The Planet Web Hosting Firm, Expands U.S. East and West Coast Network

Houston, Texas - (The Hosting News) - October 16, 2008 - Privately held dedicated web hosting company, The Planet, has expanded its enterprise class network, by adding new nodes on the East and West Coasts of the United States.

Will Charnock, Vice President of technology for The Planet noted, ''Our international business continues to grow substantially, based on the quality of our world-class network and SAS 70 Type II-compliant data centers, and on the favorable exchange rate. By establishing nodes on both coasts, we'll be able to interconnect with international carriers directly, bypassing third-party networks, which results in increased performance and reduced latency. Customers rely on us for managing their mission-critical IT infrastructures around the clock, and we offer them the widest range of options in the industry, from dedicated or managed hosting to colocation services.''

The nodes are located in Equinix colocation facilities in San Jose, Calif., and Ashburn, Va. By establishing a network presence in these locations, The Planet expects to significantly enhance network performance and latency for its customers. The company expects the nodes to be live in mid-November and will begin transitioning traffic at that time.

In addition, by interconnecting directly with international ISPs in these locations, end-user performance will be improved. Approximately 42 percent of The Planet's 22,000 customers are international.

Earlier this month, The Planet announced enhancements to its network operations, adding new transit providers with 10Gbps for each, and the make-ready additions for MPLS and IPv6.

Ultimately, The Planet's goal is to provide:

* High levels of network capacity and speed to deliver peak performance
* Instant scalability to handle even the largest spikes in network traffic
* Parallel, redundant, multi-tiered network routing and switching architecture to assure reliability and stability
* Multiple layer network security that prevents Delayed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks from harming businesses
* Knowledgeable experts with a passion for excellence and a commitment to operate the best networks in the business

The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 22,000 small and medium size businesses and 12 million Web sites worldwide. The Planet Alpha division provides the widest array of self-managed dedicated servers and advanced services backed by 24x7x365 support. The Planet Northstar Managed Hosting division combines a proactive methodology and seasoned IT experts to deliver a fully managed hosting solution, with the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class support, backed by state-of-the-art facilities and an enterprise-class network.

For more about The Planet, please visit: www.theplanet.com.