Aug 22, 2003 : The webhost industry: week review

📅 August 22, 2003 - The Web hosting business saw news from a wide range of sources this week, and with a wide range of areas, including the telecommunications business, mergers and acquisitions and new products and services, as well as some interesting overlap between them.
On Thursday, research group IDC said that software giant Microsoft could emerge as a "formidable player" in the telecommunications business, as competition looms between IT vendors and carriers over emerging desktop applications based on voice over IP and SIP. IDC says new collaborative capabilities represent the logical end point of IT and telecom convergence, placing the desktop as a focal point for competition between IT and telecom organizations.
In news of both telecommunications and acquisitions, carrier Level 3 announced on Wednesday that it had signed a definitive agreement to sell the Midwest Fiber Optic Network (MFON) communications system to Louisiana-based CentruyTel for approximately $17 million in cash. Level 3 says the MFON currently generates monthly revenue of about $1.5 million, but its architecture offers no practical way for the stand-alone system to be integrated into Level 3's network. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2003.
Along with the news from Level 3, there were a number of acquisition-related announcements this week, many of them more directly associated with the Web hosting business.
On Wednesday, Micromuse announced that it had acquired data collection software developer NETWORK HARMONi for approximately $23 million in cash. Micromuse says the companies have had a relationship since April of 2002. NETWORK HARMONi provided its data collection software to support Micromuse's Netcool suite of network assurance software. According to Micromuse, the acquisition will help the company prioritize the delivery of new agents according to customers' most vital requirements.
On Thursday, Texas.net announced that it had opened a Tier-1 Intenret data center in Austin, Texas, adding 30,000 square feet to provide infrastructure and disaster recovery services to its customers. The newly-acquired IDC will also provide colocation and enterprise-level Internet access services. Texas.net says the new facility brings the company's total number of IDCs to four. The company operates two other data centers in Austin and one in Houston, Texas.
And on Friday, NetNation Communications announced that a majority of its outstanding shares have approved the company's merger with Hostway Corporation. Under the terms of the agreement, NetNation shareholders will receive cash for their stock. In July, the companies finalized a share price of US$1.65 for the merger. The transaction is expected to close immediately following the closing of trading today, at which point NetNation's stock will be delisted from the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Along with considerable mergers and acquisitions activity, this week also saw the release of a range of new products and services, both in and around the Web hosting business.
On Tuesday, RackShack announced that it is now offering $5 domain registrations for new and renewal domains. The company says its $5 domain registration fee is the lowest available worldwide, with other registrars charging rates as high as $35 per year. Other discount domain brokers offer rates of approximately $9 or even $7 per year. RackShack, a discount dedicated hosting provider also offers low-priced SSL certificates for $25.
Also shooting for the lowest domain registration costs, Netfirms announced on Tuesday that it would begin offering new and existing customers of its Advantage or Business Web hosting plans will receive a free domain name. The company says the offer was initiated in order to underline Netfirms' commitment to providing the best value in Web hosting. The deal applies to names registered with Netfirms using the .com, .net, .org, .info and .biz extensions.
On Wednesday, NaviSite announced the launch of a new spam filtering service, powered by Postini Inc.'s email security technology. The service, says NaviSite, will block unwanted email and viruses from customer networks and in-boxes. NaviSite says outsourcing with the company will allow customers to reduce the difficulties involved in guarding against spam and email viruses. The company launched the service with a limited-time introductory special. Customers signing up for one year by October 31, 2003 will receive a 25 percent discount and be exempt from paying setup charges.
Also on Wednesday, Amphus Inc. announced yesterday it is shipping its ManageSite 2.0 solution for blade server management, that allows administrators to provision, monitor and manage heterogeneous servers from a single Web-based interface. ManageSite 2.0, says Amorphus, supports servers with the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) 1.5, a standard for defining common interfaces for monitoring server physical health characteristics. ManageSite 2.0 can run on the Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2003 Server or RedHat Linux platforms.
Last week's major blackout, which impacted a significant portion of North America, had surprisingly little impact on this week's Web hosting news. The fact that it was business as usual for Web hosts speaks volumes about service providers' abilities to weather the tough times and the success of their efforts at creating stable, redundant environments.