Web Hosting Talk News

UNIFIED Joins Forces With Relativity to Deliver Cost-Effective and Powerful E-Discovery/Disclosure Platform

THN Editor — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:45:27 EST

(The Hosting News) – UNIFIED has today announced that it has become a Premium Hosting Partner for kCura’s Relativity, a web-based application servicing the analysis, review and production stages of the EDRM.

Recognising the increasing demand from law firms for an ‘outcome based’ approach to the outsourcing of legal support systems and processes, the team at UNIFIED identified Relativity from kCura as an industrial strength review platform. The combination of UNIFIED’s robust project management and technical expertise and kCura’s proven technology ensures the delivery of an extremely powerful and effective capability for e-disclosure/discovery processing, review and production.

For UNIFIED’s clients, this mitigates the risk of outsourcing the e-discovery and disclosure process as they can access the highest quality of skills, technology and expertise from a single provider.

“In these challenging economic times we recognise that efficiency and financial sustainability are currently at the centre of the legal industry,” comments Paul Mankoo, CEO of UNIFIED. “In addition, the e-discovery/disclosure market is very noisy, and as such, law firms are faced with a myriad of options when assessing the most effective outsourcing model for their business; our mission at UNIFIED is to cut through that noise and focus on flexibility without sacrificing on quality.”

Noel Kilby, COO of UNIFIED continues, “When assessing the technology platforms available to UNIFIED, quality and scalability was critical. kCura’s approach and proven technology stood out for us as it clearly drives efficiency into the fundamentals of review, search and production whilst maintaining adaptability.

“We work closely with our clients to provide a bespoke e-discovery/disclosure model that directly meets their needs, underpinned by an ethos of cost management. Relativity’s flexibility helps us meet that objective with the option of extending our analytics capabilities as and when needed.”

“We are excited to welcome UNIFIED to the Relativity family,” said Andrew Sieja, president and CEO of kCura. “I look forward to seeing how they bring their project management and technical expertise to Relativity to provide exceptional solutions for their clients.”

UNIFIED Joins Forces With Relativity to Deliver Cost-Effective and Powerful E-Discovery/Disclosure Platform

Commtouch’s New Open-Source Email Security Technology Featured at WebhostingDay

THN Editor — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:16:34 EST

(The Hosting News) - Open-source security infrastructure next step, according to Commtouch’s vice president of technologies Gabriel Mizrahi, can be taken by augmenting it with commercial solutions. Mr. Mizrahi will be speaking about this subject at WebhostingDay this week in Cologne, Germany.

Commtouch is a leading global provider of messaging and Web security technology, offering easy-to-integrate solutions for hosting and service providers that increase customer satisfaction while reducing capital and operating expenditures.

“Leading hosting companies are already using Commtouch’s solutions to reduce infrastructure and help desk costs and improve spam detection with fewer false positives,” said Ofer Tal, vice president of international sales and business development at Commtouch. “This improved service helps to enhance their customer satisfaction and bottom line.”

Commtouch’s cloud-based spam, phishing and email malware protection, along with its perimeter defense technologies, have been shown to reduce hosting providers’ hardware expenses by up to 85% and user bandwidth costs by as much as 80%, and significantly decrease help desk calls and IT administration time.

Commtouch’s solutions can leverage existing infrastructure investments through a set of integration tools into open-source and commercial messaging software, as well as provisioning platforms such as Parallels Plesk, H-Sphere and cPanel. Specifically, Commtouch provides the following easy integration tools:

* Plug-ins for common open-source email filtering packages such as SpamAssassin
* Milter for Sendmail and Postfix
* Connector to hosted and managed Microsoft Exchange Server environments.

Members of the Commtouch team will be available to discuss the company’s messaging and Web security solutions that complement open source technologies at WebhostingDay 2010, from March 17-19th, 2010 in Cologne, Germany.

Mr. Mizrahi will be speaking at 16:00, March 18 about “Taking Your Open Source Security Solutions to the Next Level.”

Commtouch will be exhibiting at the conference. To schedule a meeting with a Commtouch representative at WebhostingDay, please contact events@commtouch.com.

Commtouch’s New Open-Source Email Security Technology Featured at WebhostingDay

CloudLinux To Present at WebhostingDay 2010

cloudlinux — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:48:34 EST

(The Hosting News) – CloudLinux Inc. will be in attendance at the WebhostingDay Conference in Brühl, Germany on March 17-19. CloudLinux will share the benefits of its CloudLinux OS, a new Linux distribution designed for a multi-tenant hosting environment.

CloudLinux Founder and CEO, Igor Seletskiy will participate in a panel discussion titled “Command Your Data” on Thursday, March 18 addressing how hosting service providers can squeeze more efficiency from their infrastructure, while simultaneously increase profit margins and new revenue opportunities. The discussion will also explore the rise of Open Source software within the Software as a Service (SaaS) and Cloud Computing markets, and ways for hosters, telcos, carriers and ISPs to integrate high- value SaaS offerings. In addition to the panel discussion, CloudLinux will participate in the hosting.FAIR held at the main exhibit hall.

In its 6th year of being hosted in Germany, WebhostingDay is the largest web-hosting event worldwide. The event offers participants the chance to experience concentrated industry knowledge and first-hand news from web hosting industry experts.

CloudLinux was founded by Igor Seletskiy who has a 13-year, successful track record of delivering innovative new products to the hosting industry, including: H-Sphere, the first multi-server, commercially available control panel; FreeVPS, a container-based virtualization product; CP+, a simple, single server control panel; WebShell, a web-based file manager and SiteStudio, a browser-based website building tool. CloudLinux OS builds on Mr. Seletskiy’s extensive understanding of the unique needs of hosting service providers and is now available for download at http://www.cloudlinux.com/download.html.

CloudLinux To Present at WebhostingDay 2010

Web Host SingleHop announces unique cloud services system, Cascade.

SinglehopDS — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:15:26 EST

( The Hosting News ) SingleHop, a Chicago-based dedicated and managed web hosting provider, today announced the planned launch of its new Cascade cloud hosting platform. Cascade will consist of several new cloud services that will be rolled out this spring.

SingleHop’s Cascade program is named for a skydiving term, which describes two lines that run together into a single line. Vice President of Communications, Dan Salcedo, commented that “the name of the program is relevant, because our goal here has been to develop a cloud product that integrates exceptionally well with dedicated servers.

“Cascade is the most exciting announcement that we’ve had to date, and we feel is a real game changer to the dedicated server market. Our approach with Cascade is new and we are confident that it will be the answer to what’s been missing from both the cloud computing and dedicated hosting markets. It will do so by offering an inexpensive upgrade to dedicated servers that integrates the benefits and minimizes the issues of both technologies. We’re expecting a huge adoption rate from our clients.” says SingleHop President and CEO Zak Boca.

Web Host SingleHop announces unique cloud services system, Cascade.

MetraTech Announces Breakthrough Results in Billing Performance Benchmark

metratech — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:43:40 EST

(The Hosting News) – Innovative customer care firm MetraTech Corp., has officially announced the results of a performance benchmark of its MetraNet® billing software running on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 and deployed on HP ProLiant servers. The benchmark simulated 60 million active corporate subscribers, with 5 accounts each, consuming granular, high-volume service offerings. The results demonstrate exceptional end-to-end transaction throughput, as follows:

• Rating / Pricing – 84,781 usage records/second, with each record inserted into an indexed database
• Billing – 669 bills/second, with an average of 300 events per bill
• Balance Updates – 1.2 billion/hour, including event de-duplication, with each event updating an existing balance in an indexed database.

The study was based on requirements for continuously metered, cloud computing services spanning IaaS, PaaS and SaaS billing offerings. The testing was run in a simulated production-level environment at an HP Solution Center. The scale-up environment utilized 19 HP ProLiant DL380G6 servers, an HP ProLiant DL580G6 server, an HP ProLiant DL785G6 as the database server and an HP StorageWorks XP24000 Disk Array with 640 drives running MetraNet 6.05.1, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 SP1. The database contained 300 million accounts (arranged under 60 million subscribers with 5 sub-accounts each), 40 billion usage events and production-level database indexes. HP also performed independent verification of the testing results above through re-performance on a sample basis.

The findings demonstrate that MetraTech’s billing system, already known for its exceptional flexibility, scales to high volumes while managing continuous and highly granular services. The conclusions of this end-to-end revenue management benchmark demonstrate that the critical billing requirements of industries with dynamically evolving business models including Cloud, Smart Grid, Financial Services, Media & Entertainment and Telco, can be fully supported by the Microsoft server platform deployed on cost-effective HP hardware. “In the highly competitive Cloud, Telco, Energy and Financial Services industries, businesses are challenged to cost-effectively monetize high-volume services delivered via evolving and dynamic business models,” said Scott Swartz, chief executive officer, MetraTech Corp. “MetraNet, deployed using Microsoft software, provides a robust option for these organizations.”

“Now, more than ever, service providers are operating under competitive pressures and need to find new ways to offer value added services to their subscribers more quickly. As a result, demand is increasing for flexible billing platforms able to support a high volume of customers and a new level of complexity demanded by today’s changing business models,” said Terry McGuigan, managing director, telecommunications industry, Communications Sector at Microsoft Corp. “In this benchmark, MetraTech has proven that its billing solution can support next-generation services and meet the requirements of the most demanding telecom billing environments.”

For more information, just visit http://www.metratech.com

MetraTech Announces Breakthrough Results in Billing Performance Benchmark

Zayo Enterprise Networks’s Selected as a Provider for Online Tech.

THN Editor — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:19:26 EST

(The Hosting News) – Bandwith solutions provider Zayo Enterprise Networks is proud to have been chosen as a Gigabit Ethernet and fiber provider for Online Tech, the largest managed data center operator in Michigan.

In an environment where data center operators need to ensure Internet connectivity every second of the day so clients are always online and connected to the Internet, redundant fiber connections to the data center are paramount. Online Tech chose Zayo to achieve this by building a second fiber connection into their Ann Arbor data center connecting them to a second upstream Internet provider.

The Zayo redundancy includes a completely separate fiber path into the data center and provides protection against unintended damage to the physical network outside the data center. This gave them a fully redundant connection to the Internet and provided their data with an alternate path, protecting them from any outage that could occur. Zayo is also committed to providing dedicated fiber-based connectivity between Online Tech’s data center and its customers where highly reliable and scalable bandwidth is needed.

“Zayo has both a local and national reputation for providing quality fiber connectivity,” said Yan Ness, CEO of Online Tech. “Zayo was able to provide a completely separate physical fiber path into the data center to increase the stability of our network and eliminate any single points of failure. Zayo delivered against their commitments and were able to bring the new connections up right on schedule.”

As a provider, Online Tech knew they needed additional network protection because no single provider can provide the diverse protection necessary into their facility. Zayo already had a substantial fiber presence in the Ann Arbor market and was not only able to meet today’s needs, but has the ability to grow and expand as Online Tech gain customers and realize higher capacity requirements in the future.

Zayo Enterprise Networks’s Selected as a Provider for Online Tech.

Cisco’s Master Unified Communications Specialization Awarded to Verizon

THN Editor — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:06:08 EST

(The Hosting News) – Verizon has achieved the Master Unified Communications (UC) Specialization from Cisco, which officially confirms that the company has fulfilled the training requirements. As a result of this Verizon now possesses the prerequisites to sell, deploy and support highly sophisticated applications-based Cisco Unified Communications solutions.

“As the only U.S.-based global service provider to achieve both Master UC and Master Security specializations, we can deliver some of the most secure, integrated solutions available today,” said Anthony Recine, vice president of network and communications solutions marketing for Verizon Business. “The powerful combination of Verizon’s network-based VoIP services and Cisco’s UC platform – together with our professional consulting expertise – is enabling better business processes and productivity for our customers while assembling the building blocks to provide cloud-based unified communications as a service.

In addition to the Master Unified Communications Specialization, Verizon today also announced it has achieved Cisco’s Master Security Specialization and Advanced Data Center Networking Infrastructure Specialization in Europe. The two companies will demonstrate new and existing unified communications and collaboration capabilities at the VoiceCon trade show, March 22 – 24 in Orlando, Fla.

To achieve the Master Unified Communications Specialization, resale channel partners must first attain the Advanced Unified Communications Specialization. Partners must then meet stringent requirements that demonstrate their master-level sales, technical and services capabilities. Furthermore, master specialized partners must satisfy a number of Cisco and industry-standard technical certification requirements; provide customer references that document Cisco-prescribed design and deployment capabilities; and show evidence that they have the infrastructure to support a full menu of Lifecycle Services offerings and capabilities.

More information regarding the Master Unified Communications Specialization can be found at: www.cisco.com/web/partners/program/specializations/ucom/master/index.html.

The Cisco Resale Channel Program provides partners with the training required to build sales, technical and Cisco Lifecycle Services skills, and then validates their skills through a third-party audit. Cisco resale partner certifications — Select, Premier, Silver and Gold – represent an increasing breadth of skills across key technologies and a partner’s ability to deliver integrated networking solutions. Cisco resale partner specializations — SMB, Express, Advanced and Master — reflect an increasing depth of sales, technical and service expertise in particular technologies. Cisco master specializations provide Verizon Business access to comprehensive sales, technical, and lifecycle services training and support available from Cisco.

Cisco’s Master Unified Communications Specialization Awarded to Verizon

NetHosting CEO Attending Silicon Valley’s Cloud Connect Event

THN Editor — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:50:43 EST

(The Hosting News) – Orem, UT – Lane Livingston, CEO of US-based Cloud computing firm NetHosting, , will be the company’s’ official represented at TechWeb’s premier cloud computing event, Cloud Connect.

The event will be held March 15th through the 18th in Silicon Valley, CA, opening with select pre-conference programs that include the Cloud Business Summit—an in depth discussion venue on funding, marketing, and investing in the cloud—and elite developer workshops.

Following the pre-conference programs, Mr. Livingston plans to attend all three days of the Cloud Computing Conference, during which time keynotes and panel discussions will cover a broad range of cloud-centric topics, such as: designs for cloud applications, code-writing, “cloudonomics,” public vs. private clouds, standardization, cloud security, and a great deal more.

“There is a wealth of knowledge to be gained at venues like Cloud Connect, which bring countless professionals together for a specialized purpose,” Mr. Livingston said in anticipation of the event. “In this case, that purpose is to define cloud computing as an emerging, and powerful, new technology, and to share the tools to enhance its application in all areas of business.”

Scheduled keynotes include presentations by Mark Prichard, Senior Principal Product Manager in the Java Platform Group of Oracle, Matt Thompson, General Manager of Microsoft’s developer and platform evangelism efforts, Ric Telford, VP of Cloud Services at IBM, and Scott Chasin, CTO of McAffee SaaS, to name only a few.

NetHosting CEO Attending Silicon Valley’s Cloud Connect Event

SunGard Acquires Hosting 365

pnstein — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:11:30 EST

(The Hosting News) — SunGard has officially announced it’s acquisition of 365 Hosting Limited, a Dublin, Ireland-based cloud computing and data centre services company which trades as ‘Hosting 365’. Although the details of the acquisition were not disclosed, it is not expected to have a material impact on SunGard’s results.

Privately-owned Hosting 365 has built a strong presence in Ireland delivering both data centre managed IT services and, more recently, on-demand computing services within its cloud computing environment.

The company has been providing hosted services since 2001 and operates from two secure data centres in the Dublin area to help ensure the resilience of its solutions. It has pioneered the use of Web-based tools to facilitate customer self-service across all aspects of the service procurement process. Customers can order and provision their changing computer requirements in near real-time as well as monitor their usage and manage their accounts on-line.

Ed Byrne, general manager, Hosting 365, commented, “We are pleased to become part of SunGard and to augment our product portfolio with SunGard’s capabilities. Much of our success so far can be put down to our commitment to serve our customers’ changing business and technology needs. The addition of SunGard’s world-class range of availability solutions will help ensure that we can continue to reinforce our leadership position in Ireland and can help our customers be even more resilient as their businesses change and grow.”

Keith Tilley, managing director UK and executive vice president Europe for SunGard Availability Services, said, “Hosting 365 has built a superb business since its formation. The deal has major benefits for both parties: SunGard gains access to a new geographic market and proven cloud computing expertise, while Hosting 365 extends its product range with our own managed IT services, business continuity and disaster recovery solutions.”

About Hosting365
Hosting365 is a hosted infrastructure provider. The company operates its own 25,000 square feet, state-of-the-art data centre in Park West, Dublin. Hosting365 was named as Ireland’s 25th fastest growing technology company in the Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 50. More information can be found on www.hosting365.com.

About SunGard Availability Services
SunGard Availability Services provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software to more than 10,000 customers in North America and Europe. With five million square feet of datacenter and operations space, SunGard assists IT organizations across virtually all industry and government sectors prepare for and recover from emergencies by helping them minimize their computer downtime and optimize their uptime. Through direct sales and channel partners, we help organizations ensure their people and customers have uninterrupted access to the information systems they need in order to do business. Visit SunGard Availability Services at www.sungard.co.uk

SunGard Availability Services has been recognized as Service Provider of the Year an unprecedented six times in the Business Continuity Awards’ eleven-year history, and has been a finalist on all but one occasion: a track record unequalled in the industry. In 2008, SunGard was presented the 10th Anniversary Award for Outstanding Excellence in Business Continuity. SunGard and its customers have also achieved success in the Most Innovative Product, Most Effective Recovery, Industry Personality, Lifetime Achievement and Consultant of the Year categories, amongst others.

Representing Intellect, the trade association, on the steering committee for BS 25999, SunGard helped to define the first standard of its kind, which is alerting the wider business community to the importance of business continuity management. SunGard then became the first business continuity expert to secure certification against the BS 25999 Standard. It is now in the unique position of being able to assist its customers – both large and small alike – through the certification process drawing on its own experience.

About SunGard
SunGard is one of the world’s leading software and IT services companies. SunGard serves more than 25,000 customers in more than 70 countries, including the world’s 25 largest financial services companies.

SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector. SunGard also provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software.

With annual revenue exceeding $5 billion, SunGard is ranked 435 on the Fortune 500 and is the largest privately held business software and services company on the Forbes list of private businesses. Based on information compiled by Datamonitor*, SunGard is the third largest provider of business applications software after Oracle and SAP. Continuity, Insurance & Risk has recognized SunGard as service provider of the year an unprecedented six times. For more information, please visit SunGard at www.sungard.com.

*January 2009 Technology Vendors Financial Database Tracker http://www.datamonitor.com

Trademark Information: SunGard and SunGard logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. All other trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

SunGard Acquires Hosting 365

JB Creative Marketing Ready for Move to New Premises

GThomson — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:07:09 EST

(The Hosting News) – Kent-based PR/Marketing consultant firm JB Creative Marketing have secured a new office to house its radical expansion plans. This announcement is the culmination of six months of searching, but now the new Faversham based headquarters will be handed over to the online marketing consultants towards the middle of March after a month of negotiations.

“It was vital that we found a new secure head office to help deliver our clients’ needs and keeps all departments of JB Creative Marketing under one roof. This office will help deliver our target for the foreseeable future while offering a good logistical location for our clients,” said Justin Bridges, Managing Director for JB Creative Marketing.

Since its successful roll out of marketing strategies for some of its online clients, a new department was put together to help identify other marketing opportunities. With new clients already signed up off the back of this department the need to secure these offices were critical. This opportunity also provides potential for some extra local job opportunities in the area for fresh young talent and opportunities for organic growth now for both its staff and the company.

Among those new clients feature telecommunications company Keypoint Communications(The Hosting News) - who brought in JB Creative Marketing to help design and roll out the marketing campaign for their new product Cheap Business Calls. This is one of a number of brands to benefit from on site monitoring facilities that the new offices will deliver.

The new office, which will among other things provide onsite meeting and boardrooms as well as extra office space and an opportunity to provide the research and development team their own space.

JB Creative Marketing Ready for Move to New Premises

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

ksolan — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:01:35 EST

(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 Planet Announces Participation at South by Southwest Interactive

ksolan — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:58:20 EST

(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

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

THN Editor — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:07:35 EST

(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

Go Daddy Domain Name Total Reaches 40 Million.

THN Editor — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:00:37 EST

(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.

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

stancom — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:31:51 EST

(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