(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Making it easier to run a business on its home server, Hewlett-Packard (www.hp.com) is now providing a free Comodo (www.comodo.com) multi-domain digital certificate with each new MediaSmart Server, originally designed for sharing photos, video and other data within a home network.
According to the company’s Thursday announcement, HP’s MediaSmart Server can now support several domains using Comodo’s 5-year, multi-domain certificate, reducing the administration required to integrate the home network with home business needs.
“One Comodo multi-domain certificate can easily support up to 30 domains,” Comodo chief executive officer and chief security architect Melih Abdulhayoglu said in a statement. “Most home server users will not need that many domains, but who wouldn’t appreciate that kind of capability?”
MediaSmart Server makes home networks available as secure websites. It gives businesses an easy way to host their own site, as well as giving users the ability to store their media (such as pictures, videos, music and computer backups) at home but access it on the web.
HP offers sub-domains to MediaSmart customers free for the first year, which are good enough for those who do not need an public-facing website. For users who want custom domain names, HP said it has partnered with TZO Corporation (www.tzo.com) to offer domains at competitive prices.
One of the main problems with using MediaSmart as a web server has been that without digital certificates, which are a common add-on with shared hosting, browsers assume that a home-based URL is insecure. Comodo’s certificates help home businesses
That said, a serious business would never be wise to run on a single, home server. While not working in favour of customers, this is, however, an opportunity for Comodo to bridge the gap between the desktop realm (where it sells firewall and anti-virus software) and the business realm, where it has gained a name for itself through partnerships with web hosts that want to offer SSL certificates.
Also, Comodo is already the second-largest issuer of business-validated certificates, and a deal with a large server provider like HP also helps add to their credibility, which is the whole point of security certificates.
