php-0.5.0/
phpize
./configure
make
make install
Finally we restart apache server:
service httpd restart
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The Loader is a .dll file or .so file (depending on the server’s operating system) which PHP uses to decode scripts encoded with the ionCube Encoder. PHP has the ability to open .dll (or .so) files at the moment a script is run. The dl function in PHP is used for this purpose. This mechanism, when used to launch the ionCube Loader, is called run-time loading.
Please note that the following steps will explain how to install ioncube loader on a linux server. Also keep in mind that you will need root shell access to the server.
1 – Download ionCube from the source to your server. Make note that the following link is for Linux 64 Bit.
wget http://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
2 – Now we extract the downloaded file.
tar -zxvf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
3 – Lets move the ioncube folder to a new permanent location.
mv ioncube /usr/local
4 – Its time to edit your php.ini file.
pico /usr/local/lib/php.ini or nano /usr/local/lib/php.ini
5 – Add the following to your php.ini file below [ZEND]
zend_extension=/usr/local/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so
6 – Now you need to restart your apache server and your done.
service httpd restart
Please note that the following steps will explain how to install ioncube loader on a linux server. Also keep in mind that you will need root shell access to the server.
1 – Download ionCube from the source to your server. Make note that the following link is for Linux 64 Bit.
wget http://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
2 – Now we extract the downloaded file.
tar -zxvf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
3 – Lets move the ioncube folder to a new permanent location.
mv ioncube /usr/local
4 – Its time to edit your php.ini file.
pico /usr/local/lib/php.ini or nano /usr/local/lib/php.ini
5 – Add the following to your php.ini file below [ZEND]
zend_extension=/usr/local/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so
6 – Now you need to restart your apache server and your done.
service httpd restart
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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As announced on the 26th of November 2008 the portal and webhosting activities of the Lycos Europe GmbH will be discontinued. Unfortunately, the free hosting service Tripod is effected. For this reason we are hereby terminating your Tripod Account as of 15th February 2009. Until the 15th February you can use your Tripod account and your Homepage as usual. After this date we will close your account and delete all your content which was stored on Tripod in accordance with legal requirements. After this date it will be ímpossible to view your Homepage in the internet or to do a Backup using FTP from your page because the content will be unrecoverably deleted. That is why we advise you to to backup all necessary data in the near future from your Tripod Account on your hard drive and if wanted to upload it to another homepage provider. Please keep in mind that we do not offer any support for the free homepages neither by phone nor by email for upcoming questions. Because of this reason we created a short description how to backup your data. We regret having to take this step and we want to thank you for your confidence in the past. Currently, we are still working on finding a solution to provide you the service through another provider. If we should succeed in doing so, we will inform you within the next 4 weeks. But as this is currently doubtful, we would like to ask you to assume the end of the service. Despite the sad news we wish you and your family a successful 2009.
Best wishes,
Your Lycos Tripod Team
For those who read my “What happened to free web hosting?” post from last year, Tripod was one of the few that was actually still around and operating. I guess I spoke too soon though. Although I haven’t used my tripod account in half a decade, it’s still sad to see another iconic 90’s free web host close it’s doors.
*UPDATE* I am still trying confirm if this applies to all of tripod, or only the European operations (tripod.co.uk). If anyone knows, please feel free to chime in.
Best wishes,
Your Lycos Tripod Team
For those who read my “What happened to free web hosting?” post from last year, Tripod was one of the few that was actually still around and operating. I guess I spoke too soon though. Although I haven’t used my tripod account in half a decade, it’s still sad to see another iconic 90’s free web host close it’s doors.
*UPDATE* I am still trying confirm if this applies to all of tripod, or only the European operations (tripod.co.uk). If anyone knows, please feel free to chime in.
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I just finished an interview with Michael Dunlop from Retireat21.com, go check it out: http://www.retireat21.com/interview/interview-with-alex-melen-founder-of-t35-free-web-hosting
Some of the questions I cover in the interview include:
Some of the questions I cover in the interview include:
– Tell us about your main project, T35 Hosting ? Why did you launch T35 Hosting ? Where are you at now with T35 Hosting ?
- I understand that you have over 600,000 free hosting customers and a few thousand paid hosting customers, what advice would you give a young entrepreneur trying to build a membership of any kind?
- Your website has an incredible today’s alexa ranking of 7000! How have you been able to achieve such a high rate of traffic? What advice would you give a young entrepreneur trying to market their website?
- Why should people use T35 over any other FREE host? What do you offer that makes your service better than your competition?
- Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned?
- What advice would you give to a Young Entrepreneur setting up their first business?
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I know I’ve been MIA for a few months… I have been busy with some personal things, but am now back and will keep things more updated. I promise! To start things off, I would like to introduce our new website: . This is going to be a user-rated list of the best domain name registers (where you would go to purchase a domain name). We will also be adding coupons, etc.. to the most popular registrars to make sure you always get the best deal!
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Some of you might have already heard the news, but to me it’s still unbelievable. Frequent visitors of this blog might remember seeing a rewiew I did a few months ago about all the old free hosts and how most of them no longer exists. Geocities was actually one of the few that was still around – mostly because it was backed by Yahoo! and could absorb the millions of dollars of expenses they were accruing.
Well, even the might Yahoo! no longer wants anything to do with free web hosting. For those that were online in the 1990’s, you might recall that Yahoo! spent over $2.87 billion to buy geocities. That’s right folks, say that number outloud to yourselves. $2.87 BILLION dollars. Not to mention that $2.87B in 1999 dollars would equal well over $3 BILLION today. Ironically enough, the value of the entire Yahoo! corporation was down to as low as $12B earlier this year.
Geocities was one of the original web hosts, and was actually one of the few that was started before T35. I actually enjoyed competing with them over the years (as opposed to competing with Google and all the dirty tricks they use). Here’s the official and final word from the Geocities folks themselves:
Well, even the might Yahoo! no longer wants anything to do with free web hosting. For those that were online in the 1990’s, you might recall that Yahoo! spent over $2.87 billion to buy geocities. That’s right folks, say that number outloud to yourselves. $2.87 BILLION dollars. Not to mention that $2.87B in 1999 dollars would equal well over $3 BILLION today. Ironically enough, the value of the entire Yahoo! corporation was down to as low as $12B earlier this year.
Geocities was one of the original web hosts, and was actually one of the few that was started before T35. I actually enjoyed competing with them over the years (as opposed to competing with Google and all the dirty tricks they use). Here’s the official and final word from the Geocities folks themselves:
Sorry, new GeoCities accounts are no longer available. After careful consideration, we have decided to close GeoCities later this year. We’ll share more details this summer.
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Your logo is one element that can define your business completely. An important first impression about your business, many a time, is done by the appearance, style and design of your corporate logo.
While crafting a marketing and branding plan, logo designing comes out as one of the most important factor, which makes you to think what you should include within the design of your logo. In this blog post, you will get some tips and pointers on what to consider while selecting a logo for your business.
Learn from other successful logos
While you are thinking what type of logo will be the most suitable for your business, you can check those successful logos that have proven to be a successful emblem over time. For instance, the Coca-Cola logo, the Nike logos and many other logos that have been around for a significant period of time and that have really become a part of the consciousness of consumers from all parts of the world.
You can take tips and cues from these logos when it comes to the decision making process associated with your own business logo. These iconic logos have clean and clear design concepts, have basic color schemes and convey a sense of what the business is all about.
Be practical during brainstorming session
In addition to learning from other successful logos, you also need to clearly take practical considerations into account during logo design brainstorming session. For example, you will want to be certain that your logo will appropriately convey at least an indication of the products or services that you are offering through your business venture. In the end, a logo that really doesn’t convey a sense of what type of business you are in will prove to an ineffective branding attempt at best and a devastating error in the worst case scenario.
Moreover, you also make sure that your branding device should be appealing and attractive to the specific market niche in which you will contain the specific consumer group who will be most interested in doing business with your firm or company.
Avoid over-crowding, have a clean look
In selecting a logo design for your business, in determining what type of business logo will be most suitable for your venture, keep in mind that a clean and uncluttered look normally is the best selection, the best choice for your operation.
With a clean, clear and uncluttered logo you will find that consumers will more readily connect with your business. A quicker, sounder connection will increase the number of customers or clients that your firm or company will do business with both in the short and the long term.
Don’t forget to consider your industry
While you definitely do not want to copy another business’s logo design concept, it can be helpful for you to analyze what other businesses in your specific industry are doing in the way of logos, branding and related issues. Within a specific industry there can be some themes that are commonplace and well suited. Therefore, it likely will behoove your business to incorporate these themes into your own efforts at designing the most effective logo for your venture.
This is a step that a professional design firm will undertake as part of its own effort at developing the most effective and appropriate logo for your own business enterprise.
Final Lines
If you do take the time and make the effort to consider the factors set forth in this article you will be in the best possible position to understand what type of logo will be not only most suitable but also most effective for your business venture. You will be laying the groundwork for a successful and profitable business, the groundwork that will serve you well not only today but as your business grows into the future.
About the poster
This is a guest post from Ben Johnson of Logoinn, custom logo design service provider based in UK.
While crafting a marketing and branding plan, logo designing comes out as one of the most important factor, which makes you to think what you should include within the design of your logo. In this blog post, you will get some tips and pointers on what to consider while selecting a logo for your business.
Learn from other successful logos
While you are thinking what type of logo will be the most suitable for your business, you can check those successful logos that have proven to be a successful emblem over time. For instance, the Coca-Cola logo, the Nike logos and many other logos that have been around for a significant period of time and that have really become a part of the consciousness of consumers from all parts of the world.
You can take tips and cues from these logos when it comes to the decision making process associated with your own business logo. These iconic logos have clean and clear design concepts, have basic color schemes and convey a sense of what the business is all about.
Be practical during brainstorming session
In addition to learning from other successful logos, you also need to clearly take practical considerations into account during logo design brainstorming session. For example, you will want to be certain that your logo will appropriately convey at least an indication of the products or services that you are offering through your business venture. In the end, a logo that really doesn’t convey a sense of what type of business you are in will prove to an ineffective branding attempt at best and a devastating error in the worst case scenario.
Moreover, you also make sure that your branding device should be appealing and attractive to the specific market niche in which you will contain the specific consumer group who will be most interested in doing business with your firm or company.
Avoid over-crowding, have a clean look
In selecting a logo design for your business, in determining what type of business logo will be most suitable for your venture, keep in mind that a clean and uncluttered look normally is the best selection, the best choice for your operation.
With a clean, clear and uncluttered logo you will find that consumers will more readily connect with your business. A quicker, sounder connection will increase the number of customers or clients that your firm or company will do business with both in the short and the long term.
Don’t forget to consider your industry
While you definitely do not want to copy another business’s logo design concept, it can be helpful for you to analyze what other businesses in your specific industry are doing in the way of logos, branding and related issues. Within a specific industry there can be some themes that are commonplace and well suited. Therefore, it likely will behoove your business to incorporate these themes into your own efforts at designing the most effective logo for your venture.
This is a step that a professional design firm will undertake as part of its own effort at developing the most effective and appropriate logo for your own business enterprise.
Final Lines
If you do take the time and make the effort to consider the factors set forth in this article you will be in the best possible position to understand what type of logo will be not only most suitable but also most effective for your business venture. You will be laying the groundwork for a successful and profitable business, the groundwork that will serve you well not only today but as your business grows into the future.
About the poster
This is a guest post from Ben Johnson of Logoinn, custom logo design service provider based in UK.
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Using a WordPress Hosting Provider
WordPress is an extremely popular platform for publishing on the Internet. It has been employed by large companies to report on global events and hobbyists to inform the family about the cat having babies. WordPress offers a range of benefits to casual and professional users alike, and there are many WordPress hosting companies that can help you get started right away.
Why WordPress?
The WordPress platform allows anyone to start blogging or publishing a website even without any significant background in web design. Most WordPress hosting providers offer a one-click installation of the necessary software so you can start creating and publishing content right away.
WordPress makes it easy to design and add content to your blog. There are thousands of free templates available to help create the look you want. This is one of the features that make WordPress so accessible to the general public. The layout and design elements are completely separate from the content, which means that once the design is set, any of the authors on the blog can start writing and not have to deal with all the design issues.
Finally, one of the best reasons to use WordPress is that it is open source software. To put it another way, it’s free. The software is open to the public to download and develop, and as the WordPress community continues to grow, more and more developments will keep appearing and new plug-ins and themes will become available. And it will all still be free.
WordPress Hosting Requirements
There are a couple ways to get a WordPress blog started. One is to register for a free online blog hosted by WordPress.com. This is completely free, but there are a couple of drawbacks to it. The first is that you will have fewer customization options because the blog must conform to their web hosting requirements, and the second is that the website address will not be your own. Instead it will be formatted as: “yourcompany.wordpress.com,” which can create a very unprofessional image. That’s not such a big deal for a personal blog, but it could really hurt a business.
Downloading and installing the software on your own WordPress hosting server, then, can offer you all the customization options you want and the ability to have it on your own domain. This option will, of course, incur some web hosting costs, but those are usually very affordable. When you start looking at your hosting options, though, there are some requirements that you should examine before settling on a company.
You need to make sure that the provider has enough bandwidth and storage space to accommodate your needs. You never know when your blog might hit it big, and the server will need to be able to cope with ever-increasing traffic. Be sure to look at the company’s history as well. What is their record when it comes to uptime vs. downtime? What do current and previous clients say about their service? Do they offer auto installation of upgrades and features? Finally, make sure that the provider has the proper software required for WordPress hosting – PHP, MySQL, and Apache server. When all these elements come together you can make your WordPress blog everything you want it to be.
WordPress is an extremely popular platform for publishing on the Internet. It has been employed by large companies to report on global events and hobbyists to inform the family about the cat having babies. WordPress offers a range of benefits to casual and professional users alike, and there are many WordPress hosting companies that can help you get started right away.
Why WordPress?
The WordPress platform allows anyone to start blogging or publishing a website even without any significant background in web design. Most WordPress hosting providers offer a one-click installation of the necessary software so you can start creating and publishing content right away.
WordPress makes it easy to design and add content to your blog. There are thousands of free templates available to help create the look you want. This is one of the features that make WordPress so accessible to the general public. The layout and design elements are completely separate from the content, which means that once the design is set, any of the authors on the blog can start writing and not have to deal with all the design issues.
Finally, one of the best reasons to use WordPress is that it is open source software. To put it another way, it’s free. The software is open to the public to download and develop, and as the WordPress community continues to grow, more and more developments will keep appearing and new plug-ins and themes will become available. And it will all still be free.
WordPress Hosting Requirements
There are a couple ways to get a WordPress blog started. One is to register for a free online blog hosted by WordPress.com. This is completely free, but there are a couple of drawbacks to it. The first is that you will have fewer customization options because the blog must conform to their web hosting requirements, and the second is that the website address will not be your own. Instead it will be formatted as: “yourcompany.wordpress.com,” which can create a very unprofessional image. That’s not such a big deal for a personal blog, but it could really hurt a business.
Downloading and installing the software on your own WordPress hosting server, then, can offer you all the customization options you want and the ability to have it on your own domain. This option will, of course, incur some web hosting costs, but those are usually very affordable. When you start looking at your hosting options, though, there are some requirements that you should examine before settling on a company.
You need to make sure that the provider has enough bandwidth and storage space to accommodate your needs. You never know when your blog might hit it big, and the server will need to be able to cope with ever-increasing traffic. Be sure to look at the company’s history as well. What is their record when it comes to uptime vs. downtime? What do current and previous clients say about their service? Do they offer auto installation of upgrades and features? Finally, make sure that the provider has the proper software required for WordPress hosting – PHP, MySQL, and Apache server. When all these elements come together you can make your WordPress blog everything you want it to be.
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On-demand social media, video player and widget platform, KickApps, has been added to GoDaddy’s Hosting Connection service, to enable customers to easily add social and media capabilities to websites.
Alex Blum, CEO, KickApps explained ”Today’s web has evolved dramatically from static and boring destinations that do little to truly engage a website’s audience or a company’s customers. Using KickApps’ solutions for social and media applications, any small business or organization can cost-effectively reinvent their website with meaningful results. Our offering to Go Daddy customers is a message to small businesses and non-commercial organizations around the world that they too can take advantage of everything that today’s web has to offer.”
Under the agreement, GoDaddy’s hosting customers will be eligible for special offers and pricing on KickApps solutions. The KickApps solution lowers the barriers to adoption of social and media applications on websites for small businesses, organizations and individuals seeking to engage customers and unite people and content to build a resourceful and trustworthy community.
Social media has evolved from being a novel way for people to connect online to a meaningful vehicle for driving deeper customer relationships, growing online audiences, raising awareness about critical issues and organizing online, as well as creating new revenue and donation opportunities. With KickApps, small businesses and non-commercial organizations can easily create highly engaging social, interactive, distributed, and data-informed websites. Using the same simple-to-use drag-and-drop online applications that are used by numerous global brands, small business owners and non-profits can deploy their own KickApps powered social networks, custom video players, photo and video sharing, blogs, message boards and widgets on their websites.
Alexa Raad, CEO, .ORG, The Public Interest Registry added, ”The strength of a community�comes from its ability�to transform ideas into action through shared activities. Social media tools�power up�web addresses to�create dynamic relationships fastern. We are excited to see Go Daddy and KickApps partner to offer comprehensive tools and resources to the .ORG community.”
Go Daddy hosting clients use Hosting Connection to install an extensive list of popular applications for their websites with a single click, including Joomla, WordPress and Drupal. The addition of KickApps adds the industry’s leading self-service hosted social and media platform to its catalog of essential tools for creating websites. As a one-stop-shop for hosting needs, Go Daddy’s hosting services provide generous disk space amounts and bandwidth, 24/7/365 Customer Support, world-class data centers and a guaranteed uptime of 99.9%.
Bob Parsons, CEO and Founder of Go Daddy remarked, ”Go Daddy is all about doing things easily and affordably. That’s why we created Hosting Connection. It’s just one more way we provide our customers an easy solution for their needs. Adding KickApps to the lineup gives our customers even greater flexibility to get their site just how they want it.”
Selected by BusinessWeek readers as Best of the Web 2008, KickApps provides brands, enterprises and web publishers with solutions that enable social, interactive, dynamic, distributed and data-informed web experiences. KickApps solutions consist of a suite of hosted social and media applications and services that are used by some of the world’s largest websites and brands to grow and engage their online audiences and foster deeper relationships with customers. Clients include: Special Olympics, CW Television, Guinness World Records, HBO, Cinemax, Cox Television, the Phoenix Suns, the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers and thousands of other sites.
GoDaddy is a provider of services designed to enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. GoDaddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The GoDaddy Group, Inc. has more than 34 million domain names under management. GoDaddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also the largest paid hosting provider in the world, according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2007, The GoDaddy Group registered more than one-third of all domain names registered in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
Alex Blum, CEO, KickApps explained ”Today’s web has evolved dramatically from static and boring destinations that do little to truly engage a website’s audience or a company’s customers. Using KickApps’ solutions for social and media applications, any small business or organization can cost-effectively reinvent their website with meaningful results. Our offering to Go Daddy customers is a message to small businesses and non-commercial organizations around the world that they too can take advantage of everything that today’s web has to offer.”
Under the agreement, GoDaddy’s hosting customers will be eligible for special offers and pricing on KickApps solutions. The KickApps solution lowers the barriers to adoption of social and media applications on websites for small businesses, organizations and individuals seeking to engage customers and unite people and content to build a resourceful and trustworthy community.
Social media has evolved from being a novel way for people to connect online to a meaningful vehicle for driving deeper customer relationships, growing online audiences, raising awareness about critical issues and organizing online, as well as creating new revenue and donation opportunities. With KickApps, small businesses and non-commercial organizations can easily create highly engaging social, interactive, distributed, and data-informed websites. Using the same simple-to-use drag-and-drop online applications that are used by numerous global brands, small business owners and non-profits can deploy their own KickApps powered social networks, custom video players, photo and video sharing, blogs, message boards and widgets on their websites.
Alexa Raad, CEO, .ORG, The Public Interest Registry added, ”The strength of a community�comes from its ability�to transform ideas into action through shared activities. Social media tools�power up�web addresses to�create dynamic relationships fastern. We are excited to see Go Daddy and KickApps partner to offer comprehensive tools and resources to the .ORG community.”
Go Daddy hosting clients use Hosting Connection to install an extensive list of popular applications for their websites with a single click, including Joomla, WordPress and Drupal. The addition of KickApps adds the industry’s leading self-service hosted social and media platform to its catalog of essential tools for creating websites. As a one-stop-shop for hosting needs, Go Daddy’s hosting services provide generous disk space amounts and bandwidth, 24/7/365 Customer Support, world-class data centers and a guaranteed uptime of 99.9%.
Bob Parsons, CEO and Founder of Go Daddy remarked, ”Go Daddy is all about doing things easily and affordably. That’s why we created Hosting Connection. It’s just one more way we provide our customers an easy solution for their needs. Adding KickApps to the lineup gives our customers even greater flexibility to get their site just how they want it.”
Selected by BusinessWeek readers as Best of the Web 2008, KickApps provides brands, enterprises and web publishers with solutions that enable social, interactive, dynamic, distributed and data-informed web experiences. KickApps solutions consist of a suite of hosted social and media applications and services that are used by some of the world’s largest websites and brands to grow and engage their online audiences and foster deeper relationships with customers. Clients include: Special Olympics, CW Television, Guinness World Records, HBO, Cinemax, Cox Television, the Phoenix Suns, the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers and thousands of other sites.
GoDaddy is a provider of services designed to enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. GoDaddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The GoDaddy Group, Inc. has more than 34 million domain names under management. GoDaddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also the largest paid hosting provider in the world, according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2007, The GoDaddy Group registered more than one-third of all domain names registered in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
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Managed dedicated, hybrid and virtual private server (VPS) hosting solutions provider, WiredTree, has reported a major and significant upgrade to its line of Managed Hybrid Servers.
The solution was developed as a unique hosting platform offering access to dedicated resources in a virtualized hosting environment.
Zac Cogswell, President of WiredTree noted, ”Leveraging the ‘best of both worlds’ is the name of the game. Our Managed Hybrid Servers outperform similarly priced dedicated servers by a formidable margin, and as we look to the future, we are positioning our products to compete more aggressively on both performance and affordability.”
Managed Hybrid Servers now boast 2000GB of monthly premium data transfer, full nightly backups, and a variety of other value-added features. To boot, WiredTree pared pricing by 20 percent, reducing the starting cost to only $99 per month.
Unlike virtual private servers, Managed Hybrid Servers include dedicated, guaranteed server resources hosted on enterprise-level infrastructure. However, unlike traditional dedicated servers, Managed Hybrid Servers offer burstable CPU utilization and more flexible data storage options, including RAID-10 configurations.
All Managed Hybrid Server plans are fully managed and include ServerShield security hardening, in addition to 24/7 phone and helpdesk support.
Formed in June 2006 to set a new standard for managed hosting, WiredTree provides a superior managed hosting environment through customer service, innovative network design, a unique suite of services, and the latest technological advances in server hardware. WiredTree designed a network that leverages two logically separated networks – a public Internet network and a private internal network. This modern “network-within-a-network” design allows the company to securely provide a wide range of value-added services for business of all sizes.
The solution was developed as a unique hosting platform offering access to dedicated resources in a virtualized hosting environment.
Zac Cogswell, President of WiredTree noted, ”Leveraging the ‘best of both worlds’ is the name of the game. Our Managed Hybrid Servers outperform similarly priced dedicated servers by a formidable margin, and as we look to the future, we are positioning our products to compete more aggressively on both performance and affordability.”
Managed Hybrid Servers now boast 2000GB of monthly premium data transfer, full nightly backups, and a variety of other value-added features. To boot, WiredTree pared pricing by 20 percent, reducing the starting cost to only $99 per month.
Unlike virtual private servers, Managed Hybrid Servers include dedicated, guaranteed server resources hosted on enterprise-level infrastructure. However, unlike traditional dedicated servers, Managed Hybrid Servers offer burstable CPU utilization and more flexible data storage options, including RAID-10 configurations.
All Managed Hybrid Server plans are fully managed and include ServerShield security hardening, in addition to 24/7 phone and helpdesk support.
Formed in June 2006 to set a new standard for managed hosting, WiredTree provides a superior managed hosting environment through customer service, innovative network design, a unique suite of services, and the latest technological advances in server hardware. WiredTree designed a network that leverages two logically separated networks – a public Internet network and a private internal network. This modern “network-within-a-network” design allows the company to securely provide a wide range of value-added services for business of all sizes.
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Are you one of those who have an online business, but do not earn the amount of money expected? Do not worry, because you’re not alone. Most of us spend months, even years trying to figure out how to make money with Internet and currently investigating.
I’m going to help write a series of tips, but mostly I leave a message which is far more important than any advice you can receive: “The real opportunity to earn money resides in our own talent and ability to act.” Then write some very simple things that most of us can imagine or create, or even accelerate, the income on line.
Another point is no less significant than the difference between people who earn money on the internet and no, this in people who apply what they learn and those that are thinking. I imagine that you are in the first group. Anyway, here are the tips that you want to convey today
1. Advertise your website in different languages. With the Internet around the world as an income opportunity and this is demonstrated. The only limits are the volume of traffic, you still need more, and also communication. Obviously if some people can not read your website certainly does not buy what you got to offer. But there are supplements that can help and can be placed on the web, and then this will lead to a number of languages without having to build a new website for each language.
2. Surprise your guests with a special bonus “when they buy.” There is a strong likelihood that your customers purchase from you again, if you give more than you expected.
3. Remember your customers at parties. Send greeting cards online, will give you the opportunity to increase your sales, but do not forget to use some cunning and include ads on the cards.
4. Do not try to sell a golf ball in a fishing magazine.
Your products and services should be marketed to your target audience. Nobody goes to a hardware store to buy bodices!
5. Increase recurring purchases. Give your customers the opportunity to buy new products when they buy one of your main products or services, or promotions with special advantages. A happy customer always returns.
6. Be creative with bonds, options, delivery or payment options and find out how this can be very helpful in attracting customers to buy your products or services.
7. Gives others the opportunity to sell your product through an affiliate program, are important forces more sales without having to do all the work.
8. Attend either your current and potential customers. When leaving a message or send an email, respond promptly. If you keep in touch with them on a regular basis will remain in your mind and overcome your competition.
9. Study your competition. Find other methods of advertising and marketing by studying the ideas and materials from other companies.
10. Educate, take courses to learn new strategies and increase your sales, the internet is very dynamic. Subscribe to publications and electronic journals. Learning is always a good companion. Learn more about the expectations of your customers; this can only further increase your sales exponentially.
And remember, we repeat one of the real key is the study of competition and keep the customer well served. The timing is always right in front of your eyes and also there is always the possibility of increasing the amount of your income online.
I’m going to help write a series of tips, but mostly I leave a message which is far more important than any advice you can receive: “The real opportunity to earn money resides in our own talent and ability to act.” Then write some very simple things that most of us can imagine or create, or even accelerate, the income on line.
Another point is no less significant than the difference between people who earn money on the internet and no, this in people who apply what they learn and those that are thinking. I imagine that you are in the first group. Anyway, here are the tips that you want to convey today
1. Advertise your website in different languages. With the Internet around the world as an income opportunity and this is demonstrated. The only limits are the volume of traffic, you still need more, and also communication. Obviously if some people can not read your website certainly does not buy what you got to offer. But there are supplements that can help and can be placed on the web, and then this will lead to a number of languages without having to build a new website for each language.
2. Surprise your guests with a special bonus “when they buy.” There is a strong likelihood that your customers purchase from you again, if you give more than you expected.
3. Remember your customers at parties. Send greeting cards online, will give you the opportunity to increase your sales, but do not forget to use some cunning and include ads on the cards.
4. Do not try to sell a golf ball in a fishing magazine.
Your products and services should be marketed to your target audience. Nobody goes to a hardware store to buy bodices!
5. Increase recurring purchases. Give your customers the opportunity to buy new products when they buy one of your main products or services, or promotions with special advantages. A happy customer always returns.
6. Be creative with bonds, options, delivery or payment options and find out how this can be very helpful in attracting customers to buy your products or services.
7. Gives others the opportunity to sell your product through an affiliate program, are important forces more sales without having to do all the work.
8. Attend either your current and potential customers. When leaving a message or send an email, respond promptly. If you keep in touch with them on a regular basis will remain in your mind and overcome your competition.
9. Study your competition. Find other methods of advertising and marketing by studying the ideas and materials from other companies.
10. Educate, take courses to learn new strategies and increase your sales, the internet is very dynamic. Subscribe to publications and electronic journals. Learning is always a good companion. Learn more about the expectations of your customers; this can only further increase your sales exponentially.
And remember, we repeat one of the real key is the study of competition and keep the customer well served. The timing is always right in front of your eyes and also there is always the possibility of increasing the amount of your income online.
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0
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Web hosting domain registrar provider, Go Daddy, recently signed for a major NASCAR event, as a Presenting Sponsor of the Southern 500.
Bob Parsons, CEO and Founder of Go Daddy explained, ”This is a tremendous time to be out there – advertising, sponsoring events. Darlington is a great track, celebrating 60 years of racing this season. The fact many traditional sponsors are shying away because of the economy creates a great opportunity for Go Daddy.”
The Southern 500 presented by GoDaddy.com takes place Saturday at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, as an iconic race returning to a legendary track. The event was slated to run without a presenting sponsor until Go Daddy signed on. A tough economy – full of fiscal belt-tightening – has made sponsorships hard to come by for both tracks and teams this season. NASCAR fans will watch the return of this historic 500-mile race on a track awash in green and black Go Daddy banners.
Go Daddy expanded its NASCAR commitment in 2009 – increasing sponsorships in both the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series. The company also produced several new commercials with Go Daddy spokesman and NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and fellow driver, Brad Keselowski, and now, the Internet giant takes on title sponsorship at Darlington.
Beyond having Go Daddy’s name on the Southern 500, Parsons hopes to have a driver in the race as well. Brad Keselowski will attempt to qualify in the No. 25 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet in the Sprint Cup Series race.
Go Daddy, the world’s dominant Web hosting domain registrar, has seen tremendous gains in the midst of recent recessionary times. Unlike many U.S. companies, Go Daddy is expanding – hiring 300 employees in the first three months of this year. With 35 million domains under management and 6.6 million customers, Go Daddy is thriving. The key to Go Daddy’s success is providing people and businesses with turn-key solutions to all their Web site needs and backing those products and services with industry-best 24/7 personalized customer care.
Go Daddy is a world leader in domain registration, web hosting and design, SSL Certificates and eCommerce. The company offers more than 50 products aimed at enhancing everyone’s online image quickly and affordably.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 35 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. During 2008, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
Bob Parsons, CEO and Founder of Go Daddy explained, ”This is a tremendous time to be out there – advertising, sponsoring events. Darlington is a great track, celebrating 60 years of racing this season. The fact many traditional sponsors are shying away because of the economy creates a great opportunity for Go Daddy.”
The Southern 500 presented by GoDaddy.com takes place Saturday at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, as an iconic race returning to a legendary track. The event was slated to run without a presenting sponsor until Go Daddy signed on. A tough economy – full of fiscal belt-tightening – has made sponsorships hard to come by for both tracks and teams this season. NASCAR fans will watch the return of this historic 500-mile race on a track awash in green and black Go Daddy banners.
Go Daddy expanded its NASCAR commitment in 2009 – increasing sponsorships in both the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series. The company also produced several new commercials with Go Daddy spokesman and NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and fellow driver, Brad Keselowski, and now, the Internet giant takes on title sponsorship at Darlington.
Beyond having Go Daddy’s name on the Southern 500, Parsons hopes to have a driver in the race as well. Brad Keselowski will attempt to qualify in the No. 25 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet in the Sprint Cup Series race.
Go Daddy, the world’s dominant Web hosting domain registrar, has seen tremendous gains in the midst of recent recessionary times. Unlike many U.S. companies, Go Daddy is expanding – hiring 300 employees in the first three months of this year. With 35 million domains under management and 6.6 million customers, Go Daddy is thriving. The key to Go Daddy’s success is providing people and businesses with turn-key solutions to all their Web site needs and backing those products and services with industry-best 24/7 personalized customer care.
Go Daddy is a world leader in domain registration, web hosting and design, SSL Certificates and eCommerce. The company offers more than 50 products aimed at enhancing everyone’s online image quickly and affordably.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 35 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. During 2008, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
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Search engine and Internet firm, Yahoo! Inc., is scheduled to participate in several upcoming investor technology conferences as outlined below.
Bank of America and Merrill Lynch 2009 U.S. Technology Conference
Carol Bartz, Yahoo! chief executive officer, will participate in a question and answer session at the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch 2009 U.S. Technology Conference in New York, New York. The session is scheduled to begin at 9:00am PT / 12:00pm ET on Wednesday, June 3, 2009.
RBC Capital Markets 2009 Technology, Media and Communications Conference
Larry Cornett, vice president product search, will participate in a question and answer session at the RBC Capital Markets 2009 Technology, Media and Communications Conference in San Francisco, California. The session is scheduled to begin at 10:00am PT / 1:00pm ET on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.
Credit Suisse 2009 Convergence Conference
Joanne Bradford, senior vice president of revenue and market development, will participate in a question and answer session at the Credit Suisse 2009 Convergence Conference in Dana Point, California. The session is scheduled to begin at 1:15pm PT / 4:15pm ET on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.
A live webcast of all presentations will be available on the Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/events.cfm?CalendarID=5
Yahoo! Inc. is a global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Bank of America and Merrill Lynch 2009 U.S. Technology Conference
Carol Bartz, Yahoo! chief executive officer, will participate in a question and answer session at the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch 2009 U.S. Technology Conference in New York, New York. The session is scheduled to begin at 9:00am PT / 12:00pm ET on Wednesday, June 3, 2009.
RBC Capital Markets 2009 Technology, Media and Communications Conference
Larry Cornett, vice president product search, will participate in a question and answer session at the RBC Capital Markets 2009 Technology, Media and Communications Conference in San Francisco, California. The session is scheduled to begin at 10:00am PT / 1:00pm ET on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.
Credit Suisse 2009 Convergence Conference
Joanne Bradford, senior vice president of revenue and market development, will participate in a question and answer session at the Credit Suisse 2009 Convergence Conference in Dana Point, California. The session is scheduled to begin at 1:15pm PT / 4:15pm ET on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.
A live webcast of all presentations will be available on the Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/events.cfm?CalendarID=5
Yahoo! Inc. is a global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
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GoDaddy.com web hosting and domain registrar, helped boost the bottom line for the Arizona Humane Society Telethon by matching every single contribution made on the Internet.
The Scottsdale-based domain name registrar and web hosting provider also doubled its own donation with a $100,000 check delivered by none other than Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons’ dogs Max and Chief.
This is the fourth consecutive year Go Daddy delivered big for Arizona animals and in these rough economic times, when donations are more difficult to secure, Go Daddy was happy to help make a difference as the title sponsor. Total money raised in the annual telethon yesterday was more than $328,000.
Go Daddy also helped on the technical side behind the scenes, and on camera many Go Daddy employees answered telephone calls during the live broadcast. The move that really stole the show though was the company’s check delivery method, performed in GoDaddy-esque style… no, not by a Go Daddy Girl, but by the ‘Go Daddy’ dogs.
Max and Chief are Parsons’ dogs and have become regulars for the telethon’s big finish. Bob Parsons, Founder and CEO of GoDaddy noted, ”Max and Chief learn a new trick for each telethon,” referring to how Chief pulled Max in a Go Daddy chariot to deliver the $100,000 check to end the live telethon. Mr. Parsons added, ”Max and Chief even went ‘green’ this year using a chariot instead of the Go Daddy motorized car.”
Whether delivered by Border Terriers or more conventional methods, Go Daddy is continuing to make a difference in the Valley of the Sun with its charitable donations. As many companies are scaling back philanthropic donations due to the economy, Go Daddy is stepping up its charity efforts.
Guy Collison, executive director of the Arizona Humane Society remarked, ”It’s amazing to see that every year Go Daddy has been involved with the telethon they not only meet but exceed our expectations. Go Daddy keeps the telethon’s online components running smoothly and helps organize online contributions. To top it off they doubled their donation this year.”
Thousands of sick, injured and homeless animals across the state will have their lives saved or improved with the money raised through the telethon. The annual charity event not only raises much needed money for these animals, but also provides low-cost spay and neuter services and educational programs, including how to better care for pets, fight animal cruelty and adopt a pet.
Go Daddy’s philanthropic works support a wide variety of charitable and community organizations dedicated to such causes as domestic violence, child abuse, disabled children, teenage homelessness, Parkinson’s research, breast cancer and more. Go Daddy donated $1.7MM to charitable causes last year and is on pace to break its own record for 2009.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 36 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also rated the world’s largest hostname provider according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2008, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
The Scottsdale-based domain name registrar and web hosting provider also doubled its own donation with a $100,000 check delivered by none other than Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons’ dogs Max and Chief.
This is the fourth consecutive year Go Daddy delivered big for Arizona animals and in these rough economic times, when donations are more difficult to secure, Go Daddy was happy to help make a difference as the title sponsor. Total money raised in the annual telethon yesterday was more than $328,000.
Go Daddy also helped on the technical side behind the scenes, and on camera many Go Daddy employees answered telephone calls during the live broadcast. The move that really stole the show though was the company’s check delivery method, performed in GoDaddy-esque style… no, not by a Go Daddy Girl, but by the ‘Go Daddy’ dogs.
Max and Chief are Parsons’ dogs and have become regulars for the telethon’s big finish. Bob Parsons, Founder and CEO of GoDaddy noted, ”Max and Chief learn a new trick for each telethon,” referring to how Chief pulled Max in a Go Daddy chariot to deliver the $100,000 check to end the live telethon. Mr. Parsons added, ”Max and Chief even went ‘green’ this year using a chariot instead of the Go Daddy motorized car.”
Whether delivered by Border Terriers or more conventional methods, Go Daddy is continuing to make a difference in the Valley of the Sun with its charitable donations. As many companies are scaling back philanthropic donations due to the economy, Go Daddy is stepping up its charity efforts.
Guy Collison, executive director of the Arizona Humane Society remarked, ”It’s amazing to see that every year Go Daddy has been involved with the telethon they not only meet but exceed our expectations. Go Daddy keeps the telethon’s online components running smoothly and helps organize online contributions. To top it off they doubled their donation this year.”
Thousands of sick, injured and homeless animals across the state will have their lives saved or improved with the money raised through the telethon. The annual charity event not only raises much needed money for these animals, but also provides low-cost spay and neuter services and educational programs, including how to better care for pets, fight animal cruelty and adopt a pet.
Go Daddy’s philanthropic works support a wide variety of charitable and community organizations dedicated to such causes as domestic violence, child abuse, disabled children, teenage homelessness, Parkinson’s research, breast cancer and more. Go Daddy donated $1.7MM to charitable causes last year and is on pace to break its own record for 2009.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 36 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also rated the world’s largest hostname provider according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2008, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
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Dedicated server web hosting company, Superb Internet, has officially launched its managed hosting division, having had a long history of offering high-end custom dedicated server solutions.
The new suite of managed services will officially be available to all new and existing clients.
Dale Bunten, Dir. Sales and Marketing noted, ”This marks a natural evolution for Superb Internet, as companies become increasingly dependent on the Internet to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. As a result, we are seeing heavy demand for our outsourced IT services despite the economic downturn.”
William Song, Senior Product Manager added, ”The new managed dedicated server line provides clients with enhanced security, disaster recovery, proactive monitoring, and managed firewall options. Each customer is assigned to a certified Technical Account Manager (TAM), who is responsible for understanding and maintaining the client’s infrastructure; including: identification of problem areas and pro-actively resolving them before an incident occurs. We are confident we have one of the strongest managed hosting offerings on the market.”
All Managed servers come with a 100% network uptime guarantee, 1 hour hardware replacement SLA, and Gold Level managed support by default. The services are provisioned by certified network and systems engineers 24×7, at all three company-owned datacenters.
Patrick Ahler, Dir of Business Development added, ”Working closely with such a great group of dedicated professionals has been a rewarding experience and we are confident that our clients will benefit from our rigorous attention to detail, and strict quality control and change management procedures. Our key objective is to ease the day-to-day pain associated with managing IT infrastructure, so our clients can focus on developing their business and applications.”
Since 1996, Superb Internet has been consistently rated as one of the best web hosts by all web host rating agencies, such as Web Hosting Magazine, in all areas, especially customer support and reseller services. Superb Internet provides a complete range of managed web hosting solutions, from virtual shared web hosting through to high-volume, mission-critical dedicated server solutions. Superb’s core focus is customer service, and continuous service improvement, as a part of its commitment to staying ”Ahead of the Rest.” Superb Internet has its own data centers staffed 24×7x365 in McLean, VA, Springfield, VA, and Seattle, WA, and its headquarters office in Honolulu, HI.
The new suite of managed services will officially be available to all new and existing clients.
Dale Bunten, Dir. Sales and Marketing noted, ”This marks a natural evolution for Superb Internet, as companies become increasingly dependent on the Internet to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. As a result, we are seeing heavy demand for our outsourced IT services despite the economic downturn.”
William Song, Senior Product Manager added, ”The new managed dedicated server line provides clients with enhanced security, disaster recovery, proactive monitoring, and managed firewall options. Each customer is assigned to a certified Technical Account Manager (TAM), who is responsible for understanding and maintaining the client’s infrastructure; including: identification of problem areas and pro-actively resolving them before an incident occurs. We are confident we have one of the strongest managed hosting offerings on the market.”
All Managed servers come with a 100% network uptime guarantee, 1 hour hardware replacement SLA, and Gold Level managed support by default. The services are provisioned by certified network and systems engineers 24×7, at all three company-owned datacenters.
Patrick Ahler, Dir of Business Development added, ”Working closely with such a great group of dedicated professionals has been a rewarding experience and we are confident that our clients will benefit from our rigorous attention to detail, and strict quality control and change management procedures. Our key objective is to ease the day-to-day pain associated with managing IT infrastructure, so our clients can focus on developing their business and applications.”
Since 1996, Superb Internet has been consistently rated as one of the best web hosts by all web host rating agencies, such as Web Hosting Magazine, in all areas, especially customer support and reseller services. Superb Internet provides a complete range of managed web hosting solutions, from virtual shared web hosting through to high-volume, mission-critical dedicated server solutions. Superb’s core focus is customer service, and continuous service improvement, as a part of its commitment to staying ”Ahead of the Rest.” Superb Internet has its own data centers staffed 24×7x365 in McLean, VA, Springfield, VA, and Seattle, WA, and its headquarters office in Honolulu, HI.
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August 25, 2009 – Domain registration and web hosting company, LCN.com, has initiated large discounts on domain names and web hosting packages, designed exclusively for Twitter users following @LCN_com.
Exclusive discounts in the form of promotion codes, such as 25% off .com domains and 50% off web hosting, will be sent directly to those who follow the LCN.com twitter profile, @LCN_com.
Mark Boost, Managing Director, LCN.com Ltd, noted, ”Twitter has become a fantastic platform for companies to communicate with and listen to existing and potential customers. By offering exclusive discounts to new and existing customers through Twitter we are giving them another reason to engage with us via social networking. Providing promotion codes and discounts are not the only ways we are using Twitter to engage with our customers. Through Twitter we are seeking customer feedback which allows us to develop and tailor our products and services to give customers exactly what they want.”
LCN.com has been consistently evolving to help customers grow their business and the company highlights this as one of the main reasons for its extremely high customer retention rates.
Over the last 6 months LCN.com has created partnerships with leading industry brands to offer its customers over 100 pounds of free online advertising vouchers, award winning web design software, royalty free stock images, and, free email marketing credits all as part of its web hosting packages.
LCN.com has been providing world class web hosting since 2000 and are one of the largest web hosting companies with 180,000 current customers and over 400,000 domain names registered since its launch in 2000.
Exclusive discounts in the form of promotion codes, such as 25% off .com domains and 50% off web hosting, will be sent directly to those who follow the LCN.com twitter profile, @LCN_com.
Mark Boost, Managing Director, LCN.com Ltd, noted, ”Twitter has become a fantastic platform for companies to communicate with and listen to existing and potential customers. By offering exclusive discounts to new and existing customers through Twitter we are giving them another reason to engage with us via social networking. Providing promotion codes and discounts are not the only ways we are using Twitter to engage with our customers. Through Twitter we are seeking customer feedback which allows us to develop and tailor our products and services to give customers exactly what they want.”
LCN.com has been consistently evolving to help customers grow their business and the company highlights this as one of the main reasons for its extremely high customer retention rates.
Over the last 6 months LCN.com has created partnerships with leading industry brands to offer its customers over 100 pounds of free online advertising vouchers, award winning web design software, royalty free stock images, and, free email marketing credits all as part of its web hosting packages.
LCN.com has been providing world class web hosting since 2000 and are one of the largest web hosting companies with 180,000 current customers and over 400,000 domain names registered since its launch in 2000.
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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.
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.
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Game Server Hosting - Ping or Die
- on Monday, December 21, 2009
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Game servers are usually developed in a form of a standard component that can be found in many games that have a multiplayer option. After this kind of business became popular, hosting companies immediately responded to the growing demand and started offering dedicated servers for online gaming to both those who want to make business and to those who are simply enthusiastic. Generally game server hosting caters to two main groups of online games – those available from the main server, and those that operate through a series of distributed ones.
Centralized servers are mostly often used to host games that require these servers to be able to host thousands of users playing at the same time. The main server stores all the necessary data about the game environment and the cyber world is there 24 hours 7 days a week. The game goes on no matter if the user is online or offline. To participate in the game, a player usually needs special client software that connects to the main server. One of the most popular game using the technology of centralized servers is the World of Warcraft.
Another model is the distributed servers technology. This one is usually utilized by enthusiasts and small businesses. In this model the software is distributed onto several dedicated game servers. As an example, real-time strategies are usually based on this technology. They need frequent updates of the game world that is executed through messaging between users and servers. There should be a master server in this chain to control messaging between the whole bunch of distributed servers. Low latency and fast ping time - that is what needed for this model to be successful and ensure the fast speed of messages reaching the server and coming back to the user. Users usually choose servers with the best ping rates and connect to them to play online. That is why game server hosting companies connect their servers to the fastest networks. Security, operating system and applications tweaking and thorough configuration are also very important.
Hosting providers usually supply their clients with game server hosting services that include the most technologically advanced servers and network connections, very often with the preinstalled software to start online gaming business immediately. The most popular games using the technology of distributed servers are: Doom 3, Medal of Honor, Halo, Unreal Tournament, Counter Strike, Quake 3 etc.
Game server hosting providers are expected to significantly increase their revenue due to such rapid growth figures of online gaming. Many hosting companies have already build up a wide range of special game server hosting offers including even those for $30-40 a month. This is significantly cheaper than many low-performance dedicated servers.
7 Simple Steps For Choosing A Great Web Host
There are thousands of web hosts around today with thousands of plans to choose from making what was once a simple procedure seem like a daunting task for both newbie and pro alike.
Whether you're looking for your first host or looking to move on to a better one there are 7 simple steps you must follow to succeed in choosing a great host.
1. Platform
The first and most crucial step in choosing a web host is determining the platform the web server should run, usually a choice between Unix/Linux and Windows.
Your choice is largely determined by your website and the technologies used to create it, generally a website created with Microsoft technologies (ASP, VB) will run on Windows servers while most other sites using open source technologies (PHP, Perl, Python etc) will run on Linux based systems.
2. Features
Once you've chosen your platform the next step is determining the features you'll need from your web host. Take your time with this step as the feature lists of web hosts are getting longer and longer every day and while some plans may look similar on the surface, a good look at the feature lists may tell another story.
Only you can determine the specific features you'll need, but some key things to keep an eye on are:
Disk Space
Bandwidth
Backups
Uptime
Money Back Guarantee
Domains Allowed
Databases (Number & type)
CGI, PHP, Perl, Python, SSI
Cron
Email accounts
The list goes on and on, just remember to take your time and make sure your new web host is going to provide you with everything you need.
3. Cost
Often this is the only thing people consider when choosing their first web host, funds are usually tight and on the surface most hosts look very similar. Sometimes you get lucky and choose a good host, but more often than not it turns out to be a horror story.
I can't stress enough that choosing a web host based on price alone is asking for trouble, remember that the cost of your web hosting is more than just the monthly fee, think about the total cost of ownership. TCO includes lost sales due to downtime & slow speeds, downtime rebates, extra bandwidth charges, setup costs, extra feature costs, and your monthly fee.
Many hosts will require you to pay yearly to get the best price available though there are some that allow you to pay by the month and still get the best price, it's really a matter of personal choice as to what payment method works best for you.
4. Customer Service
Customer service is another aspect that is often forgotten about until it is too late, something breaks and you need it fixed and those wonderfully handy sales people who were more than helpful in taking your money are now nowhere to be seen, all the while you're losing out on sales every minute.
You shouldn't settle for anything less than 24/7/365 service, your website needs to be running all the time so it's no good if your hosting company doesn't work during the holidays. Don't take the web hosting companies word for it, they all claim 24/7 support but few back it up with consistent performance. Be sure to test them out at various times of the day and night via phone, email and live chat if they offer it.
5. Support
An extensive knowledge base or faq can be a real time saver as well as being an indication of the level of customer service support and expertise you can expect to receive. Spend some time browsing the support sections of the website and see for yourself the level of support provided.
Are questions in the knowledge base answered thoroughly? Are real solutions provided or are they just “cut and pasteâ replies?
6. Longevity
Do a whois on the web host's domain name and find out the creation date, anything less than a year ago and the risk that they won't be around next year increases. They could be a great host, but considering more then 95% of new hosts go out of business within a year that really isn't something you should be taking a chance on.
7. Uptime
It's a fact of life that a web host cannot be online 100% of the time, servers need to be rebooted for security and software updates and any web host that doesn't get updated faces the increased risk of being successfully hacked.
99.9% uptime guarantees are pretty standard in the industry however a guarantee is only as good as how it is defined and the company behind it. Look for no less than a full months free hosting should they not meet their guarantee, a prorated refund based on the amount of downtime is virtually worthless. Say you pay $10 for a month of hosting and your site is down for 24 hours. They will refund you for one day of downtime which ends up being about 33 cents.
There you go, 7 simple steps for choosing a great web host. It's not rocket science, just a little research and investigating that can save a lot of heartache in the future.
Small Business Owners Web Hosting Guide
Your small business website needs to be hosted on a web server or simply a server (another name for computer) that is connected to the World Wide Web so that anyone can access your website.
Choosing a web hosting company for your small business website is easy if you follow the guide I have layout for you. Depending on the scale of your business, the type of business you run and your level of technical competency, there will always be a right hosting provider just for your business.
The general rule of thumb in choosing a web hosting provider boils down to:
Excellent Customer Support
Company Stability
Robust Datacenter
Affordability
Excellent Customer Support If all things being equal, I would rate customer support as my number 1 determining factor in choosing a web hosting provider. Relying on testimonials found on the provider's site is a common approach to assess a company's level of customer excellence but it is also quite an outdated one. After all it's not uncommon for some providers to fake the testimonials. Instead I suggest you follow my way of assessing their customer support.
Sizing its level of customer support is sometimes as easy as finding out whether they have enough employees to support their level of business growth. You should look at the Customer to Employee ratio, CE ratio, as a benchmark.
For example, according to our records SiteSell Inc has approximately 15,000 customers and employs about 30 support staff, it has a CE ratio of 500 (15,000/30 = 500), you can expect a much higher level of customer satisfaction and a faster response time when compared to another provider who is serving 100,000 customers but only have 75 support staff. Their CE ratio would stand at approximately 1,333. Basically you should look for a professional hosting provider with a low CE ratio.
Getting As Close As You Can The other accurate way to assess the real status of its customer service is to get as close as you can to the company whenever possible via the following means:
Live Chat - Check to see if it's 24/7. It helps to know that you can have your questions answered almost immediately with a live chat function. Test it out by answering some basic questions to see its response time and also test its level of technical competency. Not critical but it's good to have.
Email - Send them a test mail to see how fast they respond, allowed up to 24 hours. Ask about anything but just do not be afraid to ask.
Number of Telephone Lines - Check to see if there are separate telephone lines for sales, customer service and technical support. I hate companies who use only 1 line to serve everyone. A professional small business hosting provider should have this in place. It is not uncommon for reputable providers to charge for telephone support.
Forum - The real condition of any web hosting company's customer support is really found in its members forum if any. You will get a good dose of complains and praises but if the complains outnumber the compliments; it's time to raise a red flag.
Company Stability A company's stability can be measured by the length of time they have been in business, the number of customers they have served and are serving and lastly their financial standing.
Personally as a business owner myself, a web hosting company that has been around for at least 5 years would have weathered all sorts of ups and downs in the online world, and their chance of being around is much higher than a company that has been around for less than 1 year.
Financial Stability Though public listed web hosting providers have better financial transparency than the privately-owned ones, they are not necessary always in a better financial shape than them. Bottom line, you would host your small business with a company that you know is growing in their customer base. For example, Interland having been in business since 1995 is currently serving less than 200,000 websites and this number has been decreasing. It is most likely less profitable when compared to IPower in operation since 2001 and is serving over 400,000 websites as of this writing!
Another aspect of company stability lies in its ability to remain relevant in this highly competitive industry. For example, as the number of internet users increase and streaming multi-media becomes the norm, you want to place your business with a profitable web hosting company who is able to constantly improve on their offerings so that the performance of your website is able to keep up with visitors' expectations.
Robust Datacenter Datacenters are where the web servers are resided on, and ultimately where your webpages will be accessed from. A strong and credible small business web hosting company would have the ability to own and managed their data centers or through colocation.
On one hand it might seem that is the best thing any decent web hosting company would do, but on the other hand, there seems to be a trend whereby the marketing and sale aspect of the hosting business has been outsourced to resellers.
The rationale behind this is quite simple, a web hosting company should focus on what it does best, i.e. make sure all servers are up and running. And a reseller role is to sell the hosting plans and is to focus entirely on doing just that without getting bogged down by technical issues.
Almost all the state of the art data centers should come equip with high level of security, uninterruptible power supplies and most importantly employs the latest technology to enable your website to be always up and running and is always accessible by high connectivity, i.e. fast access to your website.
Affordability Before I elaborate further, it's important to establish that after qualifying a company with the above points, there is no such thing as the best small business web hosting plan, but only the right hosting plan for your business. This is probably the last thing you should look at before deciding on the hosting provider.
Generally there are 2 main types of hosting that are available for you to choose from. They are the Linux web hosting and windows web hosting. Within these 2 platforms there are also another few subcategories of web hosting types that you need to understand before you can finally decide on the right web hosting for your small business.
To continue reading this article, please visit my site Small-Business-Web-Hosting-Guide.com for a no-nonsense approach to assessing web hosting companies for small business owners.
8 Things You Need To Know When Changing Your Web Host
Changing from one web host to another can become necessary if your website becomes popular and your current host can't meet your needs for bandwidth, storage, etc. This can be especially true if your site is hosted on a free web host.
If a move become necessary, be sure to plan it carefully. The first step is to decide on a new hosting company, of course.
Once you have found a host that can meet all your needs, you need to move your site on to the new server. Before making any moves, be sure to back up your website from the old host.
If your website isn't well structured and has been growing haphazardly, this is a good time to consider redesigning things. That could simply mean a new page design or it could mean redesigning your database and content storage.
For the first 48 hours after moving to a new host, you should use a redirect page on your old site, that automatically forwards people to the new one. This will ensure that your visitors will see the new site, even if its IP address hasn't propogated yet.
It takes about 48 hours for a new website to get listed on most domain servers across the internet, so after that you should be fine.
A few more suggestions for an easy transition include:
1. Find out whether your new host is running on Unix or Windows and make sure it will be compatible with everything you're moving from the old host.
2. Check to see how much storage you need for all your files and content on your current site, and make sure you get enough on the new host to give you room to grow.
3. Check to see what services your new host offers, and make sure anything you have been using on your current host (like autoresponders, mail forwarding, etc.) is available.
4. If your current website is created using Microsoft Frontpage, make sure your new host supports Frontpage extensions.
5. Check to see what your new host's policy is for extra bandwidth, in case your site continues to get busier.
6. If the new host's server is a shared server, check to make sure there are no adult sites hosted on the same system. They can get busy and cause all the other sites on the same server to slow down.
7. Check the review sites and forums for customer feedback about your new host before signing up. These are good indicators of the level of service you can expect.
Once you have your data uploaded to your new host, test your site to make sure it's working properly. You should be able to preview your site before you fully switch your domain name to the new address.
ASP Hosting Simplified
ASP stands for Active Server Pages. It is a technology that enables users to design and creative interactive pages for their websites, using something called “server-side scripting. What do we mean by interactive? Forms, in-site search engines, blogs, user forums, newsletters, calendars, WhoIs searches, web-based email, polls, surveys, hit counters and more.
Best of all, with ASP, no longer do webmasters have to concern themselves with what browser a visitor to their site is using. With ASP hosting, your website will appear identically on all computers, on all browsers, a claim that HTML simply cannot make.
Anytime a browser requests a webpage that has the .asp extension where the more familiar .htm or .html would be, the hosting providers web server interprets any ASP scripts in the program first and foremost, before delivering any HTML info to the browser. This is why you cannot simply run ASP websites with just any hosting company. The hosting company you choose must have servers that support ASP, or else the ASP scripts you use will be rendered useless.
When examining web hosting companies to find one that supports ASP, you must look specifically for ASP support. Do not simply assume that because a hosting company supports “most web-based scripts, from CGI to Perl that it supports ASP. If it doesnt say so in an obvious place on the sales site, go to the hosting companys FAQ and look for ASP. And since most FAQs are searchable, this shouldnt be difficult to do. If youre really enamored with a particular hosting company (or their current promotion) but can find no information on ASP support, consider contacting them via email, telephone, or web chat to find out. Its possible that they do support ASP and just have a lousy sales site (which may be an indicator of an altogether different sort).
Microsoft brought ASP to the world, and as such provides the platform - Windows - on which ASP generally works best. In order to play around with ASP scripts on your web pages, youll have to download and install onto your system an ASP server, like Microsofts Internet Information Services (IIS) or Microsofts Personal Web Server (PWS) -- one or both of which is included with most Windows packages for no extra charge. If you use Windows on your machine and have never encountered IIS or PWS, chances are its because you have to the program to your hard drive using the Windows software CD-ROM or through your control panel, since its often not included as part of the “Basic Install.
Incidentally, Windows ME and Windows XP Home Edition are lacking in support for ASP scripts. But were willing to bet the forthcoming Windows Vista probably does.
For those webmasters on a PC that isnt Windows-based, all hope is not lost. Sun Microsystems has developed a program called Chili!Soft ASP that allows other servers -- such as Red Hat, Apache, and Secure Server -- and other operating systems -- such as Linux, Solaris, and AIX -- to support ASP hosting.
Writing and using ASP scripts is easy too -- at least its no harder than HTML, with all commands occurring between and instead of and. Not so big a difference, is there? And you can find an abundance of software tools all over the web (many for free) that helps even the greenest novice create interactive web pages rife with ASP.
ASP is such a versatile language that more and more hosting companies are finding themselves compelled to add ASP support to their hosting packages just to remain competitive. This, of course, is only to your advantage as you can comparison shop around for the best ASP hosting offerings right alongside all the other features youre looking for.
What is Linux/Unix-based hosting?
It means hosting that is provided on Linux/Unix operating systems platforms. There isn't much difference between these two types of operating systems because Linux/Unix is an improved version of Linux/Unix operating system. When just applying for web hosting companies for web hosting that is based on Linux operating system it doesn't matter which one you are using on your computer as it is commensurable with any operating system.
Usability
Some years ago Linux operating system used to be available only for professionals and if you were not an experienced user you had no future with this OS. In the last couple of years the situation has changed. Providers have done their best to make users' web sites administrating more comfortable and easier. In case you're just a beginner you'll find friendly control panels that include Web- interface. And if you are an experienced user you can control your site by means of shell.
Reliability
Experts claim that Unix-based platform is one of the most reliable ones but it will mainly depend on maintenance stuff professionalism. Thus quality and stability of Linux-based web hosting won't depend on some sudden system bugs and the operating system consistency itself secures your web site operating dependability.
Functionality
In this area Linux differs the most from other popular platforms. It can handle a lot of processes that happen at the same time. This gives you a possibility to get more from the server.
What Scripting Languages Are Available For Unix?
Unix supports a wide variety of application languages, more than any other operating system. The most common applications of such kind include C, C++, Shell, Perl, Tcl, Python, Java and PHP.
What Databases Does Unix Support?
Databases available for Unix are mSQL and mySQL. The one you choose would depend on your own needs and your Host Provider's offers. This is important for you to review when choosing a hosting company.
Cost
Linux operating system was developed by Linus Torvalds as an alternative to other operating systems and is being improved by many specialists all around the world. Most of its versions are free of charge. This circumstance makes Linux-based hosting much cheaper than any other. As for Linux versions they are sometimes called Linux Distributions. The most popular Distributions are RedHat and Mandrake. Which are easy to install have a lot of different utilities and suitable for any web hosting type.
Why choose Linux/Unix-based hosting?
So, as it was mentioned before using this platform is cheaper and more convenient than others. All existent scripts, like PHP, function best when using the Linux-based web hosting. Linux/Unix based web hosting upgrading possibilities increase when using Shell and Telnet access. The Linux/Unix-based platform is probably the most stable and reliable.
Need web hosting ? Compare before you buy
The internet is one of the most important tools in the modern times. What started off as simply a mode of transfer of data is today used for a wide variety of purposes. Today, it plays a very important role in commerce and finance, all across the globe. These days, a large number of products are sold over the net. So, you will find products ranging from safety pins to cars and nails to large factories on sale on the internet. It is perhaps due to this ever growing popularity, that a large number of firms, enter the arena of internet marketing.
As a result of this, more and more websites are coming up each day. As a matter of fact, it does not seem to be a distant reality, that some day, every person would be having a separate website of his or her own. In order to cater to this growing demand for websites, web hosting services have come up as an effective tool. In recent times, a number of portals have come up, which offer web hosting services. These websites offer various web hosting plans that you can choose from, depending upon your requirements. However, one of the most important aspects in this regard, is to select the appropriate web hosting service. It gets typically difficult, to select an appropriate service which can help you achieve your objective.
Web Hosting Geeks can be of great help in this regard, in case you are facing such a dilemma. This particular site, offers you reviews of the various sites, which offer web hosting services, dedicated server hosting and other products. This would help you in analyzing the various plans that are being offered to you and eventually in the selection of the appropriate plan, which suits your requirements. This site provides you with unbiased and independent reviews of web hosting providers, which provide the best in terms of price and value. It provides a view of economical web hosting services with a fee structure of $10 a month. Also, all the web hosting plans offer at least one free domain name registration, as well as thirty days money back guarantee. So, now, you can have a review of the web hosts.
Dedicated servers offer a number of advantages for your business. Irrespective of whether you are running an ecommerce web site or you are looking for extra security, dedicated servers play a very vital role. In this regard, this website also can provide you with adequate assistance.
You can also opt for green hosting services and contribute towards environmental cause. Green web hosts are those, which make use of renewable sources of energy, for running their datacenters.
USA Reseller Web Hosting: Unix or Microsoft?
If you're in the USA, and you're planning to get into the USA reseller web hosting industry, you need to consider one major issue, first and foremost: would you like to offer Unix-ready features along with Microsoft-only ones?
Offering Microsoft-only services may seem to be the smart choice, but supporting Unix is its own asset, which could open a world of opportunities for you as a USA reseller web hosting outfit. In fact, if you have avenues to ask for both Microsoft and Unix support from your web host, all the better!
One downside to reselling web space instead of putting up your own server is that you don't get to control the basics. As a reseller, you may be able to change things around via the standard control panel. You may even have limited access to certain features like merchant accounts and secure site hosting. But when you want to switch between operating systems, or OS-es - it's unfortunately not your call, but your web host's.
Web hosts determine the kind of OS-es that run on their servers. Many web hosts offer both Windows and Unix features, by using Unix machines as servers, and then just running Windows programs and servers within these machines. Over time, Unix server OSes have become increasingly tolerant of Windows programs, which makes a Unix server a sweet deal for web hosts and resellers alike.
Unix servers are cost efficient because they are ideal for running open source programs. Preferring open source programs help save on operational costs, since they're mostly free for use, depending on the specifications of the persons or outfits who developed the codes to be used. When you run paid programs or servers on your machines, you don't only need to think of the cost of buying the software - you also need to consider the potential costs of license renewal.
There is, after all, no assurance that software licensing will cost the same throughout the years! And you have to consider that in your profit projections if you are running a webhost. Thankfully, you don't need to be concerned with that as a reseller. However, as a reseller, you should be aware of what software your potential customers will need.
If your web host only supports Unix and open source features, you run the risk of losing a big part of your clientele. But you run the same risk if your host only supports Microsoft and Windows! As a USA reseller web hosting outfit, you should be intimately aware of the needs of your target market.
Hosted Cloud Services Features Extended, at SoftLayer
Several new features have been recently added to the launched CloudLayer line of cloud services at SoftLayer. Key among these is hourly billing for CloudLayer Computing instances.Nathan Day, Chief Technology Officer for SoftLayer offered, ''Our CloudLayer suite provides comprehensive and powerful on-demand computing resources. With the addition of these new service features, our customers have an even finer degree of scalability at their disposal.''Now available is:
1 Core —$0.15/hour
2 Core —$0.25/hour
4 Core —$0.35/hour
8 Core —$0.50/hour
Outbound bandwidth usage will be charged at $0.10 per GB. As with all SoftLayer computing services, inbound and private network bandwidth is a free service.
Also added was the capability for customers to instantly upgrade computing instances via the company's industry-leading, proprietary Customer Portal. The following can be upgraded:
Core and RAM
Uplink port speed (no reboot required)
Bandwidth allocation (no reboot required)
Additional disks
The upgrades are processed automatically and take only a few minutes to complete. While ordering their upgrade, customers are given the option to specify a time for the upgrade to occur.
CloudLayer was released early last month and includes CloudLayer Computing instances, CloudLayer Storage, and CloudLayer CDN. Each is available as a standalone service, or can be integrated with SoftLayer dedicated servers and automated services to create a unified computing environment. CloudLayer provides a wide-range of benefits, including:
Pay As You Go or Monthly Packages: Monthly billing is based on hourly usage or monthly plans with no long-term commitment, letting customers optimize their return on technology investment by paying only for the resources they need and use. Hourly billing will be offered in the near future.
Immediate Scalability: Services are added in real time to accommodate unexpected or temporary changes in demand, providing exactly the level of IT power and capacity as needed, when needed. Ease of Use and Control: Full control via SoftLayer's Customer Portal and API provides streamlined, simplified management, as well as direct access to all SoftLayer services and tools.
Archive for November, 2009 LimeLabs Launches Free Hosting and Domain Registration Service LimeLabs today announced the launch of its new hosting and domain registration service, LimeDomains. An ICANN accredited domain registrar, LimeDomains offers a wide range of hosting solutions, ranging from completely free full-featured websites, to competitively priced premium hosting plans that include more space, bandwidth and the ability to manage several domains and websites from a single account. “LimeDomains makes it easy for people to get powerful websites running quickly and easily,” said Mark Gorton, Founder of LimeLabs. “LimeDomains offers free hosting and free application installation, and we are finding that many people appreciate the great value we are offering.” All LimeDomains accounts come with access to an extensive catalog of open source web applications ranging from popular blogs such as Wordpress, to full-featured content management systems such as Drupal and Joomla. Users can also upload their own files or transfer their existing websites — such as their Geocities pages — to LimeDomains via a built-in file manager, or any popular FTP client. Most popular web design applications, such as Adobe Dreamweaver, are also supported. Unlike other free hosting services, there are no strings attached to the free hosting offer on LimeDomains. Users do not have to sign-up for any third party services, or submit themselves to a barrage of solicitations (e-mail, or otherwise), or place mandatory ads on their website. Most importantly, the free accounts are not crippled in any way — and receive the same quality of service, performance and reliability that most other hosting services charge a premium for. “We are excited to be first to market with a credible, full-featured free website solution,” said John Enright, VP Marketing & Business Development at LimeLabs. “Our feature set and customer experience is already well ahead of any other hosting service — free or otherwise — and this is just the beginning.” About Lime Labs, LLC Lime Labs is an innovative web services company focused on facilitating the exchange of ideas and information through technology. Its portfolio of services includes LimeExchange, a global services marketplace; LimeDomains, a web hosting and domain registration service; and LimeBits, an open source code sharing community. Posted by Admin on November 13th, 2009 | 1 Comment Continue Reading Host4Yourself Acquires iWebFusion Technologies and Datacenter Space at USSHC H4Y Technologies LLC, an established leader in web hosting and internet services, today announced its acquisition of iWebFusion Technologies LLC of Oregon (iWebFusion.net). iWebFusion will continue to operate as a separate brand under H4Y Technologies LLC. iWebFusion brings an entirely new customer base to H4Y Technologies LLC. Host4Yourself.com, the primary brand of H4Y Technologies, focuses on development, enterprise class and mission critical managed hosting, dedicated servers, and colocation, while iWebFusion.net has made a successful name for itself based on its economical shared, reseller, and VPS product lines. Evan Kamlet, LLC Member of H4Y Technologies, said, “As if Host4Yourself.com didn’t already offer a huge range of options to our clients, the purchase of iWebFusion.net should make us attractive to just about every conceivable consumer and business. With the resources and capital on tap at H4Y, we foresee a very rosy picture for iWebFusion.net in the coming months and years. It is very exciting for all of us”. iWebFusion.net’s staff, billing, and structure will not change. Existing customers will encounter no ill effects as no equipment will be moved. A portion of iWebFusion.net’s equipment was already under the ownership of H4Y Technologies LLC before the acquisition. It is still up for debate whether the pricing model will remain unchanged, but clients have been guaranteed that existing accounts will never increase in price, nor will future sign-ups for clients with existing accounts. H4Y also worked out a partnership arrangement with USSHC (United States Secure Hosting Center) in Monticello, IA. The underground bomb and EMP resistant datacenter boasts its status as “the most secure datacenter in the United States”. iWebFusion VPS nodes and dedicated servers currently occupy a small portion of datacenter space at this facility. The existing infrastructure will not change, but H4Y Technologies will add to it and offer Host4Yourself.com customers a new line of mission-critical hosting products based on this new partnership. Host4Yourself.com already offered a linear upgrade path for its clientele. With this acquisition, the entry level for prospective clients is lower than ever before and the scalability options are nearly unlimited with products and plans at nearly every imaginable price point. Posted by Admin on November 1st, 2009 | No Comments Continue Reading Hosted Solutions Powers NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers Website Hosted Solutions, the East Coast’s premier provider of IT infrastructure as a service (IaaS), announced that they have entered into a partnership with the Cavaliers Operating Company, LLC., whereby the Cavaliers will use Hosted Solutions’ Stratus Trusted Cloud(TM) to power the team’s official arena website, theQarena.com. Because the arena’s website is anticipated to draw much heavier web traffic this year, the Cavaliers selected Hosted Solutions in an effort to increase the availability and robustness of theQarena.com. Reasons for increased traffic include: – The team and arena recently launched their own single-game primary and secondary market ticket sales service with Veritix – the industry’s most cutting edge digital ticketing, event marketing and relationship management platform. The public is directed to theQarena.com to purchase tickets to all Quicken Loans Arena events including the Cavaliers and AHL Lake Erie Monsters. – The Cavaliers begin their 40th season with a powerful team of proven players and high expectations and projected record attendance (The Cavs set two franchise records during the 2008-09 season with an average attendance of 20,512 and the number of sellouts – 38 total.) – The Q now heads into an entertainment season with a jam-packed schedule of special events expected to generate record website traffic levels. Stratus Trusted Cloud provides the availability needed to handle spikes in traffic at any time. “The upcoming year is sized up to be ‘XL’ in every way, including our fans’ interest in tickets to see the Cavaliers, Lake Erie Monsters, concerts, special events, and family shows,” said Jeff Lillibridge, Web Services Director. “We feel the scalability and dependability of Hosted Solutions’ Stratus Trusted Cloud is a perfect match to support our needs, which in turn allows us to provide our fans the level of service they deserve.” Introduced earlier this year, Stratus Trusted Cloud dramatically improves the efficiency and availability of IT resources and applications for small and mid-sized enterprises. Stratus offers a massively scalable, multi-tenant infrastructure that enables customers to access a secure, enterprise-class cloud environment with built-in high availability and automated resource balancing. As a result, businesses can move faster without compromising availability or security and significantly reduce both their capital and operating expenditures, whether Stratus is deployed on an enterprise, private or hybrid cloud basis. Moreover, Stratus is designed to provide an added level of assurance to companies that their data and entire infrastructure is being administered in a trusted manner, acting in accordance with a full range of governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) regulations. “The demand for an ‘always on’ IT environment is not unique to the Cleveland Cavaliers,” said Rich Lee, Hosted Solutions’ founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Any company doing business online requires the highest degree of reliability; even a short amount of downtime in this competitive economy can hurt significantly. The Cavaliers’ decision to deploy the Stratus Trusted Cloud for their arena website confirms its value for firms seeking a reliable, consistent and secure approach to ensuring that their website is up and running when they, and their customers, need it most.” Lee added that several other companies have chosen the Stratus Trusted Cloud in the last several months. He noted that 80 percent of Hosted Solutions’ clients run their production environments through his firm, a further testament to the superior level of performance delivered by the Hosted Solutions team. Posted by Admin on November 1st, 2009 | No Comments Continue Reading Kurt Gastrock Named Senior Vice President at Network Solutions Network Solutions® announced today that Kurt Gastrock has been named Senior Vice President. Kurt responsibilities will span three key areas: Product, Sales and Wholesale. Gastrock will be a catalyst for product innovation and customer growth. He is charged with extending the company’s suite of products and services through online and new sales channels and developing new private label offerings to a growing portfolio of partners. “Kurt brings a wealth of experience in product development and channel strategy to the company,” said Tim Kelly, President of Network Solutions. “He is a great complement to the existing team members.” Network Solutions is focused on providing businesses with quality products and services that make it easy for them to establish and grow their companies using the Internet. The product portfolio spans a wide range of services – from web hosting to online marketing services – that are supported with free, 24/7 customer service support, certified by JD Power & Associates year after year. “I am happy to be part of the Network Solutions team,” said Kurt Gastrock. “The company continues to develop, refine and expand its product portfolio and open new sales channels to deliver products and services that deliver results small businesses expect.” Prior to joining Network Solutions, Gastrock served as the Senior Vice President for Sales and Business Development at NextG Networks. His past experience includes leading the day-to-day operations of Convera Corporation where he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Gastrock also spent a number of years at Sprint Nextel Corporation where he held senior level posts in their wireless site development, hosting, and E|Solutions business units. Gastrock earned a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University. Posted by Admin on November 1st, 2009 | No Comments Continue Reading PEER 1 & InMon Partner for Per IP-Address Network Monitoring PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc today announced a collaboration with InMon to provide precise bandwidth measurement and analysis capability. PEER 1 will deploy the industry standard sFlow® network monitoring technology and InMon’s Traffic Sentinel, in all of its data centers to provide an industry leading bandwidth billing solution for its Managed Hosting customers. Bandwidth usage is measured on a per-IP address basis, so PEER 1 is able to ignore traffic occurring inside the data center, and provide precise traffic charges to its customers in a way that is not possible through per-port or physical-layer network traffic monitoring. For PEER 1 customers, the InMon-powered network traffic monitoring and analysis is accessible in real time through the online customer portal with customizable graphs and downloadable data. Ted Smith, SVP of Operations at PEER 1 said: “We believe our customers should only pay for the services they use and our collaboration with InMon maximizes our network analysis and measurement capability allowing us to accurately pass on lowest cost bandwidth charges to customers. Our IP-based or layer three approach not only increases transparency and billing accuracy, it also enables our customers to accurately re-charge bandwidth usage to their own customers.” ”The unique scalability of InMon’s sFlow solution makes it the ideal choice for monitoring the fastest of data center networks,” said Peter Phaal, president of InMon Corp. “In the expert hands of the PEER 1 engineers, the detailed traffic database in the Sentinel product can be applied to a wide range of applications, from accounting and capacity planning to troubleshooting and security.” PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc today announced a collaboration with InMon to provide precise bandwidth measurement and analysis capability. PEER 1 will deploy the industry standard sFlow® network monitoring technology and InMon’s Traffic Sentinel, in all of its data centers to provide an industry leading bandwidth billing solution for its Managed Hosting customers. Bandwidth usage is measured on a per-IP address basis, so PEER 1 is able to ignore traffic occurring inside the data center, and provide precise traffic charges to its customers in a way that is not possible through per-port or physical-layer network traffic monitoring. For PEER 1 customers, the InMon-powered network traffic monitoring and analysis is accessible in real time through the online customer portal with customizable graphs and downloadable data. Ted Smith, SVP of Operations at PEER 1 said: “We believe our customers should only pay for the services they use and our collaboration with InMon maximizes our network analysis and measurement capability allowing us to accurately pass on lowest cost bandwidth charges to customers. Our IP-based or layer three approach not only increases transparency and billing accuracy, it also enables our customers to accurately re-charge bandwidth usage to their own customers.” ”The unique scalability of InMon’s sFlow solution makes it the ideal choice for monitoring the fastest of data center networks,” said Peter Phaal, president of InMon Corp. “In the expert hands of the PEER 1 engineers, the detailed traffic database in the Sentinel product can be applied to a wide range of applications, from accounting and capacity planning to troubleshooting and security.” Posted by Admin on November 1st, 2009 | No Comments Continue Reading New Codero Network Configurations Support High Demand Server Environments Codero unveils new server networks improving security, performance, backup and ongoing management for any dedicated hosting scenario. Custom network configurations offer complete redundancy and control for high-volume email, websites, databases, application hosting and more. Three custom network configurations are designed to support complex business applications requiring multiple servers. Load-Balanced is fully redundant maintaining network traffic on high-capacity mail and web servers. High Availability is designed for marketing campaigns, high-traffic stores and data-demanding applications. The Cluster network configuration supports social media hosting, large databases and mission-critical infrastructure with optimum privacy. “These custom configurations are perfect for the medium-to-large enterprise,” says Taylor Giddens, Director, Dedicated Services for Codero. “Whether to secure core data, handle spikes in traffic or support thousands of users at once, each server network delivers a flexible solution with an emphasis on uptime.” Codero’s network configurations feature high-quality components including dedicated load balancing, Cisco firewall, EVault managed backup, 100MB switch, Gigabit Private VLAN and database (dynamic, replication or cluster). All server setups are available as Linux or Windows and may be further customized to meet any business need. Posted by Admin on November 1st, 2009 | No Comments Continue Reading Windows Server 2008 R2 -The Planet Adds Microsoft’s Newest Operating System to Portfolio
The Planet, the global leader in IT hosting, today expanded its portfolio of products and services with the addition of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows Server 2008 R2 helps organizations reduce operating costs, and increase efficiencies. The new operating system is available to all dedicated hosting customers across the company’s eight SAS 70 Type II-audited data centers.
Windows Server 2008 R2 enables dynamic provisioning and management of virtual workloads with the much-anticipated update to Microsoft’s Hyper-V™. With its Live Migration-enabling technology, moves between physical hosts now happen in milliseconds. As the first Windows Server operating system with a true 64-bit architecture, R2 also offers powerful hardware and scaling features.
“Our customers around the world are always looking for ways to do more with less, and Windows Server 2008 R2 is optimized to meet those demands,” said Todd Mitchell, general manager for dedicated hosting and global services at The Planet. “As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, we stay in lockstep with new technologies from Microsoft to give our customers more ways to reduce operating costs and increase efficiencies.”
About Windows Server 2008 R2
The latest operating system from Microsoft includes a number of updates that enhance server performance and management control:
- Powerful hardware and scaling features; R2 is the first Windows Server operating system to move solely to a 64-bit architecture, and CPU-specific enhancements enable customers to run up to 256 logical processors.
- Updated Hyper-V augments virtual workload management; Hyper-V enables Live Migration, a new feature for R2 that moves virtual machines in a matter of milliseconds.
- Ubiquitous remote access; DirectAccess allows remote users to seamlessly access corporate resources without a VPN connection or client software.
- Strongest Windows application platform to date; R2 includes the new Internet Information Services 7 (IIS 7.0), which helps applications run faster while using fewer system resources.
New Codero Network Configurations Support High Demand Server Environments
Codero unveils new server networks improving security, performance, backup and ongoing management for any dedicated hosting scenario. Custom network configurations offer complete redundancy and control for high-volume email, websites, databases, application hosting and more. Three custom network configurations are designed to support complex business applications requiring multiple servers. Load-Balanced is fully redundant maintaining network traffic on high-capacity mail and web servers. High Availability is designed for marketing campaigns, high-traffic stores and data-demanding applications. The Cluster network configuration supports social media hosting, large databases and mission-critical infrastructure with optimum privacy.
“These custom configurations are perfect for the medium-to-large enterprise,” says Taylor Giddens, Director, Dedicated Services for Codero. “Whether to secure core data, handle spikes in traffic or support thousands of users at once, each server network delivers a flexible solution with an emphasis on uptime.”
Codero’s network configurations feature high-quality components including dedicated load balancing, Cisco firewall, EVault managed backup, 100MB switch, Gigabit Private VLAN and database (dynamic, replication or cluster). All server setups are available as Linux or Windows and may be further customized to meet any business need.
PEER 1 & InMon Partner for Per IP-Address Network Monitoring
PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc today announced a collaboration with InMon to provide precise bandwidth measurement and analysis capability.
PEER 1 will deploy the industry standard sFlow® network monitoring technology and InMon’s Traffic Sentinel, in all of its data centers to provide an industry leading bandwidth billing solution for its Managed Hosting customers.
Bandwidth usage is measured on a per-IP address basis, so PEER 1 is able to ignore traffic occurring inside the data center, and provide precise traffic charges to its customers in a way that is not possible through per-port or physical-layer network traffic monitoring.
For PEER 1 customers, the InMon-powered network traffic monitoring and analysis is accessible in real time through the online customer portal with customizable graphs and downloadable data.
Ted Smith, SVP of Operations at PEER 1 said: “We believe our customers should only pay for the services they use and our collaboration with InMon maximizes our network analysis and measurement capability allowing us to accurately pass on lowest cost bandwidth charges to customers. Our IP-based or layer three approach not only increases transparency and billing accuracy, it also enables our customers to accurately re-charge bandwidth usage to their own customers.”
”The unique scalability of InMon’s sFlow solution makes it the ideal choice for monitoring the fastest of data center networks,” said Peter Phaal, president of InMon Corp. “In the expert hands of the PEER 1 engineers, the detailed traffic database in the Sentinel product can be applied to a wide range of applications, from accounting and capacity planning to troubleshooting and security.”
PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc today announced a collaboration with InMon to provide precise bandwidth measurement and analysis capability.
PEER 1 will deploy the industry standard sFlow® network monitoring technology and InMon’s Traffic Sentinel, in all of its data centers to provide an industry leading bandwidth billing solution for its Managed Hosting customers.
Bandwidth usage is measured on a per-IP address basis, so PEER 1 is able to ignore traffic occurring inside the data center, and provide precise traffic charges to its customers in a way that is not possible through per-port or physical-layer network traffic monitoring.
For PEER 1 customers, the InMon-powered network traffic monitoring and analysis is accessible in real time through the online customer portal with customizable graphs and downloadable data.
Ted Smith, SVP of Operations at PEER 1 said: “We believe our customers should only pay for the services they use and our collaboration with InMon maximizes our network analysis and measurement capability allowing us to accurately pass on lowest cost bandwidth charges to customers. Our IP-based or layer three approach not only increases transparency and billing accuracy, it also enables our customers to accurately re-charge bandwidth usage to their own customers.”
”The unique scalability of InMon’s sFlow solution makes it the ideal choice for monitoring the fastest of data center networks,” said Peter Phaal, president of InMon Corp. “In the expert hands of the PEER 1 engineers, the detailed traffic database in the Sentinel product can be applied to a wide range of applications, from accounting and capacity planning to troubleshooting and security.”
Kurt Gastrock Named Senior Vice President at Network Solutions
Network Solutions® announced today that Kurt Gastrock has been named Senior Vice President. Kurt responsibilities will span three key areas: Product, Sales and Wholesale. Gastrock will be a catalyst for product innovation and customer growth. He is charged with extending the company’s suite of products and services through online and new sales channels and developing new private label offerings to a growing portfolio of partners.
“Kurt brings a wealth of experience in product development and channel strategy to the company,” said Tim Kelly, President of Network Solutions. “He is a great complement to the existing team members.”
Network Solutions is focused on providing businesses with quality products and services that make it easy for them to establish and grow their companies using the Internet. The product portfolio spans a wide range of services – from web hosting to online marketing services – that are supported with free, 24/7 customer service support, certified by JD Power & Associates year after year.
“I am happy to be part of the Network Solutions team,” said Kurt Gastrock. “The company continues to develop, refine and expand its product portfolio and open new sales channels to deliver products and services that deliver results small businesses expect.”
Prior to joining Network Solutions, Gastrock served as the Senior Vice President for Sales and Business Development at NextG Networks. His past experience includes leading the day-to-day operations of Convera Corporation where he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Gastrock also spent a number of years at Sprint Nextel Corporation where he held senior level posts in their wireless site development, hosting, and E|Solutions business units.
Gastrock earned a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University
Hosted Solutions Powers NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers Website
Hosted Solutions, the East Coast’s premier provider of IT infrastructure as a service (IaaS), announced that they have entered into a partnership with the Cavaliers Operating Company, LLC., whereby the Cavaliers will use Hosted Solutions’ Stratus Trusted Cloud(TM) to power the team’s official arena website, theQarena.com.
Because the arena’s website is anticipated to draw much heavier web traffic this year, the Cavaliers selected Hosted Solutions in an effort to increase the availability and robustness of theQarena.com. Reasons for increased traffic include:
– The team and arena recently launched their own single-game primary and secondary market ticket sales service with Veritix – the industry’s most cutting edge digital ticketing, event marketing and relationship management platform. The public is directed to theQarena.com to purchase tickets to all Quicken Loans Arena events including the Cavaliers and AHL Lake Erie Monsters.
– The Cavaliers begin their 40th season with a powerful team of proven players and high expectations and projected record attendance (The Cavs set two franchise records during the 2008-09 season with an average attendance of 20,512 and the number of sellouts – 38 total.)
– The Q now heads into an entertainment season with a jam-packed schedule of special events expected to generate record website traffic levels.
Stratus Trusted Cloud provides the availability needed to handle spikes in traffic at any time. “The upcoming year is sized up to be ‘XL’ in every way, including our fans’ interest in tickets to see the Cavaliers, Lake Erie Monsters, concerts, special events, and family shows,” said Jeff Lillibridge, Web Services Director. “We feel the scalability and dependability of Hosted Solutions’ Stratus Trusted Cloud is a perfect match to support our needs, which in turn allows us to provide our fans the level of service they deserve.”
Introduced earlier this year, Stratus Trusted Cloud dramatically improves the efficiency and availability of IT resources and applications for small and mid-sized enterprises. Stratus offers a massively scalable, multi-tenant infrastructure that enables customers to access a secure, enterprise-class cloud environment with built-in high availability and automated resource balancing. As a result, businesses can move faster without compromising availability or security and significantly reduce both their capital and operating expenditures, whether Stratus is deployed on an enterprise, private or hybrid cloud basis. Moreover, Stratus is designed to provide an added level of assurance to companies that their data and entire infrastructure is being administered in a trusted manner, acting in accordance with a full range of governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) regulations.
“The demand for an ‘always on’ IT environment is not unique to the Cleveland Cavaliers,” said Rich Lee, Hosted Solutions’ founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Any company doing business online requires the highest degree of reliability; even a short amount of downtime in this competitive economy can hurt significantly. The Cavaliers’ decision to deploy the Stratus Trusted Cloud for their arena website confirms its value for firms seeking a reliable, consistent and secure approach to ensuring that their website is up and running when they, and their customers, need it most.”
Lee added that several other companies have chosen the Stratus Trusted Cloud in the last several months. He noted that 80 percent of Hosted Solutions’ clients run their production environments through his firm, a further testament to the superior level of performance delivered by the Hosted Solutions team.
Host4Yourself Acquires iWebFusion Technologies and Datacenter Space at USSHC
H4Y Technologies LLC, an established leader in web hosting and internet services, today announced its acquisition of iWebFusion Technologies LLC of Oregon (iWebFusion.net). iWebFusion will continue to operate as a separate brand under H4Y Technologies LLC. iWebFusion brings an entirely new customer base to H4Y Technologies LLC. Host4Yourself.com, the primary brand of H4Y Technologies, focuses on development, enterprise class and mission critical managed hosting, dedicated servers, and colocation, while iWebFusion.net has made a successful name for itself based on its economical shared, reseller, and VPS product lines.
Evan Kamlet, LLC Member of H4Y Technologies, said, “As if Host4Yourself.com didn’t already offer a huge range of options to our clients, the purchase of iWebFusion.net should make us attractive to just about every conceivable consumer and business. With the resources and capital on tap at H4Y, we foresee a very rosy picture for iWebFusion.net in the coming months and years. It is very exciting for all of us”.
iWebFusion.net’s staff, billing, and structure will not change. Existing customers will encounter no ill effects as no equipment will be moved. A portion of iWebFusion.net’s equipment was already under the ownership of H4Y Technologies LLC before the acquisition. It is still up for debate whether the pricing model will remain unchanged, but clients have been guaranteed that existing accounts will never increase in price, nor will future sign-ups for clients with existing accounts.
H4Y also worked out a partnership arrangement with USSHC (United States Secure Hosting Center) in Monticello, IA. The underground bomb and EMP resistant datacenter boasts its status as “the most secure datacenter in the United States”. iWebFusion VPS nodes and dedicated servers currently occupy a small portion of datacenter space at this facility. The existing infrastructure will not change, but H4Y Technologies will add to it and offer Host4Yourself.com customers a new line of mission-critical hosting products based on this new partnership.
Host4Yourself.com already offered a linear upgrade path for its clientele. With this acquisition, the entry level for prospective clients is lower than ever before and the scalability options are nearly unlimited with products and plans at nearly every imaginable price point.
LimeLabs Launches Free Hosting and Domain Registration Service
LimeLabs today announced the launch of its new hosting and domain registration service, LimeDomains. An ICANN accredited domain registrar, LimeDomains offers a wide range of hosting solutions, ranging from completely free full-featured websites, to competitively priced premium hosting plans that include more space, bandwidth and the ability to manage several domains and websites from a single account.
“LimeDomains makes it easy for people to get powerful websites running quickly and easily,” said Mark Gorton, Founder of LimeLabs. “LimeDomains offers free hosting and free application installation, and we are finding that many people appreciate the great value we are offering.”
All LimeDomains accounts come with access to an extensive catalog of open source web applications ranging from popular blogs such as Wordpress, to full-featured content management systems such as Drupal and Joomla. Users can also upload their own files or transfer their existing websites — such as their Geocities pages — to LimeDomains via a built-in file manager, or any popular FTP client. Most popular web design applications, such as Adobe Dreamweaver, are also supported.
Unlike other free hosting services, there are no strings attached to the free hosting offer on LimeDomains. Users do not have to sign-up for any third party services, or submit themselves to a barrage of solicitations (e-mail, or otherwise), or place mandatory ads on their website. Most importantly, the free accounts are not crippled in any way — and receive the same quality of service, performance and reliability that most other hosting services charge a premium for.
“We are excited to be first to market with a credible, full-featured free website solution,” said John Enright, VP Marketing & Business Development at LimeLabs. “Our feature set and customer experience is already well ahead of any other hosting service — free or otherwise — and this is just the beginning.”
About Lime Labs, LLC
Lime Labs is an innovative web services company focused on facilitating the exchange of ideas and information through technology. Its portfolio of services includes LimeExchange, a global services marketplace; LimeDomains, a web hosting and domain registration service; and LimeBits, an open source code sharing community.
SoftLayer™ Continues Data Center Expansion
SoftLayer Technologies™, the innovative on-demand data center services provider, today announced the opening of three new data center pods in the company’s Dallas, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., data center facilities. The new pods add capacity for 20,000 additional servers, bringing SoftLayer’s total capacity to more than 45,000 physical machines.
“We continue gaining momentum every year. We broke more projections and records this year than last, and 2010 will bring even more of the same,” said Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer. “These three new pods meet the customer demand increases that we expect in the very near future. And they are only preliminary measures in our growth strategy for 2010. We have some big plans which we can’t wait to share with everyone.”
“We’re extremely excited to introduce Private Cloud services to our customers. Private Cloud gives Softlayer customers yet another dynamic, scalable infrastructure option,” said Nathan Day, CTO, SoftLayer. “This will provide a service with segregated physical computing hardware giving customers security and peace of mind with the benefits of unlimited, on-demand scalability.”
SoftLayer’s milestones in 2009 included:
- More than 5,700 active customers across 110+ countries
- More than 23,000 deployed servers
- Placement in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Web Hosting and Cloud Infrastructure Services
- Introduction of CloudLayer™ line of cloud services, including CloudLayer Storage, CloudLayer CDN, CloudLayer Computing, and Bare Metal Cloud™
- Industry’s first deployment of Intel® Nehalem microarchitecture
- IPv6 support across all data centers
- Multiple carrier additions across all data centers for a total of 290Gbps
How to install ffmpeg, ffmpeg-PHP, Mplayer, Mencoder, flv2tool, LAME MP3 Encoder, and Libog
The following article will show you how to install “step by step” ffmpeg, ffmpeg-PHP, Mplayer, Mencoder, flv2tool, LAME MP3 Encoder, and Libog from the source. Make sure you have root shell access to your server.
cd /usr/local/src
Download the packages from its source:
wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/9225/flvtool2_1.0.5_rc6.tgz
wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/lame/lame-3.97.tar.gz
wget http://superb-west.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ffmpeg-php/ffmpeg-php-0.5.0.tbz2
wget http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/ogg/libogg-1.1.3.tar.gz
wget http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/vorbis/libvorbis-1.1.2.tar.gz
wget http://www4.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/essential-20061022.tar.bz2
Extracting the packages we just downloaded:
tar zxvf lame-3.97.tar.gz
tar zxvf libogg-1.1.3.tar.gz
tar zxvf libvorbis-1.1.2.tar.gz
tar zxvf flvtool2_1.0.5_rc6.tgz
tar jxvf essential-20061022.tar.bz2
tar jxvf ffmpeg-php-0.5.0.tbz2
tar zxvf flvtool2_1.0.5_rc6.tgz
Creating a directory to store all the codecs:
mkdir /usr/local/lib/codecs/
Now we install the packages:
yum install gcc gmake make libcpp libgcc libstdc++ gcc4 gcc4-c++ gcc4-gfortran
yum install subversion ruby ncurses-devel
svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg
svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk mplayer
cd /usr/local/src/mplayer
svn update
cd /usr/local/src
Lets copy the codecs for mplayer:
mv /usr/local/src/essential-20061022/* /usr/local/lib/codecs/
chmod -R 755 /usr/local/lib/codecs/
Installing Lame:
cd /usr/local/src/lame-3.97
./configure
make && make install
Installing Libogg:
cd /usr/local/src/libogg-1.1.3
./configure && make && make install
Installing libvorbis:
cd /usr/local/src/libvorbis-1.1.2
./configure && make && make install
Installing flvtool2:
cd /usr/local/src/flvtool2_1.0.5_rc6/
ruby setup.rb config
ruby setup.rb setup
ruby setup.rb install
cd /usr/local/src/mplayer
./configure && make && make install
Installing ffmpeg:
cd /usr/local/src/ffmpeg/
./configure –enable-libmp3lame –enable-libogg –enable-libvorbis –disable-mmx –enable-shared
make && make install
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavformat.so.50 /usr/lib/libavformat.so.50
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavcodec.so.51 /usr/lib/libavcodec.so.51
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavutil.so.49 /usr/lib/libavutil.so.49
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libmp3lame.so.0 /usr/lib/libmp3lame.so.0
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavformat.so.51 /usr/lib/libavformat.so.51
Installing ffmpeg-php:
cd /usr/local/src/ffmpeg-php-0.5.0/
phpize
./configure
make
make install
Finally we restart apache server:
service httpd restart
How to install ionCube loader.
The Loader is a .dll file or .so file (depending on the server’s operating system) which PHP uses to decode scripts encoded with the ionCube Encoder. PHP has the ability to open .dll (or .so) files at the moment a script is run. The dl function in PHP is used for this purpose. This mechanism, when used to launch the ionCube Loader, is called run-time loading.
Please note that the following steps will explain how to install ioncube loader on a linux server. Also keep in mind that you will need root shell access to the server.
1 – Download ionCube from the source to your server. Make note that the following link is for Linux 64 Bit.
wget http://downloads.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
2 – Now we extract the downloaded file.
tar -zxvf ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
3 – Lets move the ioncube folder to a new permanent location.
mv ioncube /usr/local
4 – Its time to edit your php.ini file.
pico /usr/local/lib/php.ini or nano /usr/local/lib/php.ini
5 – Add the following to your php.ini file below [ZEND]
zend_extension=/usr/local/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so
6 – Now you need to restart your apache server and your done.
service httpd restart
The Planet Extends High-Performance SAN to Dedicated Hosting Customers
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.
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.
Tripod Free Hosting Closes Down
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As announced on the 26th of November 2008 the portal and webhosting activities of the Lycos Europe GmbH will be discontinued. Unfortunately, the free hosting service Tripod is effected. For this reason we are hereby terminating your Tripod Account as of 15th February 2009. Until the 15th February you can use your Tripod account and your Homepage as usual. After this date we will close your account and delete all your content which was stored on Tripod in accordance with legal requirements. After this date it will be ímpossible to view your Homepage in the internet or to do a Backup using FTP from your page because the content will be unrecoverably deleted. That is why we advise you to to backup all necessary data in the near future from your Tripod Account on your hard drive and if wanted to upload it to another homepage provider. Please keep in mind that we do not offer any support for the free homepages neither by phone nor by email for upcoming questions. Because of this reason we created a short description how to backup your data. We regret having to take this step and we want to thank you for your confidence in the past. Currently, we are still working on finding a solution to provide you the service through another provider. If we should succeed in doing so, we will inform you within the next 4 weeks. But as this is currently doubtful, we would like to ask you to assume the end of the service. Despite the sad news we wish you and your family a successful 2009.
Best wishes,
Your Lycos Tripod Team
For those who read my “What happened to free web hosting?” post from last year, Tripod was one of the few that was actually still around and operating. I guess I spoke too soon though. Although I haven’t used my tripod account in half a decade, it’s still sad to see another iconic 90’s free web host close it’s doors.
*UPDATE* I am still trying confirm if this applies to all of tripod, or only the European operations (tripod.co.uk). If anyone knows, please feel free to chime in.
Alex Melen Interview at Retireat21.com
I just finished an interview with Michael Dunlop from Retireat21.com, go check it out: http://www.retireat21.com/interview/interview-with-alex-melen-founder-of-t35-free-web-hosting
Some of the questions I cover in the interview include:
– Tell us about your main project, T35 Hosting ? Why did you launch T35 Hosting ? Where are you at now with T35 Hosting ?
- I understand that you have over 600,000 free hosting customers and a few thousand paid hosting customers, what advice would you give a young entrepreneur trying to build a membership of any kind?
- Your website has an incredible today’s alexa ranking of 7000! How have you been able to achieve such a high rate of traffic? What advice would you give a young entrepreneur trying to market their website?
- Why should people use T35 over any other FREE host? What do you offer that makes your service better than your competition?
- Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned?
- What advice would you give to a Young Entrepreneur setting up their first business?
DomainsFree.org – Free Domain Names
I know I’ve been MIA for a few months… I have been busy with some personal things, but am now back and will keep things more updated. I promise! To start things off, I would like to introduce our new website: . This is going to be a user-rated list of the best domain name registers (where you would go to purchase a domain name). We will also be adding coupons, etc.. to the most popular registrars to make sure you always get the best deal!
Geocities shutting down – another one bites the dust
Some of you might have already heard the news, but to me it’s still unbelievable. Frequent visitors of this blog might remember seeing a rewiew I did a few months ago about all the old free hosts and how most of them no longer exists. Geocities was actually one of the few that was still around – mostly because it was backed by Yahoo! and could absorb the millions of dollars of expenses they were accruing.
Well, even the might Yahoo! no longer wants anything to do with free web hosting. For those that were online in the 1990’s, you might recall that Yahoo! spent over $2.87 billion to buy geocities. That’s right folks, say that number outloud to yourselves. $2.87 BILLION dollars. Not to mention that $2.87B in 1999 dollars would equal well over $3 BILLION today. Ironically enough, the value of the entire Yahoo! corporation was down to as low as $12B earlier this year.
Geocities was one of the original web hosts, and was actually one of the few that was started before T35. I actually enjoyed competing with them over the years (as opposed to competing with Google and all the dirty tricks they use). Here’s the official and final word from the Geocities folks themselves:
Sorry, new GeoCities accounts are no longer available. After careful consideration, we have decided to close GeoCities later this year. We’ll share more details this summer.
Guest Post: Considerations while seeking a best suitable logo for your business
Your logo is one element that can define your business completely. An important first impression about your business, many a time, is done by the appearance, style and design of your corporate logo.
While crafting a marketing and branding plan, logo designing comes out as one of the most important factor, which makes you to think what you should include within the design of your logo. In this blog post, you will get some tips and pointers on what to consider while selecting a logo for your business.
Learn from other successful logos
While you are thinking what type of logo will be the most suitable for your business, you can check those successful logos that have proven to be a successful emblem over time. For instance, the Coca-Cola logo, the Nike logos and many other logos that have been around for a significant period of time and that have really become a part of the consciousness of consumers from all parts of the world.
You can take tips and cues from these logos when it comes to the decision making process associated with your own business logo. These iconic logos have clean and clear design concepts, have basic color schemes and convey a sense of what the business is all about.
Be practical during brainstorming session
In addition to learning from other successful logos, you also need to clearly take practical considerations into account during logo design brainstorming session. For example, you will want to be certain that your logo will appropriately convey at least an indication of the products or services that you are offering through your business venture. In the end, a logo that really doesn’t convey a sense of what type of business you are in will prove to an ineffective branding attempt at best and a devastating error in the worst case scenario.
Moreover, you also make sure that your branding device should be appealing and attractive to the specific market niche in which you will contain the specific consumer group who will be most interested in doing business with your firm or company.
Avoid over-crowding, have a clean look
In selecting a logo design for your business, in determining what type of business logo will be most suitable for your venture, keep in mind that a clean and uncluttered look normally is the best selection, the best choice for your operation.
With a clean, clear and uncluttered logo you will find that consumers will more readily connect with your business. A quicker, sounder connection will increase the number of customers or clients that your firm or company will do business with both in the short and the long term.
Don’t forget to consider your industry
While you definitely do not want to copy another business’s logo design concept, it can be helpful for you to analyze what other businesses in your specific industry are doing in the way of logos, branding and related issues. Within a specific industry there can be some themes that are commonplace and well suited. Therefore, it likely will behoove your business to incorporate these themes into your own efforts at designing the most effective logo for your venture.
This is a step that a professional design firm will undertake as part of its own effort at developing the most effective and appropriate logo for your own business enterprise.
Final Lines
If you do take the time and make the effort to consider the factors set forth in this article you will be in the best possible position to understand what type of logo will be not only most suitable but also most effective for your business venture. You will be laying the groundwork for a successful and profitable business, the groundwork that will serve you well not only today but as your business grows into the future.
About the poster
This is a guest post from Ben Johnson of Logoinn, custom logo design service provider based in UK.
Guest Post: Using a WordPress Hosting Provider
Using a WordPress Hosting Provider
WordPress is an extremely popular platform for publishing on the Internet. It has been employed by large companies to report on global events and hobbyists to inform the family about the cat having babies. WordPress offers a range of benefits to casual and professional users alike, and there are many WordPress hosting companies that can help you get started right away.
Why WordPress?
The WordPress platform allows anyone to start blogging or publishing a website even without any significant background in web design. Most WordPress hosting providers offer a one-click installation of the necessary software so you can start creating and publishing content right away.
WordPress makes it easy to design and add content to your blog. There are thousands of free templates available to help create the look you want. This is one of the features that make WordPress so accessible to the general public. The layout and design elements are completely separate from the content, which means that once the design is set, any of the authors on the blog can start writing and not have to deal with all the design issues.
Finally, one of the best reasons to use WordPress is that it is open source software. To put it another way, it’s free. The software is open to the public to download and develop, and as the WordPress community continues to grow, more and more developments will keep appearing and new plug-ins and themes will become available. And it will all still be free.
WordPress Hosting Requirements
There are a couple ways to get a WordPress blog started. One is to register for a free online blog hosted by WordPress.com. This is completely free, but there are a couple of drawbacks to it. The first is that you will have fewer customization options because the blog must conform to their web hosting requirements, and the second is that the website address will not be your own. Instead it will be formatted as: “yourcompany.wordpress.com,” which can create a very unprofessional image. That’s not such a big deal for a personal blog, but it could really hurt a business.
Downloading and installing the software on your own WordPress hosting server, then, can offer you all the customization options you want and the ability to have it on your own domain. This option will, of course, incur some web hosting costs, but those are usually very affordable. When you start looking at your hosting options, though, there are some requirements that you should examine before settling on a company.
You need to make sure that the provider has enough bandwidth and storage space to accommodate your needs. You never know when your blog might hit it big, and the server will need to be able to cope with ever-increasing traffic. Be sure to look at the company’s history as well. What is their record when it comes to uptime vs. downtime? What do current and previous clients say about their service? Do they offer auto installation of upgrades and features? Finally, make sure that the provider has the proper software required for WordPress hosting – PHP, MySQL, and Apache server. When all these elements come together you can make your WordPress blog everything you want it to be.
GoDaddy Web Hosting Features KickApps Small Business Social Media Solution.
- on Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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On-demand social media, video player and widget platform, KickApps, has been added to GoDaddy’s Hosting Connection service, to enable customers to easily add social and media capabilities to websites.
Alex Blum, CEO, KickApps explained ”Today’s web has evolved dramatically from static and boring destinations that do little to truly engage a website’s audience or a company’s customers. Using KickApps’ solutions for social and media applications, any small business or organization can cost-effectively reinvent their website with meaningful results. Our offering to Go Daddy customers is a message to small businesses and non-commercial organizations around the world that they too can take advantage of everything that today’s web has to offer.”
Under the agreement, GoDaddy’s hosting customers will be eligible for special offers and pricing on KickApps solutions. The KickApps solution lowers the barriers to adoption of social and media applications on websites for small businesses, organizations and individuals seeking to engage customers and unite people and content to build a resourceful and trustworthy community.
Social media has evolved from being a novel way for people to connect online to a meaningful vehicle for driving deeper customer relationships, growing online audiences, raising awareness about critical issues and organizing online, as well as creating new revenue and donation opportunities. With KickApps, small businesses and non-commercial organizations can easily create highly engaging social, interactive, distributed, and data-informed websites. Using the same simple-to-use drag-and-drop online applications that are used by numerous global brands, small business owners and non-profits can deploy their own KickApps powered social networks, custom video players, photo and video sharing, blogs, message boards and widgets on their websites.
Alexa Raad, CEO, .ORG, The Public Interest Registry added, ”The strength of a community�comes from its ability�to transform ideas into action through shared activities. Social media tools�power up�web addresses to�create dynamic relationships fastern. We are excited to see Go Daddy and KickApps partner to offer comprehensive tools and resources to the .ORG community.”
Go Daddy hosting clients use Hosting Connection to install an extensive list of popular applications for their websites with a single click, including Joomla, WordPress and Drupal. The addition of KickApps adds the industry’s leading self-service hosted social and media platform to its catalog of essential tools for creating websites. As a one-stop-shop for hosting needs, Go Daddy’s hosting services provide generous disk space amounts and bandwidth, 24/7/365 Customer Support, world-class data centers and a guaranteed uptime of 99.9%.
Bob Parsons, CEO and Founder of Go Daddy remarked, ”Go Daddy is all about doing things easily and affordably. That’s why we created Hosting Connection. It’s just one more way we provide our customers an easy solution for their needs. Adding KickApps to the lineup gives our customers even greater flexibility to get their site just how they want it.”
Selected by BusinessWeek readers as Best of the Web 2008, KickApps provides brands, enterprises and web publishers with solutions that enable social, interactive, dynamic, distributed and data-informed web experiences. KickApps solutions consist of a suite of hosted social and media applications and services that are used by some of the world’s largest websites and brands to grow and engage their online audiences and foster deeper relationships with customers. Clients include: Special Olympics, CW Television, Guinness World Records, HBO, Cinemax, Cox Television, the Phoenix Suns, the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers and thousands of other sites.
GoDaddy is a provider of services designed to enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. GoDaddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The GoDaddy Group, Inc. has more than 34 million domain names under management. GoDaddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also the largest paid hosting provider in the world, according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2007, The GoDaddy Group registered more than one-third of all domain names registered in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
Alex Blum, CEO, KickApps explained ”Today’s web has evolved dramatically from static and boring destinations that do little to truly engage a website’s audience or a company’s customers. Using KickApps’ solutions for social and media applications, any small business or organization can cost-effectively reinvent their website with meaningful results. Our offering to Go Daddy customers is a message to small businesses and non-commercial organizations around the world that they too can take advantage of everything that today’s web has to offer.”
Under the agreement, GoDaddy’s hosting customers will be eligible for special offers and pricing on KickApps solutions. The KickApps solution lowers the barriers to adoption of social and media applications on websites for small businesses, organizations and individuals seeking to engage customers and unite people and content to build a resourceful and trustworthy community.
Social media has evolved from being a novel way for people to connect online to a meaningful vehicle for driving deeper customer relationships, growing online audiences, raising awareness about critical issues and organizing online, as well as creating new revenue and donation opportunities. With KickApps, small businesses and non-commercial organizations can easily create highly engaging social, interactive, distributed, and data-informed websites. Using the same simple-to-use drag-and-drop online applications that are used by numerous global brands, small business owners and non-profits can deploy their own KickApps powered social networks, custom video players, photo and video sharing, blogs, message boards and widgets on their websites.
Alexa Raad, CEO, .ORG, The Public Interest Registry added, ”The strength of a community�comes from its ability�to transform ideas into action through shared activities. Social media tools�power up�web addresses to�create dynamic relationships fastern. We are excited to see Go Daddy and KickApps partner to offer comprehensive tools and resources to the .ORG community.”
Go Daddy hosting clients use Hosting Connection to install an extensive list of popular applications for their websites with a single click, including Joomla, WordPress and Drupal. The addition of KickApps adds the industry’s leading self-service hosted social and media platform to its catalog of essential tools for creating websites. As a one-stop-shop for hosting needs, Go Daddy’s hosting services provide generous disk space amounts and bandwidth, 24/7/365 Customer Support, world-class data centers and a guaranteed uptime of 99.9%.
Bob Parsons, CEO and Founder of Go Daddy remarked, ”Go Daddy is all about doing things easily and affordably. That’s why we created Hosting Connection. It’s just one more way we provide our customers an easy solution for their needs. Adding KickApps to the lineup gives our customers even greater flexibility to get their site just how they want it.”
Selected by BusinessWeek readers as Best of the Web 2008, KickApps provides brands, enterprises and web publishers with solutions that enable social, interactive, dynamic, distributed and data-informed web experiences. KickApps solutions consist of a suite of hosted social and media applications and services that are used by some of the world’s largest websites and brands to grow and engage their online audiences and foster deeper relationships with customers. Clients include: Special Olympics, CW Television, Guinness World Records, HBO, Cinemax, Cox Television, the Phoenix Suns, the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers and thousands of other sites.
GoDaddy is a provider of services designed to enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. GoDaddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The GoDaddy Group, Inc. has more than 34 million domain names under management. GoDaddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also the largest paid hosting provider in the world, according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2007, The GoDaddy Group registered more than one-third of all domain names registered in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
Web Hosting Managed Hybrid Servers, Upgraded at WiredTree.
Managed dedicated, hybrid and virtual private server (VPS) hosting solutions provider, WiredTree, has reported a major and significant upgrade to its line of Managed Hybrid Servers.
The solution was developed as a unique hosting platform offering access to dedicated resources in a virtualized hosting environment.
Zac Cogswell, President of WiredTree noted, ”Leveraging the ‘best of both worlds’ is the name of the game. Our Managed Hybrid Servers outperform similarly priced dedicated servers by a formidable margin, and as we look to the future, we are positioning our products to compete more aggressively on both performance and affordability.”
Managed Hybrid Servers now boast 2000GB of monthly premium data transfer, full nightly backups, and a variety of other value-added features. To boot, WiredTree pared pricing by 20 percent, reducing the starting cost to only $99 per month.
Unlike virtual private servers, Managed Hybrid Servers include dedicated, guaranteed server resources hosted on enterprise-level infrastructure. However, unlike traditional dedicated servers, Managed Hybrid Servers offer burstable CPU utilization and more flexible data storage options, including RAID-10 configurations.
All Managed Hybrid Server plans are fully managed and include ServerShield security hardening, in addition to 24/7 phone and helpdesk support.
Formed in June 2006 to set a new standard for managed hosting, WiredTree provides a superior managed hosting environment through customer service, innovative network design, a unique suite of services, and the latest technological advances in server hardware. WiredTree designed a network that leverages two logically separated networks – a public Internet network and a private internal network. This modern “network-within-a-network” design allows the company to securely provide a wide range of value-added services for business of all sizes.
The solution was developed as a unique hosting platform offering access to dedicated resources in a virtualized hosting environment.
Zac Cogswell, President of WiredTree noted, ”Leveraging the ‘best of both worlds’ is the name of the game. Our Managed Hybrid Servers outperform similarly priced dedicated servers by a formidable margin, and as we look to the future, we are positioning our products to compete more aggressively on both performance and affordability.”
Managed Hybrid Servers now boast 2000GB of monthly premium data transfer, full nightly backups, and a variety of other value-added features. To boot, WiredTree pared pricing by 20 percent, reducing the starting cost to only $99 per month.
Unlike virtual private servers, Managed Hybrid Servers include dedicated, guaranteed server resources hosted on enterprise-level infrastructure. However, unlike traditional dedicated servers, Managed Hybrid Servers offer burstable CPU utilization and more flexible data storage options, including RAID-10 configurations.
All Managed Hybrid Server plans are fully managed and include ServerShield security hardening, in addition to 24/7 phone and helpdesk support.
Formed in June 2006 to set a new standard for managed hosting, WiredTree provides a superior managed hosting environment through customer service, innovative network design, a unique suite of services, and the latest technological advances in server hardware. WiredTree designed a network that leverages two logically separated networks – a public Internet network and a private internal network. This modern “network-within-a-network” design allows the company to securely provide a wide range of value-added services for business of all sizes.
10 Ways to Increase Your Online Income.
Are you one of those who have an online business, but do not earn the amount of money expected? Do not worry, because you’re not alone. Most of us spend months, even years trying to figure out how to make money with Internet and currently investigating.
I’m going to help write a series of tips, but mostly I leave a message which is far more important than any advice you can receive: “The real opportunity to earn money resides in our own talent and ability to act.” Then write some very simple things that most of us can imagine or create, or even accelerate, the income on line.
Another point is no less significant than the difference between people who earn money on the internet and no, this in people who apply what they learn and those that are thinking. I imagine that you are in the first group. Anyway, here are the tips that you want to convey today
1. Advertise your website in different languages. With the Internet around the world as an income opportunity and this is demonstrated. The only limits are the volume of traffic, you still need more, and also communication. Obviously if some people can not read your website certainly does not buy what you got to offer. But there are supplements that can help and can be placed on the web, and then this will lead to a number of languages without having to build a new website for each language.
2. Surprise your guests with a special bonus “when they buy.” There is a strong likelihood that your customers purchase from you again, if you give more than you expected.
3. Remember your customers at parties. Send greeting cards online, will give you the opportunity to increase your sales, but do not forget to use some cunning and include ads on the cards.
4. Do not try to sell a golf ball in a fishing magazine.
Your products and services should be marketed to your target audience. Nobody goes to a hardware store to buy bodices!
5. Increase recurring purchases. Give your customers the opportunity to buy new products when they buy one of your main products or services, or promotions with special advantages. A happy customer always returns.
6. Be creative with bonds, options, delivery or payment options and find out how this can be very helpful in attracting customers to buy your products or services.
7. Gives others the opportunity to sell your product through an affiliate program, are important forces more sales without having to do all the work.
8. Attend either your current and potential customers. When leaving a message or send an email, respond promptly. If you keep in touch with them on a regular basis will remain in your mind and overcome your competition.
9. Study your competition. Find other methods of advertising and marketing by studying the ideas and materials from other companies.
10. Educate, take courses to learn new strategies and increase your sales, the internet is very dynamic. Subscribe to publications and electronic journals. Learning is always a good companion. Learn more about the expectations of your customers; this can only further increase your sales exponentially.
And remember, we repeat one of the real key is the study of competition and keep the customer well served. The timing is always right in front of your eyes and also there is always the possibility of increasing the amount of your income online.
I’m going to help write a series of tips, but mostly I leave a message which is far more important than any advice you can receive: “The real opportunity to earn money resides in our own talent and ability to act.” Then write some very simple things that most of us can imagine or create, or even accelerate, the income on line.
Another point is no less significant than the difference between people who earn money on the internet and no, this in people who apply what they learn and those that are thinking. I imagine that you are in the first group. Anyway, here are the tips that you want to convey today
1. Advertise your website in different languages. With the Internet around the world as an income opportunity and this is demonstrated. The only limits are the volume of traffic, you still need more, and also communication. Obviously if some people can not read your website certainly does not buy what you got to offer. But there are supplements that can help and can be placed on the web, and then this will lead to a number of languages without having to build a new website for each language.
2. Surprise your guests with a special bonus “when they buy.” There is a strong likelihood that your customers purchase from you again, if you give more than you expected.
3. Remember your customers at parties. Send greeting cards online, will give you the opportunity to increase your sales, but do not forget to use some cunning and include ads on the cards.
4. Do not try to sell a golf ball in a fishing magazine.
Your products and services should be marketed to your target audience. Nobody goes to a hardware store to buy bodices!
5. Increase recurring purchases. Give your customers the opportunity to buy new products when they buy one of your main products or services, or promotions with special advantages. A happy customer always returns.
6. Be creative with bonds, options, delivery or payment options and find out how this can be very helpful in attracting customers to buy your products or services.
7. Gives others the opportunity to sell your product through an affiliate program, are important forces more sales without having to do all the work.
8. Attend either your current and potential customers. When leaving a message or send an email, respond promptly. If you keep in touch with them on a regular basis will remain in your mind and overcome your competition.
9. Study your competition. Find other methods of advertising and marketing by studying the ideas and materials from other companies.
10. Educate, take courses to learn new strategies and increase your sales, the internet is very dynamic. Subscribe to publications and electronic journals. Learning is always a good companion. Learn more about the expectations of your customers; this can only further increase your sales exponentially.
And remember, we repeat one of the real key is the study of competition and keep the customer well served. The timing is always right in front of your eyes and also there is always the possibility of increasing the amount of your income online.
GoDaddy, Sponsors NASCAR Southern 500
Web hosting domain registrar provider, Go Daddy, recently signed for a major NASCAR event, as a Presenting Sponsor of the Southern 500.
Bob Parsons, CEO and Founder of Go Daddy explained, ”This is a tremendous time to be out there – advertising, sponsoring events. Darlington is a great track, celebrating 60 years of racing this season. The fact many traditional sponsors are shying away because of the economy creates a great opportunity for Go Daddy.”
The Southern 500 presented by GoDaddy.com takes place Saturday at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, as an iconic race returning to a legendary track. The event was slated to run without a presenting sponsor until Go Daddy signed on. A tough economy – full of fiscal belt-tightening – has made sponsorships hard to come by for both tracks and teams this season. NASCAR fans will watch the return of this historic 500-mile race on a track awash in green and black Go Daddy banners.
Go Daddy expanded its NASCAR commitment in 2009 – increasing sponsorships in both the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series. The company also produced several new commercials with Go Daddy spokesman and NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and fellow driver, Brad Keselowski, and now, the Internet giant takes on title sponsorship at Darlington.
Beyond having Go Daddy’s name on the Southern 500, Parsons hopes to have a driver in the race as well. Brad Keselowski will attempt to qualify in the No. 25 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet in the Sprint Cup Series race.
Go Daddy, the world’s dominant Web hosting domain registrar, has seen tremendous gains in the midst of recent recessionary times. Unlike many U.S. companies, Go Daddy is expanding – hiring 300 employees in the first three months of this year. With 35 million domains under management and 6.6 million customers, Go Daddy is thriving. The key to Go Daddy’s success is providing people and businesses with turn-key solutions to all their Web site needs and backing those products and services with industry-best 24/7 personalized customer care.
Go Daddy is a world leader in domain registration, web hosting and design, SSL Certificates and eCommerce. The company offers more than 50 products aimed at enhancing everyone’s online image quickly and affordably.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 35 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. During 2008, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
Bob Parsons, CEO and Founder of Go Daddy explained, ”This is a tremendous time to be out there – advertising, sponsoring events. Darlington is a great track, celebrating 60 years of racing this season. The fact many traditional sponsors are shying away because of the economy creates a great opportunity for Go Daddy.”
The Southern 500 presented by GoDaddy.com takes place Saturday at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, as an iconic race returning to a legendary track. The event was slated to run without a presenting sponsor until Go Daddy signed on. A tough economy – full of fiscal belt-tightening – has made sponsorships hard to come by for both tracks and teams this season. NASCAR fans will watch the return of this historic 500-mile race on a track awash in green and black Go Daddy banners.
Go Daddy expanded its NASCAR commitment in 2009 – increasing sponsorships in both the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series. The company also produced several new commercials with Go Daddy spokesman and NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and fellow driver, Brad Keselowski, and now, the Internet giant takes on title sponsorship at Darlington.
Beyond having Go Daddy’s name on the Southern 500, Parsons hopes to have a driver in the race as well. Brad Keselowski will attempt to qualify in the No. 25 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet in the Sprint Cup Series race.
Go Daddy, the world’s dominant Web hosting domain registrar, has seen tremendous gains in the midst of recent recessionary times. Unlike many U.S. companies, Go Daddy is expanding – hiring 300 employees in the first three months of this year. With 35 million domains under management and 6.6 million customers, Go Daddy is thriving. The key to Go Daddy’s success is providing people and businesses with turn-key solutions to all their Web site needs and backing those products and services with industry-best 24/7 personalized customer care.
Go Daddy is a world leader in domain registration, web hosting and design, SSL Certificates and eCommerce. The company offers more than 50 products aimed at enhancing everyone’s online image quickly and affordably.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 35 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. During 2008, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
Yahoo Web Host, Scheduled for Technology Investor Conferences.
Search engine and Internet firm, Yahoo! Inc., is scheduled to participate in several upcoming investor technology conferences as outlined below.
Bank of America and Merrill Lynch 2009 U.S. Technology Conference
Carol Bartz, Yahoo! chief executive officer, will participate in a question and answer session at the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch 2009 U.S. Technology Conference in New York, New York. The session is scheduled to begin at 9:00am PT / 12:00pm ET on Wednesday, June 3, 2009.
RBC Capital Markets 2009 Technology, Media and Communications Conference
Larry Cornett, vice president product search, will participate in a question and answer session at the RBC Capital Markets 2009 Technology, Media and Communications Conference in San Francisco, California. The session is scheduled to begin at 10:00am PT / 1:00pm ET on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.
Credit Suisse 2009 Convergence Conference
Joanne Bradford, senior vice president of revenue and market development, will participate in a question and answer session at the Credit Suisse 2009 Convergence Conference in Dana Point, California. The session is scheduled to begin at 1:15pm PT / 4:15pm ET on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.
A live webcast of all presentations will be available on the Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/events.cfm?CalendarID=5
Yahoo! Inc. is a global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Bank of America and Merrill Lynch 2009 U.S. Technology Conference
Carol Bartz, Yahoo! chief executive officer, will participate in a question and answer session at the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch 2009 U.S. Technology Conference in New York, New York. The session is scheduled to begin at 9:00am PT / 12:00pm ET on Wednesday, June 3, 2009.
RBC Capital Markets 2009 Technology, Media and Communications Conference
Larry Cornett, vice president product search, will participate in a question and answer session at the RBC Capital Markets 2009 Technology, Media and Communications Conference in San Francisco, California. The session is scheduled to begin at 10:00am PT / 1:00pm ET on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.
Credit Suisse 2009 Convergence Conference
Joanne Bradford, senior vice president of revenue and market development, will participate in a question and answer session at the Credit Suisse 2009 Convergence Conference in Dana Point, California. The session is scheduled to begin at 1:15pm PT / 4:15pm ET on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.
A live webcast of all presentations will be available on the Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/events.cfm?CalendarID=5
Yahoo! Inc. is a global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Go Daddy Web Hosting Domain Registrar $100K Donation, Bolsters Humane Society.
GoDaddy.com web hosting and domain registrar, helped boost the bottom line for the Arizona Humane Society Telethon by matching every single contribution made on the Internet.
The Scottsdale-based domain name registrar and web hosting provider also doubled its own donation with a $100,000 check delivered by none other than Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons’ dogs Max and Chief.
This is the fourth consecutive year Go Daddy delivered big for Arizona animals and in these rough economic times, when donations are more difficult to secure, Go Daddy was happy to help make a difference as the title sponsor. Total money raised in the annual telethon yesterday was more than $328,000.
Go Daddy also helped on the technical side behind the scenes, and on camera many Go Daddy employees answered telephone calls during the live broadcast. The move that really stole the show though was the company’s check delivery method, performed in GoDaddy-esque style… no, not by a Go Daddy Girl, but by the ‘Go Daddy’ dogs.
Max and Chief are Parsons’ dogs and have become regulars for the telethon’s big finish. Bob Parsons, Founder and CEO of GoDaddy noted, ”Max and Chief learn a new trick for each telethon,” referring to how Chief pulled Max in a Go Daddy chariot to deliver the $100,000 check to end the live telethon. Mr. Parsons added, ”Max and Chief even went ‘green’ this year using a chariot instead of the Go Daddy motorized car.”
Whether delivered by Border Terriers or more conventional methods, Go Daddy is continuing to make a difference in the Valley of the Sun with its charitable donations. As many companies are scaling back philanthropic donations due to the economy, Go Daddy is stepping up its charity efforts.
Guy Collison, executive director of the Arizona Humane Society remarked, ”It’s amazing to see that every year Go Daddy has been involved with the telethon they not only meet but exceed our expectations. Go Daddy keeps the telethon’s online components running smoothly and helps organize online contributions. To top it off they doubled their donation this year.”
Thousands of sick, injured and homeless animals across the state will have their lives saved or improved with the money raised through the telethon. The annual charity event not only raises much needed money for these animals, but also provides low-cost spay and neuter services and educational programs, including how to better care for pets, fight animal cruelty and adopt a pet.
Go Daddy’s philanthropic works support a wide variety of charitable and community organizations dedicated to such causes as domestic violence, child abuse, disabled children, teenage homelessness, Parkinson’s research, breast cancer and more. Go Daddy donated $1.7MM to charitable causes last year and is on pace to break its own record for 2009.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 36 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also rated the world’s largest hostname provider according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2008, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
The Scottsdale-based domain name registrar and web hosting provider also doubled its own donation with a $100,000 check delivered by none other than Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons’ dogs Max and Chief.
This is the fourth consecutive year Go Daddy delivered big for Arizona animals and in these rough economic times, when donations are more difficult to secure, Go Daddy was happy to help make a difference as the title sponsor. Total money raised in the annual telethon yesterday was more than $328,000.
Go Daddy also helped on the technical side behind the scenes, and on camera many Go Daddy employees answered telephone calls during the live broadcast. The move that really stole the show though was the company’s check delivery method, performed in GoDaddy-esque style… no, not by a Go Daddy Girl, but by the ‘Go Daddy’ dogs.
Max and Chief are Parsons’ dogs and have become regulars for the telethon’s big finish. Bob Parsons, Founder and CEO of GoDaddy noted, ”Max and Chief learn a new trick for each telethon,” referring to how Chief pulled Max in a Go Daddy chariot to deliver the $100,000 check to end the live telethon. Mr. Parsons added, ”Max and Chief even went ‘green’ this year using a chariot instead of the Go Daddy motorized car.”
Whether delivered by Border Terriers or more conventional methods, Go Daddy is continuing to make a difference in the Valley of the Sun with its charitable donations. As many companies are scaling back philanthropic donations due to the economy, Go Daddy is stepping up its charity efforts.
Guy Collison, executive director of the Arizona Humane Society remarked, ”It’s amazing to see that every year Go Daddy has been involved with the telethon they not only meet but exceed our expectations. Go Daddy keeps the telethon’s online components running smoothly and helps organize online contributions. To top it off they doubled their donation this year.”
Thousands of sick, injured and homeless animals across the state will have their lives saved or improved with the money raised through the telethon. The annual charity event not only raises much needed money for these animals, but also provides low-cost spay and neuter services and educational programs, including how to better care for pets, fight animal cruelty and adopt a pet.
Go Daddy’s philanthropic works support a wide variety of charitable and community organizations dedicated to such causes as domestic violence, child abuse, disabled children, teenage homelessness, Parkinson’s research, breast cancer and more. Go Daddy donated $1.7MM to charitable causes last year and is on pace to break its own record for 2009.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 36 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also rated the world’s largest hostname provider according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2008, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
Dedicated Server Provider, Superb Internet, Premieres Managed Hosting Services.
Dedicated server web hosting company, Superb Internet, has officially launched its managed hosting division, having had a long history of offering high-end custom dedicated server solutions.
The new suite of managed services will officially be available to all new and existing clients.
Dale Bunten, Dir. Sales and Marketing noted, ”This marks a natural evolution for Superb Internet, as companies become increasingly dependent on the Internet to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. As a result, we are seeing heavy demand for our outsourced IT services despite the economic downturn.”
William Song, Senior Product Manager added, ”The new managed dedicated server line provides clients with enhanced security, disaster recovery, proactive monitoring, and managed firewall options. Each customer is assigned to a certified Technical Account Manager (TAM), who is responsible for understanding and maintaining the client’s infrastructure; including: identification of problem areas and pro-actively resolving them before an incident occurs. We are confident we have one of the strongest managed hosting offerings on the market.”
All Managed servers come with a 100% network uptime guarantee, 1 hour hardware replacement SLA, and Gold Level managed support by default. The services are provisioned by certified network and systems engineers 24×7, at all three company-owned datacenters.
Patrick Ahler, Dir of Business Development added, ”Working closely with such a great group of dedicated professionals has been a rewarding experience and we are confident that our clients will benefit from our rigorous attention to detail, and strict quality control and change management procedures. Our key objective is to ease the day-to-day pain associated with managing IT infrastructure, so our clients can focus on developing their business and applications.”
Since 1996, Superb Internet has been consistently rated as one of the best web hosts by all web host rating agencies, such as Web Hosting Magazine, in all areas, especially customer support and reseller services. Superb Internet provides a complete range of managed web hosting solutions, from virtual shared web hosting through to high-volume, mission-critical dedicated server solutions. Superb’s core focus is customer service, and continuous service improvement, as a part of its commitment to staying ”Ahead of the Rest.” Superb Internet has its own data centers staffed 24×7x365 in McLean, VA, Springfield, VA, and Seattle, WA, and its headquarters office in Honolulu, HI.
The new suite of managed services will officially be available to all new and existing clients.
Dale Bunten, Dir. Sales and Marketing noted, ”This marks a natural evolution for Superb Internet, as companies become increasingly dependent on the Internet to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. As a result, we are seeing heavy demand for our outsourced IT services despite the economic downturn.”
William Song, Senior Product Manager added, ”The new managed dedicated server line provides clients with enhanced security, disaster recovery, proactive monitoring, and managed firewall options. Each customer is assigned to a certified Technical Account Manager (TAM), who is responsible for understanding and maintaining the client’s infrastructure; including: identification of problem areas and pro-actively resolving them before an incident occurs. We are confident we have one of the strongest managed hosting offerings on the market.”
All Managed servers come with a 100% network uptime guarantee, 1 hour hardware replacement SLA, and Gold Level managed support by default. The services are provisioned by certified network and systems engineers 24×7, at all three company-owned datacenters.
Patrick Ahler, Dir of Business Development added, ”Working closely with such a great group of dedicated professionals has been a rewarding experience and we are confident that our clients will benefit from our rigorous attention to detail, and strict quality control and change management procedures. Our key objective is to ease the day-to-day pain associated with managing IT infrastructure, so our clients can focus on developing their business and applications.”
Since 1996, Superb Internet has been consistently rated as one of the best web hosts by all web host rating agencies, such as Web Hosting Magazine, in all areas, especially customer support and reseller services. Superb Internet provides a complete range of managed web hosting solutions, from virtual shared web hosting through to high-volume, mission-critical dedicated server solutions. Superb’s core focus is customer service, and continuous service improvement, as a part of its commitment to staying ”Ahead of the Rest.” Superb Internet has its own data centers staffed 24×7x365 in McLean, VA, Springfield, VA, and Seattle, WA, and its headquarters office in Honolulu, HI.
Web Hosting Firm, LCN.com, Engages Twitter Discount Campaign.
August 25, 2009 – Domain registration and web hosting company, LCN.com, has initiated large discounts on domain names and web hosting packages, designed exclusively for Twitter users following @LCN_com.
Exclusive discounts in the form of promotion codes, such as 25% off .com domains and 50% off web hosting, will be sent directly to those who follow the LCN.com twitter profile, @LCN_com.
Mark Boost, Managing Director, LCN.com Ltd, noted, ”Twitter has become a fantastic platform for companies to communicate with and listen to existing and potential customers. By offering exclusive discounts to new and existing customers through Twitter we are giving them another reason to engage with us via social networking. Providing promotion codes and discounts are not the only ways we are using Twitter to engage with our customers. Through Twitter we are seeking customer feedback which allows us to develop and tailor our products and services to give customers exactly what they want.”
LCN.com has been consistently evolving to help customers grow their business and the company highlights this as one of the main reasons for its extremely high customer retention rates.
Over the last 6 months LCN.com has created partnerships with leading industry brands to offer its customers over 100 pounds of free online advertising vouchers, award winning web design software, royalty free stock images, and, free email marketing credits all as part of its web hosting packages.
LCN.com has been providing world class web hosting since 2000 and are one of the largest web hosting companies with 180,000 current customers and over 400,000 domain names registered since its launch in 2000.
Exclusive discounts in the form of promotion codes, such as 25% off .com domains and 50% off web hosting, will be sent directly to those who follow the LCN.com twitter profile, @LCN_com.
Mark Boost, Managing Director, LCN.com Ltd, noted, ”Twitter has become a fantastic platform for companies to communicate with and listen to existing and potential customers. By offering exclusive discounts to new and existing customers through Twitter we are giving them another reason to engage with us via social networking. Providing promotion codes and discounts are not the only ways we are using Twitter to engage with our customers. Through Twitter we are seeking customer feedback which allows us to develop and tailor our products and services to give customers exactly what they want.”
LCN.com has been consistently evolving to help customers grow their business and the company highlights this as one of the main reasons for its extremely high customer retention rates.
Over the last 6 months LCN.com has created partnerships with leading industry brands to offer its customers over 100 pounds of free online advertising vouchers, award winning web design software, royalty free stock images, and, free email marketing credits all as part of its web hosting packages.
LCN.com has been providing world class web hosting since 2000 and are one of the largest web hosting companies with 180,000 current customers and over 400,000 domain names registered since its launch in 2000.
Web Hosting Provider, Layered Technologies, Ranks on 2009 Inc. 5000
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.
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.
