Oct 31, 2003 : The webhost industry: week review

📅 October 31, 2003 - This week's Web hosting industry news included some of the usual elements, along with some quite unusual elements. While there were announcements related to several significant acquisition efforts and new efforts by hosting firms to target specific markets, a surprising amount of this week's most interesting developments surrounded the areas of privacy and security.
On Tuesday, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers was urged by more than 50 consumer and civil liberty organizations to limit the use of the WHOIS database to its original purpose of resolving network technical issues, and to establish strong privacy protection standards. A letter sent to the organization said the WHOIS database violates a domain holder's right to privacy and freedom of expression by exposing personal information, including phone numbers, email and mailing addresses. The letter's signatories represent 21 countries, and include the American Liberty Association, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic and other groups. ICANN is curretntly meeting in Carthage, Tunisia to discuss the WHOIS database.
In further security news, NetScaler Inc. said on Wednesday that it had launched its Secure Application Accelerator, an entry-level application-layer security and optimization solution. The company says Secure Application Accelerator allows enterprises to ensure the secure and high-performance delivery of critical applications for enterprises of all sizes, but is particularly well suited to the needs of small and medium-sized customers. The product comes in three models and includes SSL acceleration, TCP optimization, DDoS attack protection and static and dynamic caching as well as support for up to 2,500 SSL VPN users.
Also on Wednesday, Symantec and Sun Microsysteoms announced that they had launched the iForce Intrusion Detection Appliance, a high-speed network intrusion detection system. The companies say the IDS combines Symantec's ManHunt 3.0 intrusion protection technology with the Sun Fire V60x server running on a Solaris operating system, x86 platform edition. The companies say the appliance is designed to provide enterprises with extended protection against attacks, both known and unknown, delivering enterprise-class security and monitoring up to 2 gigabits per second on copper or fiber-based networks.
In addition to being involved in this week's security product launches, Symantec was also part of the M&A news, announcing on Tuesday that it would acquire infrastructure management software developer ON Technology in a cash transaction valued at approximately $100 million. The acquisition was approved by the board of directors at both companies on Monday. According to the agreement, which is expected to close by March of 2004, shareholders of ON Technology will receive $4 per share. Symantec says ON's technology will strengthen its enterprise administration and security business.
And late on Friday of last week, MCI said it would raise its tender offer price for shares of Digex Inc. by 25 percent, from 80 cents to $1, pending approval from the US bankruptcy court for the southern district of New York. MCI said if approval was granted, it would announce the increased price to Digex shareholders and extend the June expiration date of the tender offer. MCI, formerly known as Worldcom, is expected to emerge from bankruptcy in the fall, and reportedly hopes to merge the acquired Digex assets with its Intermedia Investment unit.
Along with the acquisition news, several companies announced developments in their efforts to target new customer markets this week.
Mirror Image Internet announced on Tuesday that it had launched a "Holiday Satisfaction" promotional offer for its content delivery services aimed at Cable & Wireless customers. The company says the offer is designed to assure C&W customers that they won't be "left in the dark this holiday season." Cable & Wireless said in June that it planned to shut down the US portion of its Web hosting operations. Mirror Image says Cable & Wireless customers who accept the offer will be offered increased Web site capacity and higher levels of performance.
And on Wednesday, Hostopia announced that it had released an expanded line of small business hosting plans targeted at the small office and home office customer. The company says the plans, delivered through its network of private label partners, will help service providers to expand revenues and markets. The new SOHO plans include Personal Basic, SOHO Basic, SOHO Plus and SOHO E-mail/Forward.
While this week's news followed the now-common trends of consolidation, and saw Web hosts attempt to tackle new market segments, there were also a number of announcements this week linked very directly to the not-so-often explored themes of privacy and information security, addressing what appear to be the growing security concerns of Internet users at large.