(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Managed hosting and cloud computing business iomart Group (www.iomart.com) has reported revenue growth of £8.4 million (roughly $12.3 million), a 47 percent increase over the first half of 2009 revenues, with help from its managed hosting arm, iomarthosting.com, which doubled its customer based and moved into profitability after a period of investment.
In its half yearly results ending September 30 2009, iomart reported a profit of £1.4 million (around $2 million), a significant achievement after reporting a £0.65M (about $915,000) loss in Sept 2008, according to its Thursday announcement.
“We achieved a major milestone during the period moving into recurring monthly EBITDA profitability in our existing operations, accelerated by the acquisition of RapidSwitch,” iomart chief executive officer Angus MacSween said in a statement. “We have continued to win new business since the end of the period and have good visibility of revenues for the second half of the year. Our current trading is well in line with expectations and we remain confident for the full year.”
In May, iomart Group acquired dedicated server hosting provider RapidSwitch, which quickly integrated into the iomart Group. Its operations were completely migrated into iomart’s data center in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, eliminating external rental costs and providing substantial savings for iomart. The Maidenhead data center has also been fitted out to provide another 3,500 square feet of hosting space to allow for further expansion.
“We have continued to win new business since the end of the period and have good visibility of revenues for the second half of the year,” MacSween said. “In addition to the revenue growth that we have experienced from new customers, we’re especially delighted at the levels of additional business we are gaining from our existing customer base, as they turn to us, as trusted supplier, to provide the additional services that they need for their own expansion. Our current trading is well in line with expectations and we remain confident for the full year.”
The results of iomart’s financial report show that iomart is delivering on its strategy of growing its managed hosting business as it bids to become recognised as the UK’s foremost managed hosting company. In pursuing this goal, iomart launched two cloud computing products under its iomart Hosting brand: CloudXtra for short-term, fluctuating computing demand, and CloudSure, which provides a resilient high availability platform for business critical applications.
“The enhancement of our cloud computing offerings during the period underlines our intentions to innovate in the provision of UK hosting services and,” MacSween concluded, “we believe we are well placed to take advantage of the market opportunity in this area.”
