Please tell us the year established and brief history of NaviSite?
NaviSite was founded in 1997 and has grown to over 15 data centers, 650 employees and over $150M in revenue. Over the years NaviSite has grown both organically and through acquisitions, and has products and services that meet the needs of both enterprises and SMBs. NaviSite was already a fast growing provider of hosting services and through a 2001 merger acquired several data centers.

In 2002 NaviSite acquired Interliant, the award winning enterprise class Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes hosting provider. The 2004 acquisition of Surebridge, a top Microsoft Business Solutions provider, solidified NaviSite’s presence in the managed applications industry.

By 2007, NaviSite was a leading enterprise class host and was leveraging that experience to expand into the small and medium sized business space with the acquisition of SMB service providers like Alabanza and Jupiter Hosting. Today, NaviSite serves customers of all sizes and brings a world-class approach with the best in reliability, performance, security and service.

What do you offer your customers that are unique to your company?
NaviSite’s managed dedicated servers come with a level of services that are significantly more robust than those offered by competing providers in the SMB space. We pride ourselves in offering an enterprise class experience, not a product or a service. This comes with a multi-facted approach that includes dedicated account managers for single point of escalation, and a solution that is architected with enterprise class reliability and uptime and delivered from a SAS 70 Type II data center. Included with every Dedicated Server and Virtual Dedicated Server plan are essential features that provide enterprise class reliability, performance and access. As an example, every NaviSite Dedicated Server comes with two hard drives and RAID, not a unique concept but one that is essential to provide high reliability. NaviSite’s Virtual Server offerings offer unparalled flexilibty and on-demand computing capability and come bundled with all the core reliability features one can expect to run product applications including

VMware based infrastructure, HP BladeSystem, and SAN storage. We only use best in class name brand products and technology with full service contracts, and we don’t assemble our own servers. Our servers go through extensive compatibility and reliability testing which our competition just cannot do on their own. Reliable spam-free enterprise class business email and collaboration is a core demand within the SMB audience. Our Hosted Exchange and SharePoint solution has been designed from a ground up for the SMB customer. With a generous amount of storage, the best-in-class SPAM protection from Postini, and an unparalleled automation and self service provided by an industry leading control panel, our Hosted Exchange platform provides hassle free email and mobility for SMBs. Through our extensive experience in servicing enterprise customers, we know that simply having the best servers, networks and upgrades does not insure a successful outsourcing experie

What is the most challenging aspect to offering Dedicated Servers?
The most challenging aspect we find are the high expectations many of our customers bring, often because of bad experiences elsewhere, and also sometimes stemming from the realization and frustration that they are no longer able to manage their own IT internally. SMB’s deserve but rarely receive a class of service that enterprises enjoy, and are surprised when they experience the higher-level of service that NaviSite provides. It is not unusual for our dedicated account managers to receive unsolicited feedback from our customers within the first 30 days of their signing up about the dramatic upgrade in the experience and the reliability.

What is it that makes NaviSite a competitive company in the Dedicated Hosting market?
NaviSite’s long history of providing enterprise managed hosting and application solutions provide a foundation of service, experience and controls which are unparalleled in the small and medium sized hosting marketplace. We focus on providing an experience, not a service. This includes world class support, dedicated account managers, and hosting packages that are designed with SMBs in mind. When prospects compare our servers and options against the competition, it’s our leadership on price and value that prove to be the most viable solution.

Where do you see NaviSite and the web hosting industry in three years?
Both the industry and NaviSite will evolve. The cloud platform offers a new paradigm to deliver and charge for services, with an increased degree of flexibility for the customer. We will see an acceleration of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). SMBs and enterprises will continue to move their IT infrastructure to hosted infrastructure providers, enabling them to cut costs and get more performance and reliability out of their infrastructure budgets. Specific trends which will grow significantly include data storage and management, virtualization and hosted applications, whether they are standardized packages like NaviSite’s Hosted Exchange and Mobility, or custom developed SaaS and HaaS applications

How many customers do you currently have?
NaviSite has over 1,500 customers and manages over 9,000 servers across 15 data centers which host thousands of applications.

Who are some of your famous clients?
NaviSite has dozens of world famous clients including HBO, BP, GM, and JP Morgan, as well as thousands of nationally and locally famous small business clients who rely on our hosted infrastructure services.

Do you own your own datacenter?
NaviSite currently owns 15 state-of-the-art data centers supported by more than 650 professionals.

Where are they located?
Our data centers are located worldwide and include:
• Andover, MA
• Syracuse, NY
• New York City
• Vienna, VA
• Oak Brook, IL
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Las Vegas, NV
• Dallas, TX
• San Jose, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• London, UK
• Minneapolis, MN
• Woking, UK
• Santa Clara, CA

What kind of back up power do you have?
NaviSite’s data centers are fed power through highly redundant and efficient power systems and are backed up by generators that can keep the site running at full load for 24 hours with hot refuel capability, without requiring power from any direct electric grid. The parallel UPS systems with battery backup are redundantly supplied by diversely distributed utility. The diverse power routes and redundant switching infrastructure help ensure your connections are optimized, both in speed and performance. For example, our Andover MA data center has four generators with 2 Megawatts each and 5 UPS strings and 5 battery strings.

What connections do you have?
NaviSite’s network is well supported with a direct-leased line Internet connection to High Speed OC3 - Internet Connection Services - ensuring fast network connectivity regardless of volume peaks, 100% uptime, and instant response for hosted business applications and servers. Our Andover MA data center is powered by Cisco 6509 switches and our dedicated hosting customers have bandwidth provided in a BGP4, fastest path configuration from 5 providers including Level 3 and, Sprint and Global Crossing.

Do you offer 24/7 support?
Yes, all NaviSite customers can reach our live customer support personnel 24/7/365. Our Always There team of professionals has extensive training and certifications, allowing them to service customers accurately and quickly.

Do you have technicians present 24/7 or 9-5 M-F?
NaviSite has technicians’ onsite 24/7/365. Our dedicated hosting customers can rely on our Always There support team to assist them, and they have access to onsite engineers to replace malfunctioning hardware or perform other tasks at anytime of the day or night.

What is your average turn-around time on a support ticket?
NaviSite Always There support team averages less than thirty minutes to resolve a support ticket and strives to achieve a high-quality customer survey score and to resolve customer issues with minimal back and forth.

Do you charge your clients for support? If so, please explain.
All managed dedicated servers, virtual dedicated servers and hosted application plans include customer support from NaviSite’s Always There support team. Our support scope is extensive and covers all NaviSite owned, operated and managed equipment. This includes support for all the configurations and software that we provide to customers at implementation. We advise customers on additional customer specific software and configurations, and offer support services outside our scope for a reasonable fee.

Do you offer a money back guarantee?
Our SLAs are industry leading with 100% Network Uptime, 100% Infrastructure uptime and a 100% Hardware Replacement guarantee. NaviSite’s products, services, infrastructure, processes and procedures are all engineered to deliver a reliable, high performance hosted infrastructure environment to our customers.

Extreme Hosting specializes in offering high quality shared web hosting to the adult industry.

While many hosts shy away from the adult industry, Extreme Hosting welcomes the customers and their demands by providing robust hosting solutions at affordable pricing.

Please tell us the year established and brief history of Extreme Hosting?
Extreme Hosting was established in 2001 by a group of web hosting specialists. Being in this area for many years before that like regular customers helped us to create a successful web hosting company.

What do you offer your customers that are unique to your company?
We offer a totally different web hosting solution based on a custom software and customer control panel, which makes us stand before the competition.

Our web hosting solution is totally customizable dislike many standard web hosting solitions other web hosting companies offer.

What is the most challenging aspect to offering Adult Web Hosting?
The most challenging aspect in providing adult web hosting services is to maintain a true 99.99% uptime and real 24/7 support to our customers with minimal response time.

What is it that makes Extreme Hosting a competitive company in the Adult Web Hosting market?
Extreme Hosting is among the leading companies in adult web hosting market due to the fact that we use our own custom built software and control panel.

If you need to find a company that is different from all the others, that is Extreme Hosting.

What new features have Extreme Hosting added for its customers in the past year?
We are constantly developping our system and adding new features for our customers.  We were last upgrading all our servers to support the latest versions of PHP5 and MySQL. We also had a nice facelift of the control panel recently.

How many customers do you currently have?
We currently serve thousands of websites for customers from all over the world.

Do you own your own datacenter?
We work in cooperation with Sago Networks and our servers are located in their Tampa Bay / Florida datacenter.

Where are they located?
All of our servers are located in Tampa Bay, Florida.

What kind of back up power do you have?
Each one of the datacenter facilities has diverse power feeds, redundant generators, and N+2 UPS systems. The power system is further carried by PMM (Power Management Module) systems.

Do you have multiple backbone connections?
Yes, the datacenter has diverse fiber optic cable entries, this provides for greater redundancy in the event of fiber cut due to construction or bad weather conditions. Currently the datacenter has connectivity to Level(3) Communications, Global Crossing, PCCW Global, Sprint Business internet, Tiscali International Network, and XO Communications.

What connections do you have?
Currently the datacenter has connectivity to Level(3) Communications, Global Crossing, PCCW Global, Sprint Business internet, Tiscali International Network, and XO Communications.

Do you offer 24/7 support?
Yes, providing true 24/7 support to our customers in one of our main goals.

Do you have technicians present 24/7 or 9-5 M-F?
Yes, support staff is available 24/7, every day.

What is your average turn-around time on a support ticket?
The average response time based on the previous 12 months is about 45 minutes per ticket.

Do you charge your clients for support? If so, please explain.
Nope, technical support is absolutely free at Extreme Hosting

Do you offer a money back guarantee?
Yes, we offer a 30 days money back guarantee. Full refund, no questions asked.

What do you offer your customers that are unique to your company?
Our primary differentiator is the customer-centric nature of The Planet. We have built our company and product portfolio to provide customers with a wide range of options that help them design the best hosting solution for their businesses. We have experts on staff who will work with customers to identify the right IT solution, whether it’s colocation, dedicated servers, managed dedicated servers or fully managed hosting.

What is the most challenging aspect to offering Web Hosting?
As a provider of comprehensive, world-class hosting solutions, The Planet is tasked with keeping pace with new technologies to ensure our product line is always ahead of the curve. We offer the latest server lines to our customers at competitive prices.

The Internet shift toward video-rich content creates increased demands on bandwidth capacity. To accommodate this change, we’ve increased our network capacity to 130 Gbps, offering one of the industry’s fastest, most robust networks.

What is it that makes The Planet a competitive company in the Web Hosting market?
The Planet’s primary strength is the quality of our hosting infrastructure. We provide the best infrastructure among hosting providers, which includes six SAS 70 Type II certified data centers that cover more than 165,000 square feet of raised floor space and house more than 56,000 servers, backed by our 130 Gbps Tier 1 network. In addition to our infrastructure, we employ the best and the brightest in the industry who provide our customers with unmatched support.

What new features have The Planet added for its customers in the past year?
Over the last year, we have made significant additions and enhancements to our management services portfolio. We launched Northstar Managed Hosting, a comprehensive, fully managed hosting solution. We also introduced Alpha Professional Managed Dedicated Servers, a business-class service that provides first-call resolution and a one-hour hardware replacement SLA. For dedicated hosting customers, Alpha Advanced Services are also available on an a la carte basis, including server backup, monitoring, security and administration, and managed backup.

In 2008 we also announced new products and technology. Among these are The Planet Storage Cloud, through our Nirvanix partnership; Direct Attached Storage (DAS); and Content Delivery Network (CDN) capabilities through a partnership with EdgeCast. We launched the Bargain Bin, a real-time server “outlet” that features overstocked and clearance dedicated servers.

What would you say is The Planet #1 asset to its customer base?
For our customers, the biggest asset is the talent of the people we employ. The Planet has more than 160 certified systems engineers on staff, a fully CCNA-certified Network Operations Center (NOC), and Microsoft- and RedHat-certified support staff. While the company is powered by our external automation systems, it’s our people that make The Planet a success.

Where do you see The Planet and the web hosting industry in three years?
In three years, the only entities building data centers will be those who do so as a business – as data center providers. As a result, most companies – and especially small businesses – will outsource the hosting of their server-class hardware to professionals. We expect to see consistent and significant growth across the hosting industry, and to participate in that growth here at The Planet.

How many customers do you currently have?
The Planet has more than 20,000 customers worldwide, 42 percent of which are international.

Who are some of your famous clients?
Do not disclose

Do you own your own datacenter?
The Planet owns six data centers. We recently announced plans for our seventh data center, a new 86,000 square foot facility that’s currently under construction and due to open in May.

Where are they located?
Four are in Dallas and two are in Houston. The seventh data center will be located in Dallas.

What kind of back up power do you have?
We have invested heavily in UPS systems for our data centers, which enables The Planet to offer up to a 100 percent SLA. These systems are further backed by diesel generators that cycle on automatically in the event of a power disruption from a municipal supplier.

Our infrastructure is built out with N+1 capacity. This means if there were concurrent failures of multiple systems, we would still be backed by an additional system to support our data centers. To protect our systems and to ensure they’re always in top-notch working order, we perform weekly generator tests on our environments.

Do you have multiple backbone connections?
We have seven connections to Tier 1 providers with over 130 Gbps of network capacity. We also have dedicated fiber connectivity between our six data centers in Houston and Dallas for increased redundancy. The Planet last year opened additional points of presence on the East and West coasts, which enhance our network performance and decrease latency, particularly for international customers, which comprise 42 percent of our business.

What connections do you have?
The Planet has 130 Gbps of aggregate network capacity provided by seven Tier 1 bandwidth providers, including AT&T, NTT, Savvis, Global Crossing, Time-Warner Telecom, AboveNet and Level 3.

Do you offer 24/7 support?
Indeed we do. Customers can contact our support teams 24/7/365 via phone, live chat, our support ticketing system or e-mail.

Do you have technicians present 24/7 or 9-5 M-F?
We operate around the clock 365 days a year. Technicians are on staff 24/7/365 in our NOC, call center and in each of our data centers.

What is your average turn-around time on a support ticket?
We answer 95 percent of our support phone calls in less than 20 seconds. For online support chat, our average speed of answer is 57 seconds. Of the more than 60,000 support tickets received in the fourth quarter of 2008, the median response time was 25 minutes.

Do you charge your clients for support? If so, please explain.
At no charge, customers receive 24×7x365 technical support, network-based security protection, and full hardware management with every dedicated server. They can supplement this support with our add-on Alpha Advanced Services. These services include server monitoring, security, administration and managed backup – all the way up to our Alpha Professional Services, which provide business-class support and a one-hour hardware SLA.

Through Northstar Managed Hosting, we offer a comprehensive managed hosting solution. Every customer has a dedicated team of certified engineers that become an extension of their in-house IT staff. This team provides complete management of their IT environment, backed by consultative, proactive support, 24×7.

Do you offer a money back guarantee?
All of The Planet’s servers include an SLA that provides up to 100 percent of a customer’s monthly bill if we do not maintain up to 100 percent network and power availability.

AYKsolutions specializes in locating top quality data center locations across the US.  Providing superior Managed Dedicated Hosting is a large focus with AYKsolutions, altough it has everything from shared hosting to VPS.

We go behind the scene to provide you with insight as to why AYKsolutions can benefit your business.

Please tell us the year established and brief history of AYKsolutions?
AYKsolutions was established in the winter of 2004. Our first goal was to provide affordable, non-oversold, shared hosting services. After a year we naturally progressed to provide dedicated servers.

What do you offer your customers that are unique to your company?
I would like to think that we are one of the most understanding and flexible companies out there. We do not mind going out of the way to provide a service to a client that is usually not covered under our regular support plan.

What is the most challenging aspect to offering Web Hosting?
Honesty and professionalism. In the years I have been a part of the Web Hosting industry, I have witnessed many companies come and go. For the most part, their downfall was due to their inability to clearly and honestly communicate with their clients. I would like to think that AYKsolutions is the complete opposite of that. We never keep our clients in the dark and always treat them with respect. The response has been phenominal and many of the clients who signed up with us back in 2004 are still using our services.

What is it that makes AYKsolutions a competitive company in the Web Hosting market?
This goes hand in hand with the previous questions. We pride ourselves on the way we treat our customers. We are always making sure our support is up to par and that client’’s requests/issues are handled quickly and efficiently. Because of this, our client retention rate is very high and we pride ourselves on that. If a client stays with you for a long period of time, then we must be doing something right.

What new features have AYKsolutions added for its customers in the past year?
We are always working on adding new features and are constantly working to improve the client’’s experience. Some of the things we have done are upgrading our look for easier navigation and faster loading. We have added our remote Vault backup solution with unlimited bandwidth. We have switched over to a new backend system that combines support and billing in one, easy to use interface. The most recent addition are the VPS plans.

What would you say is AYKsolutions #1 asset to its customer base?
Our dedication to providing a high-end hosting experience for an affordable price.

Where do you see AYKsolutions and the web hosting industry in three years?
I believe in three years, the technology will improve so much that it will be commonplace to setup VMWare clusters using high-end hardware. AYKsolutions will be at the forefront of this movement.

How many customers do you currently have?
We currently have over 600 clients.

Who are some of your famous clients?
Crazefm.com is a popular Bollywood radio station out of Norway. They have been with us from the beginning and we are honored to still provide them with quality services.

Which datacenters do you utilize?
We currently host our servers in AtlantaNAP, Colo4Jax, FDCservers and Peer1 facilities.

What kind of back up power do they provide?
Each one has on-site diesel backup generators.

Do they have multiple backbone connections?
Each location has multiple backbones

What connections do they have?
The upstreams vary, but some of them are Qwest, Sprint, Internap, AT&T, PCCW, Telia.

Do you offer 24/7 support?
Yes.

Do you have technicians present 24/7 or 9-5 M-F?
We provide 24/7 technical support.

What is your average turn-around time on a support ticket?
Currently, all tickets are answered in 15 to 20 minutes on average and depending on the issue are resolved within 30 to 45 minutes.

Do you charge your clients for support? If so, please explain.
The only time we charge for support is if the client is not fully-managed and if the client’’s request is a complicated one. A good example of this would be an installation of a 3rd party script.

Do you offer a money back guarantee?
We do offer a 30 day money back guarantee on our shared hosting accounts.

This week FindMyHost.com is excited to interview Brad Litwin at A2 Hosting.

At A2 Hosting, its not hard to see they are customer oriented, so we wanted to get a closer look into the company and see what sets them apart from the rest.

Please tell us the year established and brief history of A2 Hosting?
A2 Hosting evolved from Iniquinet in 2003. We found our niche offering cutting edge technology including being one of the first hosting companies to offer PHP5.

What do you offer your customers that are unique to your company?
We like to call the unique features that we offer the A2 Hosting Difference. This includes 5 star-3rd party testimonials, Guru Crew support, developer friendly hosting, host-guard server monitoring, Server Rewind and more. A complete list can be found here.

What is the most challenging aspect to offering Web Hosting?
As with any technical field, it takes a perpetual effort by us to stay current and to offer the latest in web hosting technology. Our customers have come to expect the best web development tools, and we don’t plan on disappointing them.

What is it that makes A2 Hosting a competitive company in the Web Hosting market?
We are able to offer high quality hosting, but without needlessly forcing our customers to break the bank. We are not a budget provider and webmasters will pay a bit more when selecting us, but it is definitely worth it in the end. They get top-notch Guru Crew support, the best open-source technology, a 99.9% guarantee which ensures their site will be available when needed and much, much more.

What new features have A2 Hosting added for its customers in the past year?
One of our most well received features that we have rolled out over the past year is our server rewind bacup technology (http://www.a2hosting.com/services/server-rewind-data-protection). We have also added VPS hosting including the choice of Xen or OpenVZ as virtualization platforms.

What would you say is A2 Hosting #1 asset to its customer base?
We invite readers to see what our customers have to say about our #1 asset here http://www.a2hosting.com/about/testimonials. I think you””ll found our superb tech support team to be a common choice among our customers.

Where do you see A2 Hosting and the web hosting industry in three years?
With our steady growth, we would like to see A2 Hosting as a household brand in the hosting industry. We have a great staff, network and reputation. And we”re working hard to get the word out.

How many customers do you currently have?
Over 7,000 customers

Who are some of your famous clients?
Our most famous client is 43folders.com

Do you own your own datacenter?
No.

Where are they located?
Southeast Michigan

What kind of back up power do you have?
750kVA Cummings Diesel Generator with 2,000 gallon tank

Do you have multiple backbone connections?
Yes we do.

What connections do you have?
Multihomed network connectivity via internet providers 1Gbps to Level(3), Savvis OC-48, & Global Crossing / XO (Shared 1Gbps)

Do you offer 24/7 support?
We have a 24/7 ticketing system.

Do you have technicians present 24/7 or 9-5 M-F?
We offer 24/7 server monitoring.

What is your average turn-around time on a support ticket?
4 hours

Do you charge your clients for support? If so, please explain.
Support is free. We can provide support outside of normal circumstances for a fee.

Do you offer a money back guarantee?
Yes, a 30-day money back guarantee. We like like to think of A2 Hosting no risk hosting.

Thanks Brand for taking the time to talk with us.

If you are interested in learning more about A2 Hosting please visit www.a2hosting.com

This year, FindMyHost had the pleasure of meeting with the team at PinnacleCart at LT Pact and HostingCon.

While most online entrepreneurs have dabbled in online shopping carts, and our staff have all worked with other variations in the past.  it’s finally nice to see a well polished and if needed hosting solution available.

This week we sat down and chatted with Craig Fox, VP of Product Development & Marketing at PinnacleCart.  We wanted to get the ins and outs of the company, its product and what’s on the horizon.

Craig, thanks for joining us.  Can you tell us the brief history of Pinnacle Cart?

Pinnacle Cart was established in 2002 with the purpose of fulfilling a void in the ecommerce marketplace for a marketing driven shopping cart application.

What do you offer your customers that are unique to your company?

Unlike most e-Commerce applications Pinnacle Cart was designed from the ground up with three goals in mind for our feature set.

- Increase organic traffic to the user website.
- Increase the order percentage of site visitors
- Increase the average transaction amount.
. Most products on the market simply take an order; our application assists clients in driving more traffic and revenue.

What is the most challenging aspect to offering E-Commerce solutions?

Working with third-party payment and shipping vendors. This market is very dynamic and as these companies respond to both compliance issues (PCI) and the needs of their customers, we working with these organizations to make sure we are providing our customers all the tools these organizations empower their customer with.

What is it that makes Pinnacle Cart a competitive company in the shopping cart market?

First we have a stable, easy-to-use, feature rich ecommerce application that we are constantly improving to meet the needs of our customers and the changing environment. Second, we are one of the only companies to offer 100% US-based support. The quality of our product combined with its ease of use generates a very low volume of support allowing us to keep our support team in the US.

As a follow up to that question, do you feel support based outside the US is inferior?

We aren’t saying that, but many of our converted customers dealt with support overseas and the complaint was the delay in response times and communication issues. You are dealing with a very technical product and therefore the semantics of a conversation are extremely important. Our industry has been plagued with bad support for years. You have many companies that offer a “free” download and then charge for support. That statement in itself is a contradictory business model because where is the motivation to make a superior product when your business makes money on support? We don’t want support tickets and therefore strive to put the out the best product. We have a very different business philosophy and the market is telling us it is the right direction.

What new features have Pinnacle Cart added for its customers in the last few months?

Below are just a couple of the improvements we’ve added

Free Live Chat
Product image Zoom, Magnify and Expand
Gift Certificate
USPS Printing Labels
Inventory by Attributes
Layered Navigation
Encrypted Credit Card Storage
Wish List / Stored Carts
Google Checkout

What would you say is Pinnacle Cart #1 asset to its customer base?

Well of course the fact that the software is so easy to use, but also our dedicated customer support team. If any of our clients have an issue, the can contact us 24/7 to resolve the issue. Sometimes businesses starting out don’t understand just how important it is to get a live person on the phone to help you resolve your issues. Our support team knows our product and will do everything possible to make sure you don’t lose a sale.

Where do you see Pinnacle Cart and the E-Commerce industry in three years?

It’s really tough to say where the industry is going but I know we’re starting to move away from the desktop. Imagine a potential customer shopping at their local store, seeing a product on the shelf they want to purchase, scanning the bar code on their phone and seeing a list of all the local and online stores that carry the product with prices, location and the ability to purchase. For business to succeed we need to start creating tools that help our clients get in front of customers no matter where they are, not just when they are in front of their computer or on their store. And we are working to do that.

Who are some of your famous clients?

National Public Radio
Old Guys Rule
American Body Building

Many of the nationally known brands using Pinnacle Cart have asked us to not to use them in our advertising, so I can’t tell you all of them out of respect for our clients.

Can you explain the difference between the hosted and licensed versions and what would you recommend for a new business?

Sure. Our hosted version allows clients to use all the features of the cart without having to worry about any of the technical aspects of running software on the server. We set it up and make sure your store is available 24/7. For our more technically inclined clients I recommend our licensed product which allows you to license the software and install it on their own server. While I’d recommend the hosted version of the cart for new businesses, most clients prefer the licensed version. Of course you can move between the two offerings at any time.

Do you offer 24/7 or 9-5 M-F support?

24/7 support is included with any new license. It is also important to note that our support is unlimited in terms of questions. Again, this goes to our philosophy and we aren’t afraid of unlimited tickets because the product doesn’t generate support. Be wary of the per incident support plans as many of our newer customers thought we were more expensive until they started paying for support.

Do you charge your clients for support?  If so, please explain.

We offer all new clients 30 days of unlimited phone support and a year of unlimited email support with a license purchase. Our hosted clients enjoy 30 days of unlimited phone and unlimited email support for as long as they are a customer. You can purchase additional phone support for a year for $199. If you want to continue support after a year there is a small subscription fee depending if you’re interested in phone, email or both.

Do you offer a money back guarantee?

Of course. Our goal is to make sure every customer is satisfied with our application so we give everyone a 30 day money back guarantee.

Thanks for taking the time to speak with us today Craig.  For anyone who is interested in testing out PinnacleCart visit www.pinnaclecart.com today.

“If you’re looking for rock solid uptime, reliable support, and affordable prices - look no further than The Planet.”

- FMH Editor

Company: The Planet
Founded: 1998
Employees: 200
Customers: 17,000
Data Centers: 2 (more being added soon)
Target Market: SME’s
More Information:  ThePlanet.com, Dedicated Marketplace, VPS Marketplace

The Planet began in 1998 with former management and technical professionals from giant NTT/Verio. Since 1998 The Planet has become one of the fastest growing Managed Hosting provider on the web, even rivaling competitor EV1.

Deloitte & Touche recently released a list of the fastest growing technology companies in Texas. The Planet placed third on the list with a growth rate of 6,611 percent over five years. In addition, The Planet claims to have been profitable since 2002, a real plus to Web Hosting consumers who are tired of finding a good home only to see it sold out to a bigger fish.

Peter Pathos, The Planet’s CEO and Founder, attributes the company’s success to a number of factors, including:

– Many of the failed hosting companies relied too heavily on the Internet Economy, whereas The Planet has catered more to mainstream business since its inception as NT Access in 1998.

– Pathos also says that today’s Internet is a much less “friendly” environment, susceptible to hackers, viruses and denial of service attacks and many organizations do not have the internal human and financial capital to ward off all the threats that a strong Web hosting company — with a much lower cost basis — can guard against.

– Successful Web hosting companies today are bundling services that can create real value for enterprises and providing expertise and economies of scale that can only be found in a single-source location such as The Planet.

Sparking the incredible growth in 2003 and now late in to 2004 have been affordable web server solutions under spin-off brands “Server Matrix” and “Insomnia 365”.

Web Host Report Card
7-point Testing System

1. Pre-Sales
There are a variety of contact methods you can use to contact The Planet.

- Live Chat took on average 30 seconds to receive a reply to our questions. Although, it was a bit hard to find a Sales Rep online after hours.

- Responses to our email queries were very quick indeed, averaging 10 minutes.

- Phone calls received instant responses, but like the Live Chat, speaking to someone after hours was a bit difficult at times.

Overall the experience was very positive. All sales agents were knowledgeable, polite, and quick to answer our questions.

GRADE: A-
What We Like: Fast response!
Needs Improvement: After hour’s sales rep availability.

2. Ordering Process
The Planet offers a very simple order process which allows the customer to build out a server and see the total price before ordering. This kind of flexibility allows the customer to pick all of the options they will require.

The scope of products and services offered is one of the best in the dedicated server marketplace. Customers can choose from a basic setup, or a setup that includes all the bells and whistles like backup, firewall, and load balancing.

In addition, if consumers have a question about the types of services offered on the order form, they can click on links for each service. The links provide detailed information about each service offered. Live chat is also available during the order process, ensuring no customer leaves without the info they require.

GRADE: A+
What We Like: Easy customization, Live chat to answer questions if needed.
Needs Improvement: N/A

3. Service Setup
How long did it take to be fully operational?
We ordered a basic Red Hat Enterprise server with Plesk Reloaded. We received our setup email within 4 hours after we placed our order. Our order was also confirmed by phone a few minutes after placing our order. The sales rep who called went over the specs and verified we were a legitimate order.

The setup email we received contained the basic information for accessing our server. Once we logged in to the ORBIT control portal to retrieve our password, we were on our way.

GRADE: A+
What We Like: Easy to understand setup email, Quick turnaround time.
Needs Improvement: N/A

Hosting quality
4. Website Uptime
FindMyHost has been hosted at The Planets main data center for a little less than a year and has never experienced any network or power outages.

In comparison, our last hosting provider had network outages on a monthly basis and at some points (during thunderstorms for example), completely lost power for several hours at a time.

GRADE: A+
What We Like: Redundant backbone connections, redundant power, security.
Needs Improvement: N/A

5. Data Center Overview
Two Class-A data center facilities. Full y-meshed data network consisting of backbone connections with leading communications providers such as AT&T, AboveNet, Broadwing, Global Crossing, Level3, nLayer, Sprint, Time Warner, UUNET, Verio, and Cogent.

Editors’ Note (notes taken during data center tour provided by The Planet):
With the addition of their second Dallas data center, The Planet now possesses two state-of-the-art enterprise level data centers.  The facilities have a combined 55,000 square feet of raised flooring, 38 redundant HVAC units for cooling, 8 500KVA UPS battery backup units for power interruptions, and 3 permanent diesel generators for long-term power outages.

GRADE: A+
What We Like: Security, Redundancy, Top-notch network administrators.
Needs Improvement: N/A

6. Network Infrastructure
The Planet’s network is driven by Juniper and Cisco components over a redundant architecture.  The Planet claims to deliver a 100% uptime guarantee with 17* multi-homed GigE (1000Mbps) backbone connections to the Internet through all the leading communications providers. The Planet also claims that their network costs and increased bandwidth commitments are extremely low due to existing network infrastructure and contract commitments.

*At the time of this article being published. The Planet is adding more on a monthly basis.

GRADE: A+
What We Like: No downtime.
Needs Improvement: N/A

7. Support
Overall, our experience with The Planets technical support staff has been excellent. Nearly all of our problems have been solved in an efficient manner. We opened a number of tickets for varying issues we had to test turnaround time. In most cases, issues were solved within 12 hours. Most tickets were answered within 3 hours.

In the event that our request required charged administration time, we were informed of the price beforehand.

Our only complaint is 1 instance where our ticket was closed before resolution.

GRADE: B+
What We Like: Expertise in a wide variety of subjects.
Needs Improvement: 1 ticket closed before issue was resolved.

Brief Interview
Julia Estes
Vice President, Business Development

What do you offer your customers that are unique to your company?
Our leading edge network and state-of-the-art facilities are certainly unique.

However, we don’t only provide space, power, access, support and hardware. We also provide an extensive offering of Managed Services. Many of our customers have complex business requirements. To address their concerns, we’ve built a team of technology consultants trained to assist in defining and addressing a variety of hosting considerations. We’ve tackled just about every possible technology challenge. Our team is available on an hourly basis, or our customers may sign up for our Managed Service packages on a per server basis. Our complete packages include server monitoring, management, security tools, formal reports, dedicated technicians and much more for a minimal price. The Planet has the most robust turnkey server management options in the industry. In addition to our Managed Service packages, we offer more in depth offerings such as Security Services, Database Administration and Data Storage & Management options as well. Dedicated technicians are available for UNIX, Linux, BSD, Windows, Oracle, and application development.

What new features has The Planet added for its customers in the past year?
ORBIT™, our customer portal developed by our internal development team based around the needs of our customers.

The Orbit Support Portal leads the marketplace for its ease of use and functionality.  Built for scalability and reliability, Orbit offers extensive technical resources to the customer and reduces overall support costs by dramatically reducing the amount of personnel needed to support our growing customer base.  Services available to our customers via Orbit include server monitoring, statistics, IP address management, administrative information, MRTG graphs for bandwidth utilization and a comprehensive knowledge base . With Orbit, our customers have unprecedented flexibility and ease of use with a powerful online server management tool. ORBIT™ is the most comprehensive customer portal in the industry with over 60 current features. We add new features each month. For a demo of ORBIT™, please go to https://orbit.theplanet.com/ and use “test” as the username and password.