The popular Double Down Select returns today, in which customers can choose to double RAM, hard disk space or bandwidth for no additional cost on select servers. Current servers available for upgrades are the powerful Celeron 2.0+ and Xeon 3210-SAS. Applicable servers will change weekly.

Urvish Vashi, Director of Product Management explained, ”A number of customers have asked if we’re taking orders based on the outage at our H1 data center, and the answer is definitely yes. We have five world-class data centers that are operating at peak performance, with a range of promotions designed for virtually every user. Our most powerful servers are priced aggressively, as are promotions on our private racks, firewalls and components. In today’s competitive market, we offer the best performance and value of any company in the industry.”

Discounted firewall upgrades also begin today. The Checkpoint X16, formerly priced at $89 per month, is now available for $69, a 22 percent savings. The Checkpoint XU is now available for $139 per month – reduced from $189 – a savings of 26 percent. For existing customers, The Planet is now offering 50 percent off RAM, hard disk or bandwidth upgrades.

Double Down Select runs through June 16, 2008; the other above promotions are good through June 30 or while supplies last.

Ultimately, The Planet endeavors to provide:

• High levels of network capacity and speed to deliver peak performance
• Instant scalability to handle even the largest spikes in network traffic
• Parallel, redundant, multi-tiered network routing and switching architecture to assure reliability and stability
• Multiple layer network security that prevents Delayed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks from harming businesses
• Knowledgeable experts with a passion for excellence and a commitment to operate the best networks in the business

The Planet is a leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting over 22,000 small and medium size businesses and 6.7 million web sites worldwide, using the best choice of servers, software tools and support, backed by enhanced facilities and network connectivity.

To learn more about The Planet’s specials, please visit: www.theplanet.com/promotions.

For more information about The Planet, please visit: www.theplanet.com.

Aaron Weller, Director of Crucial Paradigm noted, ”With this new line of plans, businesses or individuals wishing to start using Windows Server 2008 can take advantage of our easy-to-use, robust Virtual Private Server solutions that avoid the costs and limitations of a dedicated server. Virtual Private Servers allow our customers to completely configure and control their entire hosting environment, without being limited by container-based technology that prevents customization. Windows Server 2008 takes our Virtual Private Servers to the next level, and we are excited to introduce it to our customers.”

Released just three months ago, Windows Server 2008 is the latest version of Microsoft’s enterprise operating system, sharing similar software architecture with Windows Vista. Windows Server 2008 allows hosting users to take advantage of native IPv6 support; a self-healing NTFS file system that corrects data corruption in real-time; the ability to install Windows 2008 Server Core, which is a significantly scaled down install without Windows Explorer; and other security and usability enhancements. Many of the new features will be ideal for Virtual Private Server users, who require an extra level of flexibility and security.

Crucial Paradigm will initially offer Windows Server 2008 on two plans, starting at $80/monthly for 35GB of data storage, 300GB of monthly data transfer, and 1GB of server RAM. Customers can choose from three versions of Windows Server 2008 – Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter.

Founded in 2003, Crucial Paradigm operates in multiple locations around the world. The privately-owned, debt-free company offers a wide range of hosting solutions from Basic Web Hosting to Reseller Hosting, Virtual Dedicated Servers, Dedicated Servers and High Traffic Clusters, custom designed, based on each client’s individual requirements.

To learn more about Windows Server 2008 Virtual Private Server plans from Crucial Paradigm, please visit: www.crucialp.com/virtual-dedicated-servers-vds/windows-2008-server.php.

For more information about Crucial Paradigm, please visit: www.crucialp.com.

Nathan Day, Chief Technology Officer at SoftLayer noted, ”CDNLayer is one more way we provide enterprise-class services to customers of any size. Consumer demand for online video and media-rich websites is exploding. Companies and individuals in every industry, from entertainment and gaming to social networking and e-commerce, will benefit from using CDNLayer to optimize their content management and delivery.”

By launching CDNLayer, an industry leading content delivery network (CDN), the solution will optimize the delivery of web content so that it arrives to end-users with increased speed and reliability. The service is priced at only $20.00 per month for the first 200GB of data transferred and only $0.20 per GB thereafter, making it the simplest and most competitive CDN solution in the market.

CDNLayer uses a network of multiple, geographically diverse server nodes running advanced software that organizes, stores, and streams online content. Rather than serving content directly from the host server to the end-user, CDNLayer moves content from the host server to a node that is geographically closer to the end-user. This minimizes the distance the data has to travel, avoiding network traffic jams, and decreasing latency. CDNLayer includes tools for improved management, helping with content monetization. In addition, it features the ease-of-use and increased control for which SoftLayer is known.

Nathan Day, Chief Technology Officer at SoftLayer remarked, ”The Internet originally was not designed to deliver content that requires large transfer rates, leading to poor performance, interruptions, and failed downloads. CDNLayer changes that. Content is delivered faster and more reliably, creating an improved user experience – leading end-users to spend more time on a site and use its services.”

Recently, SoftLayer opened a new data center location in the Washington D.C. area. The addition of this facility increases the company’s total capacity to 45,000 servers throughout their facilities located in Dallas, Seattle, and now D.C.

SoftLayer Washington D.C. is located just 7 miles from Dulles International Airport in a facility designed to full Tier IV standards. It features multiple redundant power connections in addition to the three 2-megawatt generators and eight, fully redundant, 750 kVA UPS systems. As with all SoftLayer data centers, the facility has 24×7 onsite support and multiple security protocols controlling entrance to the building. In addition, the facility boasts infrastructure features including:

• 34 x 480v 3-Phase PDUs
• Redundant 30-ton CRAC Units
• FM-200 Fire Suppression System with VESDA
• Biometric Security System
• Digital Security Video Surveillance

SoftLayer has already begun pre-selling servers in the new data center to current customers, receiving an unprecedented level of demand resulting in a high backlog of server requests. Mr. Crosby added, ”We knew interest in the new location would be high, from both existing and new customers. We wanted to give our current customers an opportunity to request servers here and meet their demand prior to opening sales to the general market.”

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer provides next-generation web hosting and on-demand datacenter services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX and Seattle, WA. Utilizing proprietary management tools coupled with the industry’s first network-within-a-network topology, the company delivers unprecedented power and control to securely manage IT environments while providing unparalleled scalability.

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

Rob LaMear, President at Frontpages remarked, ”Through the promise of a fully managed solution, Total Care Support provides the customer with the sense of security they require. Our hope is that by eliminating the need to worry, the customer can fully focus all resources on their core business and, thus, become more successful.”

Dedicated customers who sign up for this service will receive 24/7 hardware monitoring and alerting, including critical services. Frontpages will also provide monthly reporting of critical hardware thresholds, including disk space, CPU and memory. In addition, Total Care ensures controlled patching, with critical security patches applied within 72 hours of release. Standard patches will be applied as requested or within 14 days of release. In order to guarantee safety of the customer’s solution, however, patch application may be delayed based upon patch testing results in the test lab environment.

FWHN provides managed web hosting services for SharePoint, Exchange, CRM and dedicated server solutions to customers around the world. As one of the largest independent, U.S.-owned, managed hosting providers today, they serve companies ranging from the Fortune 500 to the SME (small and medium-enterprise) market.

To learn more about FWHN, please visit: www.fpweb.net.

There will be separate award for each category and subcategory and an overall best dedicated hosting provider Award for an outstanding service provider who continues to inspire the industry.

Submissions are now being accepted for the following categories and subcategories:
- Server and O/S Hosting

IBM AIX, AS/400, HP-UX Linux, Solaris, VMware, Windows

- Database Hosting

IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server Cluster, MySQL Oracle 9i / 10g / 11g, Oracle RAC

- Application Hosting

AspenTech, BEA WebLogic, Blackberry Enterprise Server, Citrix, Custom Software, IBM WebSphere, Lotus, Microsoft Exchange, SupportSoft, Verity Hosting, VMware

- Service Provider Hosting

Application Service Provider (ASP), Software as a Service (SaaS)

- Solutions By Industry

Construction, Education, Energy/Utilities, Financial, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Marketing/Media, Retail/Distribution, Technology and Transportation

The options in managed dedicated web hosting have grown exponentially in recent years. Dedicated servers are now available at prices even the smallest businesses can afford, and the future of Web Hosting is Dedicated Servers.

Top 10 Dedicated Hosting Website categorically defines Dedicated server hosting providers as Cheap Dedicated hosting, Best Dedicated hosting and Managed Dedicated services based on both Linux and Windows platforms and offering options such as Celeron, Pentium 4, Dual Xeon, Xeon Quad Core, Kentsfield, Conroe, Woodcrest and Clovertown Processors, Dual Core AMD Opteron, cPanel, Plesk, WHM, Redhat, Debian, FreeBSD, CentOS and Windows 2003.

Top 10 Dedicated Hosting is a team of skilled professionals focused on providing Dedicated Server Hosting Reviews to clients, Consultancy and Training to Web Hosting Providers, End Users and others. Expertise and experience is provided to help businesses grow, reduce overall costs, and simplify the web environments.

To learn more about submitting an entry, please visit: www.top10dedicatedhosting.com/awards.html.

Urvish Vashi, Director of Product Management at The Planet explained, ”The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard requires companies to have a secure firewall in place when accepting credit card payments. Companies that are compromised face serious risks as well as the loss of revenue and their hard-gained good reputations if there are breaches to their sites. This promotion signals a great time for companies to review their security profile and to consider an upgrade to their hosting infrastructures.”

The following promotions continue through May 31, 2008, or while promotional supplies last:

• Firewall Upgrades: The Check Point X16, formerly priced at $89 per month, is now available for $69, a 22 percent savings. The Check Point XU is now available for $139 per month – reduced from $189 per month – a savings of 26 percent.
• Double Down Select: This promotion provides customers the choice to double their base bandwidth, hard disk or RAM for free on new orders of the Kentsfield SATA or the Dual Xeon 2.8 IDE.
• Dual Xeon 2.4 SCSI: Now priced at $143 per month – down from $219 – customers can take advantage of a 35 percent savings on this popular server.
• Dedicated Backup Servers: For customers looking for special pricing on backup servers, the company is offering savings ranging from 13 percent to 29 percent on 500GB to 6TB servers.
• Component Upgrades: Existing customers can take advantage of disk space, additional bandwidth and backup at 50 percent off current prices.

Ultimately, The Planet endeavors to provide:

• High levels of network capacity and speed to deliver peak performance
• Instant scalability to handle even the largest spikes in network traffic
• Parallel, redundant, multi-tiered network routing and switching architecture to assure reliability and stability
• Multiple layer network security that prevents Delayed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks from harming businesses
• Knowledgeable experts with a passion for excellence and a commitment to operate the best networks in the business

The Planet is a leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting over 22,000 small and medium size businesses and 6.7 million web sites worldwide, using the best choice of servers, software tools and support, backed by enhanced facilities and network connectivity.

For more information about The Planet, please visit: www.theplanet.com.

The Planet provides quarterly updates to its customers, business partners and prospects with information relative to new initiatives and its progress. With a new corporate moniker, The Planet plans to issue quarterly updates to provide its customers, business partners and prospects with information to validate its progress.

Kevin Klausmeyer, Chief Financial Officer of The Planet noted, ”The Planet posted another record revenue quarter, continuing its inception-to-date string of sequential record quarters. Gross margins also reached a new record level as a result of synergies, increased purchasing power and the leverage within the operating model. EBITDA was strong, coming in at 30 percent. Based on our performance, we expect to grow approximately 20 percent this year, roughly one-third faster than the overall market.”

Douglas J. Erwin , Chairman and CEO of The Planet added, ”We continue to make significant progress in shaping our newly integrated company, and the results are evidence of our success. Delivering a world-class customer experience remains our top priority, and we are investing in virtually every area of the company to deliver on that goal. The quality, reliability and scalability of our data centers deliver extraordinary value to our customers. We will continue to leverage our size and scale to enhance the products and services required to meet the demands of our growing multi-national customer base.”

First Quarter Highlights include:

New Customers, Record Transaction: More than 1,600 new customers leased servers in the company’s world-class data centers. The company also signed the two largest transactions in its history, adding Site5 and expanding its relationship with HostGator.

New Web Site: With enhanced navigation that incorporates the best features from the merged companies’ previous iterations, the new Web site makes it easier for customers to access its comprehensive portfolio of products and services.

New Product: The company added enterprise-class security and performance for private rack customers with Cisco ASA 5500 Series firewalls and Foundry ServerIronXL load balancers. The server portfolio expanded to include Dell’s Clovertown quad-core PowerEdge servers that provide 1.2 Terabytes of storage.

Network Upgrade: Accelerating network performance, the company added Foundry’s NetIron XMR to deliver enhanced performance, high 10-Gigabit port density and support for IPV6 and MPLS to enable future advanced IP services for customers.

The company announced a $5 million investment in a new customer contact center and expanded operating facilities designed to enhance customer satisfaction. The expansion includes its first CRM system, a broad range of new servers, additional software, communications tools and an expanded team of trained support representatives.

Data Center Expansions: The Planet expanded its data centers in Houston and Dallas, adding 25,000 square feet to meet the demands of its growing customer base.

Executive Appointments: In its customer-facing organization, the company appointed James P. Treuting as vice president, global sales and managed services. James P. Picone joined the company as vice president, customer contact centers.

Ultimately, The Planet endeavors to provide the following:

• High level of network capacity and speed to deliver peak performance
• Instant scalability to handle even the largest spikes in network traffic
• Parallel, redundant, multi-tiered network routing and switching architecture to assure reliability and stability
• Multiple layer network security that prevents Delayed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks from harming businesses
• Knowledgeable experts with a passion for excellence and a commitment to operate the best networks in the business

The Planet is a leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 22,000 small and medium size businesses and 3.1 million web sites worldwide, using the best choice of servers, software tools and support, backed by state-of-the-art facilities and network connectivity.

Adding to its broad array of awards, The Planet ranked #81 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list for North America. The annual survey recognizes the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in the nation based on consolidated results from its regional Fast 50 events. The win capped a series of awards during the year, including ranking #12 on the Fast 50 list for Texas; the Computer Reseller News Fast Growth list; and the Inc. 5000 roster.

For more information about The Planet, please visit: www.theplanet.com.

The event is scheduled to take place at the Wildflower! Music and Art Festival in Richardson, Texas from May 16-18. Over 60,000 festival attendees will have the opportunity to play and watch as competitors vie for a trip to Rocklahoma, a 4-day rock concert that will feature many of the artists featured in the Guitar Hero 3 game.

George Karidis, SoftLayer Chief Strategy Officer noted, ”We are glad to sponsor the competition at WildFlower. Gaming is part of SoftLayer’s DNA. The technology and services we provide are ideal for powering the growing online gaming industry. It’s thrilling to see how each new generation of Internet-enabled game, from Guitar Hero 3 to World of Warcraft, is connecting people around the world in all new ways.”

SoftLayer’s sponsorship of the eMazing event grew out of an ongoing relationship between the companies. SoftLayer is the provider behind eMazing’s GamersZone, the online hub for all its tournaments and activities. James Tyler, Chief Executive Officer at eMazing remarked, ”There is no better solution for us than SoftLayer, with their commitment to providing the best performance and control. We look forward to seeing where and how our partnership will grow.”

Based in Dallas, eMazing produces interactive game competitions that are staged online and at events across the country. The company began as an e-sports franchise before evolving to organize the same kinds of tournaments that it was competing in, with a vision of enabling more people to enjoy the convergence of traditional and interactive entertainment.

The Wildflower! Guitar Hero 3 event is just one event in eMazing’s complete Guitar Hero 3 tournament. Players can compete online or in person at similar events in multiple states. Eight players will progress to the Central Region Finals at the Rocklahoma event, where the two best players will progress to the U.S. finals.

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer provides next-generation web hosting and on-demand datacenter services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX and Seattle, WA. Utilizing proprietary management tools coupled with the industry’s first network-within-a-network topology, the company delivers unprecedented power and control to securely manage IT environments while providing unparalleled scalability.

For more information about the event, please visit: www. emgamerszone.com.

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

Under the terms of the agreement, Pro-Teck will utilize Rackspace’s Intensive Hosting to support the company’s ProValue platform that requires 24×7 availability to service today’s rapidly evolving financial markets.

Luc Levensohn, Vice President Security and Infrastructure, Pro-Teck Services noted, ”We did a lot of due diligence and determined Rackspace could provide us with the highest level of disaster recovery and system redundancy to protect our clients information while providing the scalability and capacity to support our growth.”

Pro-Teck’s ProValue connects many of the world’s largest financial institutions with the real estate data, modeling and expertise they need to effectively manage their real estate collateral. The system requires robust performance to support a large number of simultaneous connections as vendor and client partners throughout the United States process thousands of daily transactions in real time. The platform also provides extensive archiving, retrieval and data stream capabilities critical to its client’s business operations.

Glenn Reinus, Senior Vice President of worldwide sales, Rackspace remarked, ”Because Pro-Teck’s IT infrastructure was Microsoft-based, they found Rackspace’s Windows expertise and Microsoft Gold Certification a true advantage. Intensive Hosting takes a consultative approach with our enterprise customers. Through our dedicated team of experts, we are able to build a deep working relationship, effectively becoming an integral component of customers’ IT departments. We work alongside Pro-Teck as an extension of its IT department and work diligently for our customer’s success.”

Rackspace’s Intensive Hosting provides Pro-Teck with a fully-managed hosting solution. With primary and failover server locations, advanced custom monitoring services, managed backup and storage, and Windows 2003 Enterprise database services, Pro-Teck relies on Rackspace’s 24/7/365 Fanatical Support(TM) demanded by today’s financial markets.

Last month, Rackspace announced two high-level appointments – Florian Schiebl as European Business Director, and Tarquin Bellinger as Sales Director, to reinforce its European operations. Prior to joining Rackspace, Schiebl was Managing Director of iPass, being responsible for the Central and Eastern European regions. He has also held positions at Bertelsmann, Compaq, Siemens, COLT Telecom and MFN.

Mr. Bellinger has joined Rackspace to lead the Sales and Solutions Engineering team. His previous position was at BT, where he led the company’s 21st Century Network business development programme. Prior to that, he led Cable and Wireless’ global services business division focusing on financial markets, based in New York.

Established in 1977, Pro-Teck Services works with Mortgage Lenders, Mortgage Servicers, Secondary Market Investors, Capital Markets and Property and Casualty Insurers to improve risk management through superior real estate collateral information. Pro-Teck provides a comprehensive suite of services including on-line real estate data, fraud scoring, value modeling, inspections, valuations and appraisals.

Rackspace delivers a diverse suite of enterprise-class hosted IT services to businesses of all sizes, including hosting specialization and expertise, delivering services as an extension of its customers’ IT departments. Rackspace’s portfolio of companies also includes the Mosso cloud computing platform and Mailtrust provider of business-class hosted email solutions.

For more information about Rackspace Managed Hosting, please visit: www.rackspace.com.

The Automated Rescue Environment (ARE) allows customers to self-restore and repair their servers directly from The Planet customer portal in the event of a critical software failure.

Urvish Vashi, Director of Product Management with The Planet noted, ”The hosted IT infrastructure provides significant cost savings for customers compared with a do-it-yourself approach, an even more important factor in challenging financial markets. Many of our more technically proficient customers have asked for direct management capabilities, so for these companies we want to provide the option of unfettered access. As always, our skilled technical support team is available 24×7x365 for all of our customers.”

ARE enables customers with the option to self-manage their servers in the event of a system crash or failure. By rebooting from a safe zone on The Planet’s network, customers simply download a light OS, which provides the necessary tools to diagnose and recover data. The ARE:

• Allows customers to safely diagnose configuration errors without resorting to data losses associated with reloading the operating system
• Provides a significant self-service advantage so that customers can recover deleted files, replace corrupt files, manage and backup data, and remove harmful programs in a safe mode
• Adds additional value to The Planet’s hosted solution by providing the ability to self-restore and manage servers.

Ultimately, The Planet endeavors to provide the following:

• High level of network capacity and speed to deliver peak performance
• Instant scalability to handle even the largest spikes in network traffic
• Parallel, redundant, multi-tiered network routing and switching architecture to assure reliability and stability
• Multiple layer network security that prevents Delayed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks from harming businesses
• Knowledgeable experts with a passion for excellence and a commitment to operate the best networks in the business

The Planet is a leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 22,000 small and medium size businesses and 6.7 million web sites worldwide, using the best choice of servers, software tools and support, backed by state-of-the-art facilities and network connectivity.

For more information about The Planet, please visit: www.theplanet.com.