The Planet Strikes Strategic Partnership with Site5

HOUSTON – The Planet, now the world’s largest privately held dedicated hosting company, and Site5, one of the nation’s largest shared and reseller hosting providers, today announced a new strategic partnership. Through the terms of the agreement, The Planet will serve as the exclusive infrastructure provider for Site5 as it consolidates its hosting platform. Site5 now becomes one of The Planet’s largest customers, with more than 250 servers located in its world-class Houston and Dallas data centers. The integration is scheduled for completion in mid-July.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in San Ramon, Calif., Site5 provides hosting services to more than 25,000 customers around the world. The company also hosts 188,000 domain names across its broad portfolio of shared and reseller hosting services.

“At Site5, we continue to grow our business based on the service, price performance and exclusive features we provide our customers,” said Site5 Chief Executive Officer Matt Lightner. “Over the past eight years, we have continued to evaluate data center environments, looking for a combination of absolute quality, integrity, uptime, premium servers and one-on-one personalized service expressly tailored to meet our business projections. The Planet was able to meet these specific needs as well as provide prescriptive guidance on the best products for our unique portfolio. It will put us in a great position to further serve our customers’ rigorous demands and continue our aggressive growth strategy.”

“Site5’s endorsement of The Planet as its IT hosting provider illustrates the reliability of our data centers, which we believe is the best guarantee we can provide,” said The Planet’s Chairman and CEO Douglas J. Erwin. “Our goal is to offer customers the perfect combination of products and services, as well as the best infrastructure, so they can focus on flawless business execution and rely on us for their IT operations. We appreciate the trust and confidence of marquis customers like Site5 who rely on The Planet.”

The Site5 Story

In 1998, frustrated entrepreneurs and friends Matt Lightner and Rod Armstrong entered the early-stage Web hosting business, determined to distinguish their company as one recognized in the industry as customer-centric and friendly. Today Site5 CEO Lightner and Armstrong, who serves as president, lead a company differentiated in just that fashion. From modest beginnings, the company today serves more than 25,000 customers around the world who rely on their company for rock-solid hosting.

During early-stage development, Site5 chose to collocate its IT infrastructure, owning their hardware and software. In a short time, they realized the investment and technical expertise required with the do-it-yourself approach presented IT management obstacles and no financial incentives, particularly with its accelerating growth cycle. Today, the company focuses instead on its core business: providing top-notch products and around-the-clock service.

The Site5 team also focuses on building its business by developing innovative solutions to improve their customers’ Web hosting experience. With its proprietary billing/administrative control panel known as Synco; Backstage, the customer control panel; and Flashback, its “Web site time machine,” that provides a historical and actionable view into customers’ Web site lifecycle; Site5 provides virtually every solution its customers could need. 

In addition, the company designs services so that users – from Internet veterans to technology novices – can maintain their sites easily.

“We underscore our commitment to customers by providing plenty of transparency about our services and a lot of ‘no’s,’” said Lightner. “Customers can expect no overloaded servers, no outsourced support, no gimmicks and no hidden fees.  We also offer a no-hassle, 60-day money-back guarantee, which puts our promise front and center.  From our own past experience, we put our money where it matters most -- into products and services designed expressly to fulfill the needs of our customers.”

About Site5

Site5 Internet Solutions, Inc. is a privately held, debt-free California corporation. Offering quality, low-cost Web hosting to consumers for more than eight years and serving thousands of customers around the globe, Site5 is an industry leader when it comes to hosting innovation, hosting automation, customer service and technical support. More information on Site5's services is available at www.site5.com.

About The Planet

The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 22,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 2.8 million Web sites worldwide. By offering the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class support, backed by state-of-the-art facilities and unmatched network connectivity, The Planet helps turn information technology into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to successfully grow their businesses.  For additional information, visit www.theplanet.com.