Advantage Content

(The Hosting News) – The Planet has formally announced it’s plan to  join up with three social media powerhouses in sponsoring a Saturday night meet-up during Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference. The March 13 event will be at Emo’s Austin, one of the city’s premier music venues, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

“SXSW offers us the opportunity to meet up with our customers, and to showcase new products and capabilities,” said Tom Blair, vice president of Global Sales with The Planet. “We appreciate the opportunity to partner with Tumblr, one of our largest customers, and to work side-by-side with Kickstarter and SoundCloud, who embody precisely what SXSW is all about – innovation, entrepreneurship and emerging social media technologies.”

“With so many Tumblr users in Austin for SXSW, this group event is a great opportunity to get together to hear feedback and bounce around new ideas,” said Tumblr President John Maloney (www.tumblr.com). “We’re coming off a milestone month with more than 1 billion pageviews, so it’s a terrific opportunity to celebrate with our users and The Planet, which provides the infrastructure for our service.”

SXSW participants will find The Planet team at the Interactive show in booth 303.
For more information and to RSVP, visit www.theplanet.com/events.

About the Participating Companies

Tumblr – Tumblr provides users with a foundation for effortlessly sharing anything, from posting text, photos, quotes, links, music and videos via browser, phone, desktop, email and from virtually any location.

Kickstarter – As a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors and explorers, Kickstarter offers a creative outlet that inspires people to open their wallets by offering products, benefits and fun experiences.

SoundCloud – The SoundCloud platform lets users move music fast and easy. It takes the daily hassle out of receiving, sending and distributing music for artists, record labels and other music professionals.

The Planet Joins Forces with Tumblr, Kickstarter, SoundCloud for SXSW Meet-Up

(The Hosting News) – IT Hosting provider The Planet, has officially announced that it will be  participating  in South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive, scheduled for March 13-15, 2010, at the Austin Convention Center. The Planet will be at booth 303-305, showcasing its hosting solutions, Partner Plus program and project Sand Castle, which offers free servers to Web developers. The Planet will also be accepting applications on-site for its Microsoft WebsiteSpark program, with a year of free hosting given to a winning applicant.

“SXSW Interactive consistently draws some of the brightest minds in social media and technology spheres to Austin, including emerging startups, Web designers and developers,” said Duke Skarda, The Planet’s vice president of information technology and software development. “For these companies, a reliable platform for hosting their business or applications is critical, and customers tell us they choose The Planet based on the quality of our network, data centers and customer support. We’re looking forward to discussing our hosting capabilities, partner programs, the Sand Castle project and Microsoft WebsiteSpark with show attendees.”

The Planet is title sponsor of a Tumblr (www.tumblr.com) event at SXSW, to be held Saturday, March 13, at 6:30 p.m. at Emo’s Austin. Participating companies include SoundCloud (http://soundcloud.com/) and Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com/).

The Planet Announces Participation at South by Southwest Interactive

(The Hosting News) – IT services provider Fusepoint Managed Services , today announced the appointment of Sam Ikomi to the position of Vice President, Data Centre Facilities. In this role Mr. Ikomi is responsible for the design, maintenance, staffing and reliability of the company’s critical data centre facilities’ infrastructure across Canada.

Mr. Ikomi brings over 28 years of experience in international data centre engineering expertise, overseeing significant critical assets with prominent Fortune 500 companies. Most recently he was accountable for Microsoft’s 256,000 sq. ft. data centre facility in Virginia, where he was responsible for delivering data centre operational excellence in support of Microsoft’s online businesses. Prior to Microsoft, Mr. Ikomi was employed by Fannie Mae where he was responsible for their facilities in Northern Virginia, Washington, DC and Maryland, a total of two million sq. ft. of space, including Data Centres and Market Trading rooms. Prior to Fannie Mae, Mr. Ikomi was employed by IBM as a Program Manager/Advisory Engineer in their Data Centre Engineering and Critical Facilities Support organization for the North Eastern United States.

Mr. Ikomi received his Bachelor of Engineering degree with Honours from the University of Benin. In addition, he holds numerous industry certifications including CFM, Professional Engineering license, FMA, SMA and SMT. Mr. Ikomi’s technical expertise is complemented with leadership and management development from IBM, Fannie Mae and Microsoft.

“Meeting the growth demands of a rapidly expanding services firm takes industry talent second to none, which we have found in Mr. Ikomi,” said George Kerns, President and CEO of Fusepoint. “Welcoming Sam to our executive team builds on our strategic vision of being the most innovative managed hosting provider in Canada.”

Sam Ikomi New Vice President, Data Centre Facilities, of Fusepoint

(The Hosting News) – The Go Daddy portfolio surpassed 40 million domain names today. This marks an important Internet milestone and also demonstrates the significant role the Web plays in the ‘new economy.’

The CEO and founder of Go Daddy, Bob Parsons, was quoted as saying that “the Internet is the heart of the new economy”. He also went onto add that “the Internet is one of the few sectors showing monumental growth and Go Daddy is positioned in the sweet spot of the expansion. Think about it, to have your own Web site, you need a domain name and no one can deliver on a domain like Go Daddy. Our growth is essentially a window into what’s happening with the Internet.”

Since 2000, Internet usage has exploded, growing from 361 million users to more than 1.7 billion users. During that same time, domain name registrations grew at an even faster rate. In recent years, as the economy sputtered, the domain name industry has thrived. Consider this: for the last two consecutive years, Go Daddy has been registering, renewing or transferring a domain name at the rate of one every second of every day.

Go Daddy typically registers a million domain names per month, which was an Internet ‘first’ initially recorded by Go Daddy back in April 2007. Go Daddy now holds a near 50 percent market share of all active new domains registered in the world and is more than three times the size of its closest competitor.

The 40 million-milestone comes as the Internet prepares to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the .COM domain extension.  “Go Daddy is one of the pioneers that has elevated domain names into the mainstream consciousness,” said Mark McLaughlin, VeriSign CEO.  “We’ll be highlighting their story as part of our upcoming dot-COM twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations.”

“Over the next twenty-five years, I see the Internet growing exponentially,” said Parsons. “Think about it, whether you are communicating, learning or conducting business, being on the Internet is where it’s all happening. I’d say if you aren’t online with your business, you really aren’t in the game.”

It’s difficult to argue with Parsons’ prediction, when you consider, at the height of the .COM bubble bursting, almost exactly ten years ago to the day, there were a mere 17 million domains registered worldwide. Today, Go Daddy has more than twice that number of domain names in its portfolio alone.

Go Daddy’s growth is benefiting people looking for jobs right now too. As businesses linked to industries like home sales, manufacturing and publishing struggle in today’s economic climate, Go Daddy has stood out as one of the few companies growing and in ‘hiring mode.’ The domain name registrar and Web host provider proudly refuses to offshore a single customer care position and has hired hundreds of people in corporate, development and customer care positions in recent months. Currently there are more than 100 open positions available at www.GoDaddy.com/Jobs.

Go Daddy Domain Name Total Reaches 40 Million.

If you read a lot of tech-related blogs or magazines you ve surely heard of this somewhat new concept called computing in the cloud that has become increasingly popular. According to many experts it s the future of computing and the most overused term in the tech world thus far for 2 1 but the definition of what it is changes depending on who you ask. In this article we ll look at what computing in the cloud actually is and what it offers that is different from the way we do computing today….

Cloud Servers in Demand – GoGrid Start Small and Grow with Your Business. $0.10/hour

(The Hosting News)  –  Web hosting provider ServInt, today announced it is donating hosting services for the new philanthropic effort Indie Music for Haiti (www.indiemusicforhaiti.com).

The new site from Maryland-based music studio Asparagus Media allows independent musicians to submit video clips of recent performances, new songs written for or about the crisis, and other video content designed to promote charitable giving to Haitian relief. The site is structured to make submitting content simple, and allows artists to easily direct viewers to the charity of their choice.

To mark the launch of the site, ServInt was a major supporter of the successful Indie Music for Haiti fundraising concert Feb. 2nd at the popular Washington, DC music venue DC9. The event, which featured performances by artists including Tommy T of Gogol Bordello, raised several thousand dollars for the relief group Voice of Haiti (www.voiceofhaiti.org). One of the highlights of the event was an appearance by ServInt CEO and Founder Reed Caldwell, who flew in from ServInt’s Los Angeles office to announce that ServInt would match all donations made at the event.

All the performances from the Feb. 2nd event were filmed in high definition, and are among the first clips anchoring the content at Indie Music for Haiti.

“A huge part of the worldwide music industry isn’t affiliated with any mainstream music label. We’re giving these kinds of artists and their fans a place to congregate and make a positive difference for a devastated nation,” said Asparagus Media President Fritz Stolzenbach.

ServInt Chief Operating Officer Christian Dawson said, “With the potential to showcase hundreds of high-quality music-video files, Indie Music for Haiti will require a large amount of bandwidth and continuous monitoring to ensure reliable performance. ServInt will deploy all necessary hosting resources to guarantee an optimal user experience and give thousands of music fans the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing relief effort in Haiti.”

Dawson added, “ServInt has a long, successful association with some of the nation’s most progressive technology, music, art and literary communities. We expect to make additional announcements later this year, detailing our support for selected organizations that are helping to drive the economy, enlighten the general public and provide assistance to those in need.”

ServInt donates web-hosting services for new philanthropic effort Indie Music for Haiti

(The Hosting News) – The business community has offered it’s support for Codero’s recently launched Price Match Challenge. This new program has had a highly positive effect among small- to medium-sized businesses desiring a less expensive solution for dedicated and managed hosting services. The limited-time promotion allows customers to receive a price match for any publicly advertised price from a competitor for identical products and services.

“In these recessionary times, we are committed to the success of our customers which is why we have gone to great lengths to competitively price the products and services we offer,” stated Shelby Garlock, Director, Marketing. “In fact, we are so dedicated to offering the best possible value that if a customer discovers a better price for like services, we’ll honor it. We have found when we can meet our customers’ demand for responsive, quality services at low-cost prices, it’s a win-win for everybody. Response has been overwhelmingly favorable.”

In order to receive a price match, customers must submit a copy of a dated price and specification quote that is no more than thirty days old, or a live link to a website advertising the price and specifications to be matched. The Price Match Challenge is valid on newly activated dedicated and managed hosting services, and will be honored for as long as the customer maintains that service with Codero.

Codero’s Cost-Saving Measures Provoke Favorable Reaction

(The Hosting News) – Chicago based Steadfast Networks, has officially announced its environmental green initiative by implementing a 100% carbon offset. This offset will be utilized for staff commuting, office usage, core infrastructure, networking equipment, shared web hosting, VPS hosting, and backup services. Steadfast Networks is certified “carbon neutral” by Carbonfund.org, an environmentally-friendly organization that helps businesses reduce and offset their climate impact.

“Moving steadily forward in the 21st century does not mean trampling all over our natural resources, so we have teamed up with Carbonfund.org and implemented a variety of green initiative programs to help preserve our natural resources,” says Karl Zimmerman, CEO of Steadfast Networks. “The same high quality and exceptional service Steadfast Networks stands for in our managed servers, colocation hosting services, and web hosting services is the standard we aspire to for maintaining a healthy environment.”

In addition to becoming carbon neutral and purchasing carbon offsets, Steadfast Networks encourages employees to commute by foot, bike, or public transportation, and in some cases, work from home. To increase efficiency and help the environment, local vendors such as Amadi Systems provide more than 90% of Steadfast Networks’ equipment, cutting down on the emissions caused while transporting. Steadfast Networks orders the equipment with no packing materials in order to reduce the trash produced. All paper and cardboard products, equipment, hardware, and servers building-wide are recycled.

“Not having to unpack equipment has increased the speed of operations and made our Chicago hosting services and data centers run more efficiently,” says Zimmerman. “Highly efficient network systems and dedicated server hosting also reduce carbon outputs, and those are options we also offer to customers who want to reduce their carbon imprint.”

Steadfast Network’s base operations, shared web hosting, VPS hosting, and backup services are carbon neutral. Customers who wish to receive carbon neutral colocation services and dedicated server hosting indicate that choice by contacting a Steadfast Networks representative or when placing an order. Additionally, Steadfast Networks’ low power Atom servers, Xeon processors and Intel solid state drives lower operational costs while reducing the carbon footprint associated with hosting services. Providing dedicated server, colocation, and hosting services without up-selling a more energy-intensive IT solution a customer does not need further reduces
environmental impact.

“People who are passionate about caring for our world are loyal to companies who share that same sense of responsibility,” says Zimmerman. “Customers appreciate transparency and businesses with carbon neutral hosting services can let their clients know they are standing up and doing their part for our world.”

For more information on Steadfast Networks’ green initiative, or to suggest more ways to reduce the carbon footprint, visit http://steadfast.net/corporate/green.php.

Steadfast Networks Publicizes New Green Initiative