Apr 25, 2003 : The webhost industry: week review

📅 April 25, 2003 - It was a big week for the launch of new products and services, with Microsoft's long-awaited, and often delayed, Windows Server 2003 taking center stage. Along with the new server software came the launch of a number of other new products, as well as the announcement of new executives at several companies.
On Thursday, Microsoft announced the official release of the Windows Server 2003 integrated server platform, at a launch event featuring the company's CEO Steve Ballmer, held in San Francisco and broadcast over the Internet. In connection with the platform launch, Microsoft also introduced the release of Visual Server .NET 2003 and SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition. Designed to meet enterprise workloads, says Microsoft, the Windows Server 2003 platform offers improvements to reliability, efficiency, manageability, security and scalability, delivering higher levels of overall performance. Microsoft says testing has demonstrated that the new platform allows users to operate server infrastructure 30 percent faster than the Windows NT 4.0 system.
While Microsoft was gearing up for its big announcement this week, several other companies announced products of their own that, while somewhat less anticipated, certainly have the potential to impact the Web hosting landscape.
On Wednesday, security company FreeSSL announced that it had completed the re-launch of its Web site and SSL brands, including the introduction of a special limited offering of its 1-year ChainedSSL certificate for free. FreeSSL says it enables businesses to access a one-year trusted SSL certificate suitable for the testing and development of online operations and e-commerce free of charge. The company's ChainedSSL brand, is normally available for $35 per year. When the promotion ends, the price for the ChainedSSL service will return to $35 per certificate.
Also on Wednesday, hosting solutions developer Invotion announced that it has developed a virtual private server (VPS) hosting solution for the Windows platform. The company says its True VPS plan gives clients dedicated-like access to portions of a Windows VPS server. True VPS customers receive terminal server access, a custom install of Windows 2000 and rebooting abilities. Invotion says its new proprietary solution allows up to 12 instances of the operating system to run simultaneously on one server, giving clients full control of their own operating system.
And on Thursday, domain registry operator RegistryPro announced that it had begun a "sunrise period" for .pro defensive name registrations. The period will allow trademark holders to protect intellectual property prior to the public registration of .pro domain names. The period began Wednesday for holders of nationally registered trademarks issued prior to September 30, 2002, allowing them to submit registrations that exactly matched their trademarks. The launch of the .pro domain, intended for US licensed professionals, is expected for July of 2003.
Along with the product announcements made this week, several companies operating in the Web hosting business announced changes to their executive teams.
On Monday, colocation provider LayerOne announced that company co-founder Brandon Freeman had been appointed president and CEO of LayerOne, after serving as COO since 1999. Freeman replaces co-founder Alexander Muse, says LayerOne, who moved to IT service provider Architel earlier in the month. The company says Freeman has been responsible for the day-to-day management of LayerOne since the company was started, including the oversight of engineering, service deployment and sales and marketing.
And on Thursday, technology advisor RampRate LLC announced that it has appointed senior finance and operations executive Mark Smialowicz as the company's new chief financial officer and chief operating officer. In the new positions, says RampRate, Smialowicz will assume a strategic role in defining and extending the company's data-driven sourcing model. Before joining RampRate, Smialowicz worked with telecommunications provider McLeodUSA, responsible for its managed services unit and mid-market customers.
Needless to say, this week's most notable announcement was the long-awaited release of Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 platform. The product leaves the gate with a considerable amount of existing momentum, as some Microsoft hosting partners have already been operating pre-release Windows Server 2003 deployments. And it will likely catch on quickly, carried forward by the powerful promotional efforts of the world's largest software maker.