Web Hosting News

Not quite “just in time for Earth Day,” as far as this blog is concerned, but April 22 (Earth Day) was actually the day we shipped the files for the latest issue of WHIR magazine off to the printer.

The date is fitting because May’s issue is our “green issue,” in which we look at one of the most notable issues in hosting from a variety of angles.

It’s possible, I suppose that you’re reading this blog for some reason other than the fact that you follow web hosting news, but if we accept my general “you, dear reader, are at least interested enough in web hosting to pay attention to the general industry news” assumption to be true, then it is probably also safe to assume that you’ve noticed the overall increase in “green” hosting news, not just in the last few weeks, but over the last few months.

Last year, not long after we settled on the notion of putting together a “green” issue, I began receiving the green issues of just about every magazine I regularly receive - I’ve got everything from Toronto Life to PC Magazine to Vanity Fair piled up around my desk.

Eco friendly living and business practices are a big issue across the board, and they’ve become a serious concern in the hosting business, which has an interesting relationship with environmentalism.

Hosting’s biggest impact on the environment is through the consumption of electrical energy. Data centers, and the servers they contain, are an enormous draw on electrical power and, consequently, a significant producer of greenhouse gasses. But energy is also becoming one of the biggest expenses for hosting providers, making it possible for companies in this business to serve their bottom lines even as they pursue more environmentally responsible business practices.

This isn’t the case in every industry. A lot of business are struggling to figure out ways to dispose of harmful waste, or to curb other destructive practices without the cost putting them out of business. For hosts, the path is clear.

There isn’t yet a specific model for building a green hosting business. But it’s on its way. What we set out to do with our green issue was describe the atmosphere in the industry relating to green initiatives, and we approached it form three angles.

The first was the movement itself, where, driven by the motives of conservation for its own sake and conservation for the sake of the bottom line, a culture is building among organizations and outfits working to build the standards by which we measure our “green” efforts.

Second is the practical implementation of green procedures in the data center. We examine the real-world limits most hosting companies face, and map out strategies for building efficiency into the data center.

Third is the message. Hosts pursuing green projects face a decision about the message they bring to customers. And those customers are not always receptive to marketing efforts tied inextricably to an ethical question.

Chances are, your experience with green hosting isn’t going to begin, or end, with our green issue. But I’m hopeful that it will be helpful to you in mapping out your business’s relationship with environmental issues.

A couple of weeks ago, we posted an interview with Michael van Dijken, Microsoft’s lead marketing manager for hosted services, where we gained some insight into the direction Microsoft is taking with its partners through events like its annual Hosting Summit.

On the other side of the spectrum are the partners themselves, and we caught up with a good variety of them at the event to really get a sense of what the overall experience was like for them (considering this event really IS mostly about them, right?). We particularly decided to focus on questions like why they decided to attend the event, what they thought about the information Microsoft was presenting to them and what value they felt Microsoft’s summit brought to the hosting industry as a whole.

I was going through my files — then again and again —- March was a slow month…but April will be better – at least my firm did three.

Lynchburg VA – Sitestar (OTC: SYTE) bought the assets of Comcation, an Internet service provider whose services also include web hosting. As a side note Sitestar’s CEO, Frank Erhartic has agreed to be on an M&A panel this blogger is moderating at ISPCON.

Australia -  MYOB acquired Ilisys Pty Ltd one of Australia's larger web hosting providers. MYOB provides accounting software and payroll software to more than 700,000 businesses worldwide.

Glendale, CA -  Pro Net Hosting acquired Homepage Universe which doubled the firm’s size to over 100,000 shared and dedicated hosting domains.

Denver, Colorado - ViaWest, acquired Dallas based Dataside. With the Dataside acquisition, ViaWest's annualized revenue will exceed $100 million by the fourth quarter of 2008.

London -  Freedom4 Communications PLC, signed an agreement to sell its Hosting and Network Services Division to Host Europe WVS Ltd for 120.0 mln stg. ($235m)

Minneapolis -  VISI acquired Infinity AccessNET, a business-focused Internet Service Provider. 

Obviously not all inclusive - but from the NCC files.

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As reported here at The WHIR and around the Internet, Rackspace has filed the preliminary paperwork with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to issue an Initial Public Offer of stock (IPO). The complete S-1 documents can be found here and make pretty interesting reading for anyone who has a business involving web servers or large scale hosting.

Assuming that the IPO is issued, and that Rackspace becomes a New York Stock Exchange traded stock - this is great news for the web hosting industry. Here are the main reasons why:

An IPO at this time indicates that this sector is growing like crazy despite the specter of a U.S. recession - While there has been a pull back in a number of high visibility stock market sectors (think: housing markets, mortgages, banking, consumer durables) there is actually an acceleration in web hosting going on. This is driven by the growing acceptance of the web as the place for any and all data and applications. We are witnessing the transference of data from the desktop to the 'cloud'. Rackspace is riding the crest of this wave and pointing the way for the entire hosting industry.

Rackspace is an almost pure play web hosting company - Anyone, either within the web hosting industry or outside, can now have much greater visibility into the specific metrics that make web hosting a great business. Many investors are reluctant to invest in a sector or industry which is complex or laden with technical jargon. Rackspace will educate the market on many of the terms and realities that accompany web hosting operations. This will benefit other web hosting companies seeking investment in the future.

A successful IPO will create demand among investors for similar companies - Once Rackspace reveals the money to be made in web hosting, the larger investment community will seek out web hosting investments. This will mean more money available for web hosting companies in every niche of hosting. In essence, the business model will be vetted and the mechanisms for profit better understood.

The publicity surrounding the IPO will generate buzz for 'web hosting' - Just by submitting the S-1 documents, Rackspace has already created a substantial buzz around the investment and Internet communities related to web hosting. As of this morning, there are over 111 references to Rackspace on Google news. Over 35 of those posted in the past few hours, and all related to the IPO. Web hosting buzz and publicity enriches all those in this industry.

I wish everyone over a Rackspace the very best of luck with this exciting new venture, and on behalf of the entire web hosting industry I offer a heart-felt, ''Thank You''.

This content provided by HostMySite.com.

Our company has been casually blogging for some time so now we have a good feel for what our customers like to see in this format. When our new website is released our blog will become a focal point of our site and a source for quality content on web hosting and applications. Company blogs will become more important in the next few years so you should start one now if you haven't already. While your business may already be well established, and perhaps even have a community forum with a good number of members, a blog can only further the connection with your customers. If you maintain quality posts on a regular basis, you'll really bag this new way of improving your public relations.

I have words of warning before you begin. I do see mistakes in existing company blogs out there, there are a few things that I believe should not be discussed. One of them is talking too much about your own products and services. That is what your website is for. No one wants to spend time reading about your services elsewhere only to see oddly placed sales pitches in the blog. It just doesn't fit. Your blog is a chance to point out something else about your company that is important but perhaps rarely noticed. You have to keep that in mind and be sure not to waste this opportunity. 

You should also be sure to keep things as serious as possible no matter how fun you're feeling that day. (We all have those days when the idea seemed like a good one but later turned out to just be off the wall.) The company blog is a reflection of your business. So unless you are going for silly and wacky, try to keep things consistent. There is a time for humor in many situations, but you have to control the impression that visitors will receive after reading your blog. After reading only a few posts, a visitor will have developed an image of your company and its vision. Make sure that image is the one you want.

With your goals and image in mind, the question now is: who in your company is going to create these posts? You may want to discuss the new blog idea with your staff to uncover who could work well together for developing content and then the writing process could be handled separately. Having a quality blog is definitely a challenge and really should not be the responsibility of only one person. There is a way for any team to accomplish making a blog a success for your business.

And now I'm off to hopefully start taking my own advice!

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The Supreme Court of New Jersey joined a small, but growing, number of state courts who have ruled that individuals have an expectation of privacy in the IP addresses assigned to them by their ISPs.  The unanimous decision in  State v. Reid was based on the New Jersey state Constitution, rather than the U.S. Constitution. 

At base, the court held that a demand for an IP address must be connected with some sort of judicial proceeding, and not a simple subpoena issued by a court without any kind of review.  The court stated that the demand for the IP address must “bear some possible relationship” to an investigation.  That relationship can be demonstrated by requiring that the subpoena be issued as part of the grand jury process, rather than through a process in which a subpoena may be issued without any demonstration of relevance.  The court refused to go further, and require that a subpoena be issued by a grand jury only upon demonstration of probable cause (the standard necessary to issue a warrant).

This decision shows the difference in privacy rights that is developing between state constitutions and the U.S. constitution.  Federal courts have routinely held that there is no Constitutionally based expectation of privacy in IP addresses, while state courts are increasingly interpreting their constitutions the opposite way.   Like many similar state vs. Federal issues, these different interpretations are ironic since most state constitutions are based on the Federal constitution.  However state courts have a long history of interpreting their constitutions differently than the U.S. constitution.

For hosts, this decision reinforces the need to require some sort of service of process prior to disclosing information about your customers.  It’s important to note that the ISP in this case, Comcast, was not a party to the suit, and not held to be liable for its response to the defective subpoena.  However, what this case does illustrate is the growing body of law supporting customer’s expectation of privacy in information generated by their use of technology.

From a micro perspective, hosts should always require that any request for customer information be part of a judicial proceeding, or otherwise authorized by law.  From a macro perspective, it should cause those who are interested in commercializing this information to be careful in how customer information is used.  The line between a host’s ownership of information generated by customer’s use of its technology, and a customer’s expectation of privacy, becomes thinner with every decision in this area.