The .CO domain will be highlighted in an advertisement from top web host Go Daddy.

As usual, the top domain registrar’s commercial is edgy, featuring Columbian star Natalia Velez as a body paint model. Meanwhile, Go Daddy commercial stars Danica Patrick and Jillian Michaels apply the paint, adding slogans such as “hot .co,” “get noticed,” and the Go Daddy logo.

Making a cross reference to the .CO domain and models, Jillian Michaels says, “They definitely get you noticed.” Patrick agrees, stating, “That’s why smart businesses go with .CO from Go Daddy.”

Registration of .CO through GoDaddy.com appears to come with a price of $9.99. Featured on the Go Daddy homepage is a crossed out price of $29.99, showing that the company has substantially cut its rates on .CO.

Despite Go Daddy’s push to advertise .CO, they’re not the only web hosting company that’s doing so. On Friday, web hosting provider WestHost launched its own initiative to promote the TLD by offering a limited registration price of $9.49 to prospective customers.

WestHost Director of Marketing David Anderson even referenced Go Daddy’s big Super Bowl plans, calling his own company’s .CO initiative “a more cost-effective approach.”

“Major domain registrars are spending millions of dollars on ad campaigns intended to drown out competition for the domain extension but our new ‘.CO’ price discount is intended to open up opportunities for customers looking for an affordable alternative,” Anderson also commented.

Interestingly enough, the .CO TLD also doubles as the ccTLD (country code) for Colombia. It was initially made available for businesses globally in 2010.

The .CO TLD is operated through cointernet.co. In June of last year, .Co Internet announced that over one million .CO domains had been registered. At the time, .CO Internet CEO Juan Diego Calle stated, “Entrepreneurs and innovative businesses around the globe are adopting .CO web addresses at an unprecedented pace, way beyond my initial expectations.”

During Super Bowl Weekend, .CO Receives Attention

The company’s award-winning solution, CipherCloud Gateway 2.0, provides a single gateway as a platform to secure sensitive customer data across multiple public and private cloud applications, such as salesforce.com applications and Amazon Web Services, without impacting functionality or performance. The solution uses comprehensive security controls including strong encryption, tokenization, activity monitoring, and malware detection to address organizations’ data privacy, residency, security, and compliance concerns, and to accelerate cloud adoption.

Forrester Research predicts that by the end of 2012, cloud customers will already be using more than ten different cloud applications on average. Another industry research firm, IDC, forecasts that 80 percent of new commercial enterprise apps will be deployed on cloud platforms in 2012. By providing a single, unified encryption gateway across multiple cloud applications, CipherCloud is uniquely positioned to protect sensitive enterprise data against emerging cloud threats and enable enterprises to confidently move to the cloud.

According to CipherCloud Founder and CEO Pravin Kothari, “CipherCloud has experienced exceptionally strong traction in terms of revenue, marquee customers, and industry accolades. By delivering on our vision of building trust in the cloud, we’re helping enterprises across the globe accelerate their movement to the cloud. We’re committed to delivering exciting new solutions in 2012 to continue on this journey.”

CipherCloud Highlights in 2011

• Posted white-hot growth in annual bookings of over 1,000%, with new customers in the US, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Australia, and Japan in capital markets, investment banking, retail banking, insurance, wealth management, government agencies, pharmaceuticals, entertainment, non-profit, and manufacturing.
• Deployed its largest implementation to date, encrypting sensitive customer data and files for over 100,000 users.
• Competed two major product releases to protect sensitive customer data in Salesforce, Force.com applications, Chatter, and Amazon Web Services.
• Added new capabilities for cloud encryption, tokenization, malware detection, and cloud audit.
• Filed 40 claims within two major patents.
• Raised venture capital funding through premier investors Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, and T-Venture to accelerate investment in new solutions and fuel expansion.
• Doubled the size of its Silicon Valley and Hyderabad facilities in the last six months, with plans to double again in 2012.
• Rapidly expanded the company’s partner network, and began collaboration with two of the world’s largest systems integrators.
• Expanded the management team with Dev Ghoshal, SVP of Field Operations, Mike Kochanik, VP of Worldwide Sales, Varun Badhwar, Vice President of Product Strategy & Business Development, and Allen Pogorzelski, Head of Marketing.
• Earned widespread recognition for its innovation through multiple industry awards including: Gartner Cool Vendor in Cloud Security Services, Most Innovative Company Finalist at the RSA Conference 2011, Best in Security and Judge & Audience Choice Winner by Under The Radar 2011, Best in Software & Cloud Winner at TiEcon 2011 Innovation Expo, and 2011 SINET 16 Innovators Award.

“This is a very exciting time for CipherCloud customers, employees, and partners as we build on our successes from 2011,” said Dev Ghoshal, SVP of Field Operations. “As we expand our solution offering to include additional cloud applications, further develop our partner ecosystem, and add even more innovative capabilities to our solutions, we will change how organizations view the cloud.”

About CipherCloud

CipherCloud provides a unified cloud encryption gateway with award-winning technology to encrypt sensitive data in real time before it’s sent to the cloud. CipherCloud protects enterprise data using format and operations-preserving encryption and tokenization in any private or public cloud environment without impacting functionality, usability, or performance. CipherCloud eliminates data privacy, data residency, security, and regulatory compliance concerns, and accelerates cloud adoption. CipherCloud has been recognized by Gartner as a Cool Vendor in Cloud Security in 2011. Visit CipherCloud at http://www.ciphercloud.com.

CipherCloud Experiences Explosive Growth

VPS hosting accounts from AvaHost.Net provide the full root-access to the virtual server of the customer. Due to this the user has access to the advanced options. The installation of additional software, modules and services is available also.

The updated VPS account will provide user with 2.4 Ghz CPU power, 1024 Mb RAM, 80 Gb of disc storage, 1.200 Gb of traffic and up to 3 IP-addresses.

VPS Hosting is usually used for the traffic-intensive Web sites. It is also perfect for the Web sites which require a more powerful configuration. With the full root access it is easy to manage the server. VPS Hosting can be used for a wide variety of purposes, including reselling, Java applications, C/C++ and other.

Daniel Hart, the Head of AvaHost Business Development, said that VPS web hosting is a good solution for the Web sites with a lot of traffic, as well as for the customers who need a flexible server configuration, which is not available in the shared hosting. “VPS hosting is a perfect alternative to the dedicated server, but it comes with better price. AvaHost regularly upgrades the servers. We offer our customers more options for the same price.”

About AvaHost:

Since 2001, AvaHost has been established in the web hosting industry by providing reliable service and support, and the best web hosting solutions, for personal Web sites and small-to-medium sized businesses.

For the last years AvaHost received the following prestigious awards from the well-known hosting business Web sites: #1 Fastest Growing Company, Reseller Hosting of the Month, #1 Budget Hosting, etc.

AvaHost.Net Upgrades VPS Hosting Service

Namecheap has donated over $64,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation to help the organization fight for our digital rights. Namecheap also blacked out its front page on January 18th, urging US customers to petition their government officials to ask them to shelve both acts in the House and in the Senate.

“Namecheap is proud to stand behind our intellectual freedoms on the Internet,” Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall said. “We continue to support the fight against overbroad, ill-considered legislation. We strive to support the open web and build awareness around issues that may curb the liberties that serve as the foundation of the Internet.”

In the last week of December alone, Namecheap’s stance against all overbroad, ill-considered legislation and keep the web open and free resulted in over 80,000 inbound domain name transfers in addition to thousands of new hosting customers and SSL certificate purchases. In early January, the Drupal Association joined the Namecheap family, and Namecheap is pleased to welcome them.

“The Drupal Association is pleased to switch the Drupal.org and Drupal Association SSL certificates from GoDaddy. We received new certificates from Namecheap because we value their commitment to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and their stance against SOPA and their desire to keeping an open web,” said Jacob Redding, Executive Director of the Drupal Association, which hosts DrupalCon. “It is important for our organization to align with others who share our community’s values. With almost 7 million unique visitors a month, a thriving developer community and thousands of registrations a year to one of the largest open source tech conferences, DrupalCon, our partners are hugely important to our project’s success.”

Namecheap is pleased to continue its relationship with the Drupal Association and urges everyone to continue standing against SOPA and PIPA to keep the web open and free.

About Namecheap

Namecheap is a Los Angeles-based ICANN accredited domain registrar founded in 2000 by CEO Richard Kirkendall. With over 500,000 clients and millions of domain names under management, Namecheap is one of the top domain registrars in the world and also offers web hosting services. Find out more by visiting us at http://www.namecheap.com.

About The Drupal Association

The Drupal Association is dedicated to helping the open-source Drupal CMS project flourish. Powering millions of websites and software applications, from personal blogs to the largest enterprise applications, Drupal is free, flexible, and extremely robust. It is constantly being improved by a community of hundreds of thousands of passionate people from all over the world. The Drupal Association provides the support, infrastructure and funding to grow the Drupal Community and help with online collaboration at http://drupal.org. The Drupal Association hosts and supports conferences and camps around the world including DrupalCon Denver to be held March 19-23, 2012. Funds to support these programs come from memberships, sponsorships and donations. To learn more about the Drupal Association, the Drupal Project, and how to get involved and contribute, visit https://association.drupal.org/.

Namecheap Welcomes the Drupal Foundation

“Major domain registrars are spending millions of dollars on ad campaigns intended to drown out competition for the domain extension but our new ‘.CO’ price discount is intended to open up opportunities for customers looking for an affordable alternative,” said David Anderson, Director of Marketing, WestHost.

According to the New York Times, more than 600,000 .CO addresses have been sold across 200 countries, with this number growing rapidly. Colombia has licensed out the easy-to-remember domain to international registrars in return for 25% of the sales revenue.

In addition, the article suggests that .CO registrations will surge past the 5 million mark by 2017. This type of growth underscores why domain registrars have poured serious money into aggressive marketing campaigns to promote domain sales.

“This gold rush has yet to realize its full potential as the ‘.CO’ market is poised for serious growth. Our huge price cut is intended to underscore our growing reputation for competitive domain prices and excellent customer service,” he said.

While WestHost does not anticipate an ensuing .CO price war, it has confirmed its intent to offer competitive domain registration prices globally. WestHost has increased its focus finding new efficiencies within its domain platform which have reduced costs and allowed a new phase of aggressive price reductions on domain registration services.

“An estimated 100 million people will see Go Daddy’s new ad featuring ‘.CO’ domains. But, WestHost will be taking a more cost-effective approach by harnessing the power of the web to promote our lowest ‘.CO’ domain prices to date. And, we expect a big response,” said Mr. Anderson.

ABOUT WESTHOST

WestHost has had a singular goal since its inception in 1998: provide the most powerful, secure Web hosting environment for clients around the world at an affordable price. As a subsidiary of the UK2 Group, a significant player in the European and U.S. Web hosting markets, WestHost provides domain name registration and website hosting services to global customers. Having garnered various industry awards, WestHost is committed to providing reliable, cutting-edge products and services at a great value, underpinned with superior client support. For more information about WestHost, visit http://www.westhost.com

WestHost Launches Promotion on .CO Domains

1. Affordable SSL certificates - You need to be able to purchase an SSL certificate and implement it on your website with as little hassle as possible.
2. E-commerce software - There are a plethora of commercial and free e-commerce web applications out there. A good e-commerce host will offer free installation of the one you want to use.
3. Analytics – You are in this to make money. That is the essence of e-commerce. The only effective way to track your progress is to study your site’s traffic. Many web hosts offer internal analytics software as well as integration with third-party analytics.
4. Advanced security – Depending on the type of business you are running, you might need a higher level of security than the average site.
5. Scalability – As your business grows, your site will grow with it. If the only e-commerce package your host offers is something you will outgrow in a year, you are in for a world of hurt.

As with any business venture, plan well and always make sure to look beyond the price. Do not feel ashamed about asking an IT expert for advice before you proceed. It could save you a great deal of time and money.

Five Things to Look for in Good E-Commerce Hosting

Possibly 40 thousand user accounts provided for by the Blacknight were hit. However, the company emphasized that the breach was minimal, not resulting in any loss of financial data.

Telephone numbers and emails were the data possibly affected. To help safeguard against any further issues, the web host is recommending that its users change their login passwords.

“We take our responsibilities to our customers very seriously and have already been in touch with the Data Protection Commissioner and have informed them of the breach,” stated Blacknight employee Michele Neylon.

Neylon referred to her company as “secure” but called similar matters “a reality that almost every online company must face.”

Blacknight also said it had been in touch with Ireland’s Office of Data Protection along with the Irish Reporting and Information Security Service regarding the issue.

“We are taking this opportunity to increase our security even further and apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this may cause,” Neylon stated.

As a hosting provider, Blacknight’s services include cloud, SharePoint, Hosted Exchange and Minimus Hosting. On Tuesday, the hosting provider revealed the addition of business mobile platform goMobi to its services.

Website breaches have proven an increasingly problematic issue for web hosts in the recent past. Just last month, web hosting provider DreamHost revealed that it had faced a similar problem relating to an unauthorized breach of the company’s system. But like Blacknight, the company’s financial data was also not affected.

Hackers Breach Web Host Blacknight

“By joining the Protected by Prolexic program, businesses will be sending a strong, clear message to customers, competitors, and even cyber attackers that they are taking the threat of DDoS attacks seriously enough to secure the services of the gold standard in DDoS mitigation,” said Paul Sop, chief technology officer at Prolexic. “When they see this logo, online customers will have added peace of mind that a DDoS attack will not bring down sites they rely on for shopping, membership services, entertainment, and other online activities.”

The Protected by Prolexic logo is a registered trademark that belongs exclusively to Prolexic. To prevent unauthorized duplication and misuse of the logo, Prolexic will provide each customer a unique HTML code that hyperlinks to a numbered logo hosted by Prolexic.

“The Prolexic name is known all over the world as the leader in DDoS mitigation and many of the businesses we serve already use our recognized reputation as a selling point to their customers,” Sop said. “Displaying the Protected by Prolexic logo will give these businesses an instant competitive advantage through association with the ‘gold standard’ for DDoS mitigation.”

“We have been proactive and added premium DDoS attack protection from Prolexic and that has increased the value of our web hosting service,” said Lisa Retief, Vice President of Engineering at Yola (http://www.yola.com), a global web site builder and hosting service serving small businesses. “Prolexic’s protection provides peace of mind to Yola and our customers from around the world.”

Certain terms and conditions surrounding the use of the Protected by Prolexic logo apply. Businesses that are interested in participating in the Protected by Prolexic program can learn more by logging on to http://www.prolexic.com/protected or by contacting protected(at)prolexic(dot)com

About Prolexic

Prolexic is the world’s largest, most trusted Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation provider. Able to absorb the largest and most complex attacks ever launched, Prolexic restores mission critical Internet facing infrastructures for global enterprises and government agencies within minutes. Six of the world’s ten largest banks and the leading companies in e-Commerce, payment processing, travel/hospitality, gaming and other at-risk industries rely on Prolexic to protect their businesses. Founded in 2003 as the world’s first “in the cloud” DDoS mitigation platform, Prolexic is headquartered in Hollywood, Florida and has scrubbing centers located in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.prolexic.com.

Prolexic Launches “Protected by Prolexic”

“Carpathia Hosting has no immediate plans to reprovision some or all of the Megaupload servers. This means that there is no imminent data loss for Megaupload customers. If this situation changes, Carpathia will post a notice at least 7 days in advance of reprovisioning any Megaupload servers at http://www.Carpathia.com and http://www.MegaRetrieval.com,” said Brian Winter, Chief Marketing Officer at Carpathia.

Carpathia continues to recommend that Megaupload users seeking to retrieve their data contact Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for assistance by visiting the MegaRetrieval website.

Please continue to visit either the Carpathia Hosting website or the MegaRetrieval website for updates.

About Carpathia Hosting, Inc.

Carpathia Hosting is a leading provider of managed hosting services, providing secure, reliable and compliant IT infrastructure and management for some of the world’s most demanding enterprises and federal agencies. Founded in 2003, Carpathia is a growing, profitable business run by a seasoned management team with deep experience in delivering enterprise hosting solutions including colocation, managed services and cloud computing. Carpathia’s suite of services is designed for organizations seeking scalable, secure, robust and enterprise-grade hosting solutions that can be quickly provisioned or tailored to meet unique requirements. Backed by its E3 Promise, Carpathia consistently delivers an experience that exceeds customers’ expectations. Carpathia was named to the Inc. Magazine 500|5000 list in 2011 as one of America’s fastest-growing companies. Contact Carpathia at 1.888.200.9494, or visit http://www.carpathia.com for more information.

Carpathia Hosting’s Statement on Megaupload

“We are excited to welcome ATI to Phoenix NAP and look forward to working with them to fulfill their disaster recovery needs,” said Ian McClarty, president of Phoenix NAP. “Working with a fellow Arizona-based company gives Phoenix NAP great pleasure, as we pride ourselves on working with local businesses. Additionally, residing in one of the safest-from-natural-disaster cities in the United States, our data center is an ideal location for not only disaster recovery services, but primary services as well.”

With the likelihood of environmental catastrophes like tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and major flooding minimal to non-existent in the Phoenix metro area, Phoenix NAP continues to be a prime location for DR.

“ATI is a fast-growing company and enhancing our disaster recovery capabilities to include near real-time failover capability is an important step forward. Phoenix NAP provides a level of security, robust infrastructure and broad selection of data carriers that met all our requirements and made them an obvious choice,” said Brandon Smith, Information Technology Director. “ATI takes great pride in providing a high level of availability and data security to our clients. Phoenix NAP staff gave us great confidence they will be an excellent partner in maintaining those standards in the future.”

Phoenix NAP is a PCI DSS Validated Service Provider and a SAS 70 Type II certified facility.

About Phoenix NAP

Phoenix NAP, a full service data center, premier infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provider and primary network access point (NAP) for the Phoenix, AZ, metro region leads the path for technology systems and solutions through its innovation and vastly redundant data center systems. Our highly personalized approach ensures that all of your requirements are met. Whether it’s high-density colocation, flexible storage, physical servers or cloud hosting services, our enterprise-grade facility and certified NOC technicians supply IT solutions to fit your every need. For more information, visit the company’s website at http://www.phoenixnap.com.

About Assessment Technology Incorporated

Assessment Technology Incorporated, through Galileo K-12 Online, provides a fully integrated, standards-based instructional improvement system that combines the strength of research and the power of innovation to assist educators in promoting student mastery of local and state standards. As a leader in online testing, Galileo’s patented technology offers a comprehensive assessment system including instruments documenting instructional effectiveness. Galileo reporting tools coupled with curriculum and instructional dialog tools make it possible to continuously link information about student learning and instructional planning and teaching to promote standards mastery. ATI offers innovative technology that addresses an educational system’s goals when implementing standards-based strategies to help raise student achievement. For more information, call 1.877.442.5453 or visit http://www.ati-online.com.

ATI Selects Phoenix NAP For Disaster Recovery