The Web Host Industry Week in Review

• By The WHIR, August 31, 2007

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By Liam Eagle, theWHIR.com

August 31, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- In many cases, this week's news was about consolidation, or collaboration, in varying configurations.

In a particularly notable aside from the greater trend, the week's most unusual news was the report that Rasmus Auctioneers intends to liquidate $15 million worth of surplus data center equipment, including Egenera blade servers, EMS data storage arrays, switchgear and hardware. The equipment, the result of a US government decision not to renew an IT lease with a contractor, is scheduled to go on sale September 12.

As has become almost standard in recent weeks, the Web hosting business saw another collection of acquisitions, as providers used their wallets to take on new customers or capabilities.

Early in the week, it was reported that UK Web host UH Hosting had acquired Prime Hosting, a specialist in cPanel based Web hosting, for an undisclosed sum. Prime will carry on as its own brand, and will incorporate all of the services provided by UH Hosting.

On Monday, network appliance vendor Infoblox announced that It had acquired enterprise IP address management software developer Ipanto. The deal will enable Infoblox to add value for enterprise customers relying on Microsoft systems, including Active Directory servers or domain controllers.

On Wednesday, data center operator Digital Realty Trust announced that it had acquired 900 Walnut Street and 210 Tucker Boulevard, previously known as the Bandwidth Exchange Buildings, in St. Louis for $53 million. Between the two buildings, an Internet gateway and a multi-tenant data center facility, the company will take control of approximately 300,000 square feet of data center space, almost all of it leased.

While, acquisition is one surefire way to take on new capabilities, some companies continue to pursue other avenues, including the several companies this week that announced feature-expanding partnerships with similar or complementary service providers.

On Tuesday, IT security firm Comodo announced that it had partnered with Canadian merchant account service provider Merchant-Accounts, delivering Comodo's payment card industry compliance and security scanning tools to Canadian e-merchants. Comodo says its security and anti-hacker tools enable customer to improve website security, prevent attacks and maintain PCI compliance.

And in another geography-specific collaboration, Asian Web hosting provider SpaceAsia announced on Wednesday that it had partnered with Chinese interactive marketing agency mediaman. The partnership, say the companies, enables SpaceAsia to provide enhanced creative services to its growing Chinese customer base. The services include interface design, animation, banner design and application development.

It's not every week that there's a hosting news item that could be particularly relevant to just about any hosting provider, but this week's announcement of a deeply discounted hardware sale is more than a bit out of the ordinary. It would more than likely be worth a few minutes for any host to check in on September 12 to see what they might acquire.

Tags:  government  security  Asia  Partnerships  Week in review  data center operator  compliance  Storage  Appro  cPanel  Digital Realty Trust  Infoblox  Microsoft  Network Appliance  SpaceAsia  Comodo 

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