Aug 4, 2006 : The webhost industry: week review

📅 August 4, 2006 - This week's Web hosting news was probably most notably affected by the news last week that the registry for the .eu domain had suspended 74,000 .eu domains and launched lawsuits against 400 registrars, alleging breach of contract.


In a feature story published Friday, Bob Parsons, CEO of Go Daddy - the domain registrar that announced this month that it is twice the size of its closest competitor - applauds the registry for its actions. The praise is particularly notable coming from Parsons, as he was certainly the most vocal critic of the EURid processes that allowed the foul play to occur in the first place. While Parsons applauds the reaction, he says it was too long coming. And he suggests that the phony registrations of .eu domains extend beyond the companies already targeted by EURid.

Lending credence to that claim is a report published Thursday by Internet researcher Ipwalk, which points out unusual domain registration rates in several smaller European countries, similar to the anomaly in Cyprus that helped EURid to identify the companies it sued. Ipwalk says it examined domain names per country relative to population size and found that Malta, Luxembourg, Gibraltar, Cyprus and the Netherlands are at the top for .eu domains per citizen.

While the .eu domain developments were the week's most noticeable news, one of the most significant trends was the launch of new data center facilities.

Early in the week, data center operator Peak 10 announced that it had opened a second data center in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the company is headquartered. The company says the expansion follows successful similar projects in Raleigh, North Carolina and Louisville, Kentucky. The company has additional expansions planned or near completion in Louisville and in Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida.

On Tuesday, data center operator Equinix announced that it had opened its fourth Internet Business Exchange data center in Silicon Valley. The company says the new 120,000 square-foot facility is located in Sunnyvale, California, and has space for about 1,800 cabinets. The new data center increases Equinix's Silicon Valley footprint to more than 500,000 square feet.

Data center broker TelAxis Advisors announced on Monday that it has put a Nashville, Tennessee data center up for lease. The intended tenant of the facility backed out due to other commitments, says TelAxis. The property's new owner will sign a 10-year lease with renewal options at rates considered below market. Located on 147 Fourth Street, the facility is 19,656 square feet in total, with approximately 17,500 square feet of raised floor space.

Switch and Data announced on Tuesday that it plans to triple its data center presence in the Chicago market. The company says the expansion will add to previous investments the company has made to increase its presence in key markets. In January, the company expanded its New York footprint to 85,000 square feet. And in June, the company expanded its Palo Alto, California data center.

While facilities will no doubt continue to expand in the Web hosting business, the significant ongoing thread from this week's news will likely be the continuing fight against abuses of the .eu domain, as well as the resolution of the lawsuits launched by EURid.