Liam Eagle: LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

In the great majority of our work, the Web Host
Industry Review covers events – things that happen
in the Web hosting business, be they business
deals or product launches; and trends – the
sort of over-arching ideas that direct the progress
of the industry.

Of course, events and trends are produced by
the eff orts of companies, which are directed by
the decisions of individuals. But it is rare, in this
business, that a particular individual is recognized
as being especially notable for their infl uence,
their ideas or their actions.

Now and then, somebody stands out as being
an innovator, or a great individual infl uence
on the industry. I’m of the opinion that in those
characters, and the facts that make them remarkable,
lie some of the most interesting indicators
of Web hosting’s past and clues to its future.

With this issue, we set out to profile some of
the most notable characters in the business, representing
some of its biggest personalities, its
brightest ideas and its most compelling stories.
In doing so, I think we paint a portrait of the business
from an unusual point of view.

In her profile of former EV1 Servers CEO Robert
Marsh, WHIR regular Esther M. Bauer examines
the infl uence of the man whose business was
largely responsible for popularizing the low-cost
dedicated server model in Web hosting, and the
industry’s original larger-than-life personality.

Profiling long-time hosting notable Gabriel
Murphy, regular WHIR contributor Wayne Epperson
traces a path from successful startup to topdollar
buyout to savvy industry investor. What
makes Murphy most unique is his recent return
to the hosting business as an investor and CEO
at Aplus.Net.

As CEO of Go Daddy, the largest domain registrar
and Web host in the business, Bob Parsons’s
infl uence is, to a certain extent, a function of the
powerful machine he operates. But in my own
profi le of Parsons, I examine how one of Web hosting’s
most controversial fi gures has crafted Web
hosting’s strongest cult of personality around an
aggressive approach to communicating with customers,
and whoever else is listening.

The arrival of Demand Media, and its CEO
Richard Rosenblatt, in the Web hosting business
brought a new kind of polish to the proceedings.
Formerly the CEO of Intermix, which sold
MySpace to News Corp. for $580 million, Rosenblatt
brings that big-money tech business air,
backing a business model steeped in his social
networking pedigree.

Alvaro Albaraccin may be Web hosting’s most
unusual export. Since seeing his company, Dialtone
Internet, from startup to sale, he has
launched a movie studio with some success,
and taken up the role of entrepreneur of entrepreneurs
at Creciendo en Gracia, a controversial
Florida-based religious group.

Obviously, there are and have been other notable
personalities in the hosting business. But
given the choice between quality and quantity,
my tendency is to go for quality in the work we
publish. And I think what we have here is an interestingly
representative sample that, taken as a
whole, speaks about the business as much as it
does about the individuals.