The Planet Completes SAS 70 Type II Audit

HOUSTON, June 30, 2008 – The Planet, the world’s largest privately held dedicated hosting company, today announced it has successfully completed the Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70 (SAS 70) Type II audit. Developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the widely recognized auditing standard represents that The Planet has been through a rigorous evaluation of its internal processes and controls through an independent third-party auditor.

In its audit, The Planet covered controls and processes for its six world-class data centers; enterprise-class network, data center operations; customer provisioning systems; physical and environmental security; problem management and resolution through its customer portal; and organization and administration of its human resources department.

"Hosting providers that want to offer meaningful IT services to larger enterprises see SAS 70 as the means of both meeting Sarbanes-Oxley auditing requirements, while reassuring IT decision makers that their processes, facilities and staff are capable of providing true enterprise-grade services," said Daniel Golding, vice president and research director for Tier1 Research.

 “As companies turn to us for managing their complex IT infrastructures, they want third-party assurances that their mission-critical data is safeguarded,” said Jeff Lowenberg, vice president of facilities for The Planet. “We evaluated a wide swath of processes to demonstrate our commitment to the integrity and compliance of our controls and processes.  There’s no better evaluation to provide customers with transparency into our operations.”

To conduct the audit, the company retained the services of Weaver & Tidwell, L.L.P.  Based in Fort Worth, Texas, the firm is ranked among the top 100 certified public accounting firms in the nation.         

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 6.7 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

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