(The Hosting News)  –  Web hosting provider ServInt, today announced it is donating hosting services for the new philanthropic effort Indie Music for Haiti (www.indiemusicforhaiti.com).

The new site from Maryland-based music studio Asparagus Media allows independent musicians to submit video clips of recent performances, new songs written for or about the crisis, and other video content designed to promote charitable giving to Haitian relief. The site is structured to make submitting content simple, and allows artists to easily direct viewers to the charity of their choice.

To mark the launch of the site, ServInt was a major supporter of the successful Indie Music for Haiti fundraising concert Feb. 2nd at the popular Washington, DC music venue DC9. The event, which featured performances by artists including Tommy T of Gogol Bordello, raised several thousand dollars for the relief group Voice of Haiti (www.voiceofhaiti.org). One of the highlights of the event was an appearance by ServInt CEO and Founder Reed Caldwell, who flew in from ServInt’s Los Angeles office to announce that ServInt would match all donations made at the event.

All the performances from the Feb. 2nd event were filmed in high definition, and are among the first clips anchoring the content at Indie Music for Haiti.

“A huge part of the worldwide music industry isn’t affiliated with any mainstream music label. We’re giving these kinds of artists and their fans a place to congregate and make a positive difference for a devastated nation,” said Asparagus Media President Fritz Stolzenbach.

ServInt Chief Operating Officer Christian Dawson said, “With the potential to showcase hundreds of high-quality music-video files, Indie Music for Haiti will require a large amount of bandwidth and continuous monitoring to ensure reliable performance. ServInt will deploy all necessary hosting resources to guarantee an optimal user experience and give thousands of music fans the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing relief effort in Haiti.”

Dawson added, “ServInt has a long, successful association with some of the nation’s most progressive technology, music, art and literary communities. We expect to make additional announcements later this year, detailing our support for selected organizations that are helping to drive the economy, enlighten the general public and provide assistance to those in need.”

ServInt donates web-hosting services for new philanthropic effort Indie Music for Haiti

Fraud Risk?
The knee surgery seems to have gone well enough to let me drive into the office for the week. Walking’s still a little tricky. But at least I can drive! (Read More…)

• The Server Reseller Paradox
• Shills in the web hosting industry

Read the entire “Fraud Risk?” edition of the Web Hosting Talk Insider

(The Hosting News) – The business community has offered it’s support for Codero’s recently launched Price Match Challenge. This new program has had a highly positive effect among small- to medium-sized businesses desiring a less expensive solution for dedicated and managed hosting services. The limited-time promotion allows customers to receive a price match for any publicly advertised price from a competitor for identical products and services.

“In these recessionary times, we are committed to the success of our customers which is why we have gone to great lengths to competitively price the products and services we offer,” stated Shelby Garlock, Director, Marketing. “In fact, we are so dedicated to offering the best possible value that if a customer discovers a better price for like services, we’ll honor it. We have found when we can meet our customers’ demand for responsive, quality services at low-cost prices, it’s a win-win for everybody. Response has been overwhelmingly favorable.”

In order to receive a price match, customers must submit a copy of a dated price and specification quote that is no more than thirty days old, or a live link to a website advertising the price and specifications to be matched. The Price Match Challenge is valid on newly activated dedicated and managed hosting services, and will be honored for as long as the customer maintains that service with Codero.

Codero’s Cost-Saving Measures Provoke Favorable Reaction

(The Hosting News) – Chicago based Steadfast Networks, has officially announced its environmental green initiative by implementing a 100% carbon offset. This offset will be utilized for staff commuting, office usage, core infrastructure, networking equipment, shared web hosting, VPS hosting, and backup services. Steadfast Networks is certified “carbon neutral” by Carbonfund.org, an environmentally-friendly organization that helps businesses reduce and offset their climate impact.

“Moving steadily forward in the 21st century does not mean trampling all over our natural resources, so we have teamed up with Carbonfund.org and implemented a variety of green initiative programs to help preserve our natural resources,” says Karl Zimmerman, CEO of Steadfast Networks. “The same high quality and exceptional service Steadfast Networks stands for in our managed servers, colocation hosting services, and web hosting services is the standard we aspire to for maintaining a healthy environment.”

In addition to becoming carbon neutral and purchasing carbon offsets, Steadfast Networks encourages employees to commute by foot, bike, or public transportation, and in some cases, work from home. To increase efficiency and help the environment, local vendors such as Amadi Systems provide more than 90% of Steadfast Networks’ equipment, cutting down on the emissions caused while transporting. Steadfast Networks orders the equipment with no packing materials in order to reduce the trash produced. All paper and cardboard products, equipment, hardware, and servers building-wide are recycled.

“Not having to unpack equipment has increased the speed of operations and made our Chicago hosting services and data centers run more efficiently,” says Zimmerman. “Highly efficient network systems and dedicated server hosting also reduce carbon outputs, and those are options we also offer to customers who want to reduce their carbon imprint.”

Steadfast Network’s base operations, shared web hosting, VPS hosting, and backup services are carbon neutral. Customers who wish to receive carbon neutral colocation services and dedicated server hosting indicate that choice by contacting a Steadfast Networks representative or when placing an order. Additionally, Steadfast Networks’ low power Atom servers, Xeon processors and Intel solid state drives lower operational costs while reducing the carbon footprint associated with hosting services. Providing dedicated server, colocation, and hosting services without up-selling a more energy-intensive IT solution a customer does not need further reduces
environmental impact.

“People who are passionate about caring for our world are loyal to companies who share that same sense of responsibility,” says Zimmerman. “Customers appreciate transparency and businesses with carbon neutral hosting services can let their clients know they are standing up and doing their part for our world.”

For more information on Steadfast Networks’ green initiative, or to suggest more ways to reduce the carbon footprint, visit http://steadfast.net/corporate/green.php.

Steadfast Networks Publicizes New Green Initiative

(The Hosting News) – NTT Communications’s American branch has officially announced that certain company executives will attend the Spring 2010 Channel Partners Conference & Expo, March 1-3 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, to meet current and potential solution partners and discuss NTT America’s Global IP Network (GIN) Solution Partners Program. NTT America’s booth number is 1431. NTT America’s GIN Solution Partners Program is a channel neutral program that enables qualified referral partners, agents and Value Added Resellers (VARs) to sell NTT America’s entire suite of domestic and international IP and data solutions including Fast Ethernet (FE), Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) and 10GigE. The company has recently released a case study with Silent Partner, a firm that provides Internet connectivity and colocation services, emphasizing the unique benefits of channel neutral partnerships.

NTT America’s GIN Solution Partners Program is channel neutral, which means that NTT America’s GIN direct sales team and the channel team avoid competition and work together to win new customers. The channel integration aspect of the program eliminates channel conflict and opens the door to new sales opportunities, creating a winning scenario for NTT America and the company’s Solution Partners. In addition, Solution Partners benefit from NTT America’s industry leading provisioning and from the ability to sell 10GigE. 10GigE is a flexible, ultra high bandwidth solution designed for the largest colocation and hosting firms, large Internet Service Providers (ISPs), incumbent Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) providers, content providers with rich and streaming media, and Multiple System Operators (MSOs) with the ability to grow to a full 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps).
The channel neutral approach has proven beneficial for NTT America’s Solution Partner Silent Partner, as the relationship exemplifies how to provide optimal colocation and network strategy to benefit a myriad of clients. Silent Partner recognized that if businesses had a trusted partner to determine key elements of network strategy and implementation, and act in their best interests in negotiating with some of the largest telecom and network service providers, it would allow companies to focus on what they do best, making their business profitable and productive. The firm achieved this by creating a unique ecosystem to foster relationships between clients and a pre-vetted network of complementary businesses and professionals. Part of Silent Partner’s ecosystem, NTT America provides products and services including the NTT Communications Global IP Network, a Tier 1 Internet backbone that serves the US, Central and Latin America, Europe, Oceania, Japan and Asia as well as strategically placed data centers located across these same locations.

NTT America brings an array of assets to the table that Silent Partner considers important when determining a good partner fit, including proximity of data centers, networks with expansive reach, access to all levels of a partner organization and the ability to move quickly to get clients needs met. In addition, NTT America’s industry leading Service Level Agreements (SLAs), highly reliable infrastructure and strong presence in Asia are key attributes which have made the Solution Partner relationship successful because Silent Partner’s clients businesses depend on the constant and instant accessibility offered by the NTT America network and its data centers.

“NTT America’s channel neutral approach lets us work with them as a team for our clients,” said Kevin Francis, principal, Silent Partner. “We’re empowered to work with whatever level of their organization we need to get things done. In the end it’s not about who worked with the client but that the plan we designed gets implemented and NTT America is behind us 100 percent, working with us as collaborators to add value beyond price.”

NTT America’s GIN Solutions Partners Program provides participants with sales training, on-line portals, lucrative compensations, competitive pricing, and technical support. Qualified participants may enter the Referral Program, Agent Program or Reseller Program.
• Referral Program: Referral Program Partners receive a one-time commission on the monthly recurring revenue.
• Agent Program: Agents receive lucrative monthly commissions on the monthly recurring revenue of a closed opportunity. NTT America’s sales team and the agent work together to close the customer business. NTT America is the customer’s first line of support, enabling the agent to concentrate on their core business and finding more opportunities.
• Reseller Program: Resellers do not receive commissions but are given a discounted static pricing book. The reseller is the customer’s first line of technical support and billing support.

Potential channel partners are invited to contact channel@us.ntt.net to see which Solutions Partners Program fits their business and to schedule a meeting with NTT America’s Global IP Network team at the Channel Partners Conference and Expo.

NTT America Supports Solution Partners Program at 2010 Channel Partners Expo

(The Hosting News) – Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) today announced that it is broadening its local presence in Northern California. It’s new facilities will be established in locations such as San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and Sacramento. This initiative reflects Level 3’s continuing pledge to enhance its presence in local markets throughout the country, designed to provide mid-market enterprises with a world-class customer experience.

“Medium-sized businesses require assistance navigating today’s complex communications environment. Level 3’s local-focus initiative is the right approach to provide accessible support. This is a great strategy for establishing long-term relationships and a solid foundation for growth,” said Courtney Munroe, group vice president for Worldwide Telecommunications Research at IDC.

In support of this local-expansion effort, Level 3 is growing and realigning its local workforce in Northern California to combine a local presence, in-depth marketplace knowledge and broad expertise in the communications industry. Through a combination of its extensive backbone network, metro fiber-optic footprint, and a locally focused sales and customer support team, Level 3 provides greater opportunities for mid-market enterprises to take advantage of Level 3’s broad portfolio of communications services.

“Northern California businesses are continually finding new and different ways to communicate and conduct business with their customers and partners,” said Chris Tamblyn, Level 3’s general manager for Northern California. “Level 3’s suite of solutions and extensive fiber footprint supports this kind of innovation and positions us as an ideal competitive alternative to traditional providers.”

Through this initiative, Level 3 will leverage existing network assets of more than 450 metro fiber route miles in Northern California. In addition, Level 3 plans to augment network capacity in the region and expand the number of businesses that are directly connected to the Level 3 network. This expansion will provide mid-market enterprises with access to the full suite of Level 3 services and allow them to quickly and easily increase their bandwidth as business needs grow.

The expansion of operations in Northern California marks the continuation of a locally focused strategy that Level 3 launched successfully in mid-2009. The company is pleased with the progress of the initiative to date as evidenced by increased sales from customers in the initial markets as well as higher reported overall customer satisfaction for mid-market enterprises.

Level 3 Increases Presence in Northern California

(The Hosting News) – Opus Interactive hired Steve Cronburg as Systems Administrator. An industry veteran with  9 years of experience working with clients across all facets of IT, including hardware, software and network troubleshooting. He is the newest member of a growing Network Operations Center staff that delivers hands-on customer service for Opus Interactive’s hosting clientele.

“We’re excited to have Steve join our team,” said Brady Wilson, CTO of Opus Interactive. “One of our competitive differentiators is our strong, hands-on customer service. He brings a wealth of diverse experience to our team which will help us maintain this advantage as we grow.”

“One of the things that attracted me to Opus Interactive is their plans for growing their business,” said Cronburg. “Being part of a growing organization, and working with the talented team they have is exciting.”

Leading Managed Hosting Provider, Opus Interactive Hires New Systems Administrator

(The Hosting News) - We all know that Twitter has grown quickly and become extremely popular. In fact the service has become so popular that it even has it’s own awards. However, I came across some interesting and enlightening growth information on Twitter recently while conducting research for reseller hosting provider 34SP.com. Twitter has just sent out its 10 billionth tweet.

That’s a ten with nine zeros after it: 10,000,000,000.

When you think about it – it’s not surprising. After all, this was the site that grew 1,382 percent in one year from February 2008 to February 2009. The site attracted 475,000 visitors in February of 2008 and surged up to 7,038,000 users just one year later. According to published data,Twitter currently pushes out a daily average of 50 million tweets. Those 140 character or less messages are racing out onto the Internet, phones and various other devices at the rate of over 2 million every single hour of every single day. The Official Twitter blog noted a few weeks ago these growth trends, ”Folks were tweeting 5,000 times a day in 2007. By 2008, that number was 300,000, and by 2009 it had grown to 2.5 million per day. Tweets grew 1,400% last year to 35 million per day. Today, we are seeing 50 million tweets per day—that’s an average of 600 tweets per second. (Yes, we have TPS reports.)”.

The Twitter service was developed in 2006. On March 21, 2006 Jack Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9:50 PM Pacific Standard Time (PST). That message was: ”just setting up my twttr”. Since then Twitter has become a huge social media phenomenon – although the company has struggled over the past few years to develop a truly compelling revenue model to benefit financially from the service’s popularity. According to Wikipedia the company has raised over $57 million from venture capitalists.

The ten billionth tweet was estimated to have been sent sometime in the past 24 hours. The uncertainty comes from the methodology used to determine exactly how many tweets have been sent. The method used relies on historical data and rates of tweeting to arrive at a number. Most major news sources were turning to a fun application entitled GigaTweet which simply has a counter that continuously counts up tweets.

GigaTweet estimates that the next billion tweets will have been sent out within the next 20 days. That’s quite a few tweets.

Twitter Passes 10 Billion Tweets

(The Hosting News) - Overland Park, Kan. – Following a detailed, independent assessment of internal controls for company-wide policies and procedures, Codero has completed its first SAS 70 review. SAS 70 Type I certification evaluates the current state of a service provider’s control environment and effectiveness in meeting control objectives. This structured, multi-step process focused on the following areas:

• Operations and control environment
• Monitoring and risk assessment
• Information systems and general computer controls
• Control of access to computer programs and security of data
• Control of new development and changes to existing programs and systems
• User responsibilities

SAS 70 – Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 70, Service Organizations – is a widely recognized auditing standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), which has been in place since 1992. A Type I service auditor’s report provides a description of controls at a specific point in time; a Type II report includes the service organization’s description of controls as well as detailed testing of its controls over a minimum six-month period.

“Completing SAS 70 Type I certification has been an important process for Codero to undertake,” stated Shawn Hashmi, Director, Operations at Codero. “In light of Sarbanes-Oxley and a growing number of state privacy laws and rulings, the audit allows us to be very transparent with customers in demonstrating that we utilize a sound system of internal controls.”

With this in-depth audit now concluded, Codero is pursuing SAS 70 Type II certification for its data center and corporate-wide operations, scheduled for completion by July 31, 2010.

Auditing services for the SAS 70 Type I report were provided by Mayer Hoffman McCann P.C. (MHM) through a strategic association with CBIZ. MHM is an independent public accounting firm specializing in high quality attest and accounting services, including audits, reviews and compilations. CBIZ, with offices in major cities throughout the country, is one of the nation’s leading providers of outsourced business services, providing accounting and tax services; employee benefits and insurance; as well as a wide range of consulting services.

See SAS 70 at Codero for details on the company’s recent SAS 70 Type I audit of control objectives and activities within its Phoenix data center and Overland Park, Kansas corporate headquarters.

About Codero
Specializing in dedicated and managed hosting services for small-to-mid-sized businesses, Codero’s technology portfolio includes high-performance Windows® and Linux servers delivering advanced email, eCommerce, security and networking solutions. All Codero products are backed by secure data centers, live 24/7/365 U.S.-based support and a seasoned staff with international experience in the hosting business for over 15 years. An industry innovator, Codero recently launched its Codero Rewards program and the Green with Codero Initiative, powering 100% of its dedicated server and managed hosting operations through renewable energy credits. For more information about Codero, please visit www.codero.com.

Contact
Shelby Garlock, Director, Marketing
shelbyg@codero.com
877.999.2750

Codero Recognized with SAS 70 Type I Certification

(The Hosting News) – IT Service Provider Atlantic.Net (www.atlantic.net)  officially stated today its participation as a sponsor for The 17th annual CFO Rising Conference & Expo, scheduled for March 7-10, 2010, at the Hilton Grand Convention Center in Orlando Florida.

Atlantic.Net is offering free evaluations to help attendees recognize huge savings with Atlantic.Net’s Fully Managed IT Services. In today’s economy every organization is looking to streamline their processes and cut expenses. Atlantic.Net is taking proactive steps to educate financial decision makers on how to reduce their IT spending without sacrificing the integrity of their IT infrastructure.

“For over 15 years Atlantic.Net, in its role as an Internet Service Provider, Competitive Local Exchange Carrier and a Managed Computer Server Hosting provider, has helped thousands of businesses obtain more for less”, said Adnan Raja, Director of Business Development at Atlantic.Net. “Our Fully Managed IT Services are designed to help Financial Executives deploy newer and more cost effective IT strategies allowing them to refocus on their core business”.

Atlantic.Net will be giving away five HP Netbooks during the conference; CFO participants can enter to win online at http://www.atlantic.net/cfo or stop by booth number 119.

Atlantic.Net announces participation in the annual CFO Conference