December 12, 2003 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The year was extremely busy for Virginia-based Web hosting automation software developer SWsoft, as it continued its stellar growth, released several new versions of its software and made two major acquisitions.
SWsoft started quickly in January, announcing that it had recorded over 1,000 percent overall revenue growth in 2002 and an uptake of 100,000 servers for its server virtualization software Virtuozzo. A steady flow of product releases began in February with the roll out of HSPcomplete version 2.1, its hosting business lifecycle automation solution. This was followed the same month by the introduction of a beta version of Virtuozzo for Windows. And in March, the company unveiled Virtuozzo for Itanium, the world's first 64-bit OS virtualization suite for Intel servers.
June saw SWsoft top the headlines with its acquisitions of fellow hosting automation companies Plesk and Yippi-Yeah E-Business GmbH, the maker of the Confixx control panel. While SWsoft was a relative latecomer to the industry, having entered the hosting automation space in 1999, the acquisitions confirmed its status as the market's leading consolidator. The acquisitions expanded SWsoft's product line and made it the largest developer of hosting automation software in the world with over 40,000 server deployments and 3,000 hosting providers running its software, says Serguei Beloussov, the company's co-founder and CEO. Acquiring the two companies also added to SWsoft's already-strong technical base, which now boasts a research and development team of 170 engineers.
Bringing Confixx into the SWsoft fold expanded the company's geographic scope as well. "With our acquisition of Confixx, we have become very strong in Europe," says Beloussov. Confixx is a hosting server administration solution that enjoys widespread adoption in Europe with over 15,000 licenses. "It's almost a monopoly," Beloussov says. But most importantly, the acquisitions made SWsoft profitable. "We believe we are the only major hosting software vendor which is cash positive and profitable."
When it acquired the companies, SWsoft made it clear that it would retain the Plesk and Confixx brands and their entire product lines. Product names would also stay unchanged. Enhanced by a reseller agreement the companies established in May, Plesk and SWsoft immediately began merging their product lines.
First deployed by Rackspace Managed Hosting in 1999, the Plesk Server Administrator (PSA) control panel brings an established server administration solution to SWsoft's arsenal. Now deployed on over 23,000 servers, Plesk is "the most proven product in the market," says Beloussov. The company released version 6.0 of Plesk shortly after the acquisition in June and in late November launched Plesk version 6.5 for Windows. In between, SWsoft said Plesk 6.0 was ready for Red Hat Linux. Version 6.0 featured new anti-spam and enhanced security functionality while according to SWsoft, version 6.5 is the first automation platform to combine management capabilities for both Windows and UNIX servers.
The Plesk acquisition also brought Plesk's PEM (Plesk Enterprise Manger) and BM (Billing Manager) under the SWsoft umbrella, forming the centerpiece of its third generation product line. PEM, released earlier this year (before the acquisition), is capable of managing thousands of servers and virtual systems across various platforms and network configurations. Plesk BM provides unified billing for hosting service providers. Not yet available commercially, BM automates the management of Web hosting services plans and integrates the promotions and discounts that service providers offer their customers.
Beloussov believes the hosting provider automation market remains ripe with potential. He notes that most hosting service providers still deploy in-house automation solutions that don't allow them to maximize efficiency and profitability.
"We hope to convince more and more of them to use more and more of our solutions, because its cheaper and they can save money, offer better services, and potentially make more money," says Beloussov.
This idea forms the basis of SWsoft's overall strategy, which is to continuously launch new and upgraded versions of its software with improved and increased numbers of features.
"Our intention is to make two or three releases a year," says Beloussov. "We are adding features at a very fast pace right now, because we really want to overrun the competition in terms of feature... the general idea is that we intend to enhance our product portfolio so as to cover all kinds of hosting on all platforms."
It appears that SWsoft is gearing up for an equally busy 2004.
