The Planet Reports Record Second Quarter

HOUSTON, July 29, 2008 – The Planet, the global leader in IT hosting, today discussed its results for the quarter ended June 30, 2008.  The Planet provides quarterly updates to its customers, business partners and prospects with information relative to new initiatives and its progress.

“We had another significant quarter of annualized double-digit growth, accented by continued operational improvements, and again exceeding our plan” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Douglas J. Erwin.  “From our product portfolio, private racks continue to accelerate and contribute significantly to our revenue growth.  Concurrently, our largest customers continue to grow with us at double the company’s overall growth rate, which underscores their satisfaction with the depth of our products, services and support.  This quarter we made our first acquisition, with the purchase of Indiana-based Touch Support.  We have already begun incorporating these services, which provide additional capabilities for our dedicated server customers.  We will continue to build-out our infrastructure and services, providing customers with the power to choose precisely what they require from the broadest range of products and services in the industry. 

“The outage we experienced this quarter was clearly serious and difficult, and we recognize the negative impact to our customers,” Erwin continued.  “We have conducted an exhaustive internal review and have concluded this was an isolated incident.  We also have taken additional precautionary steps to examine all of our data centers, and we are confident that they are all in excellent working order. Despite this temporary setback, we continue to exceed the market growth rate estimates, and our outlook is positive.”

            “The Planet again produced a record quarter, with the highest year-over-year growth rate in more than a year-and-a-half,” said Chief Financial Officer Kevin Klausmeyer.  “While our outage was challenging, we took every measure to minimize customer impact and believe there will be little customer loss.  The majority of the financial impact is fully covered by property and business interruption insurance.  Finally, we continue to invest in people and infrastructure to accommodate our growth.”

Second Quarter Highlights

Strong Customer Activity:  In the second quarter, the company added more than 1,700 customers.  The greatest portion of growth in the second quarter came from the company’s current customers, as they continued to upgrade and expand their server portfolios. 

Touch Support Acquisition:  The company acquired Indiana-based Touch Support, with the goal of introducing a new portfolio of advanced services aimed at its self-managed dedicated server customers under the Planet Alpha brand.  Customers currently can select from either a bundled or modular suite of services, including server administration, monitoring and security.  Additional services will be added during the balance of the year.

 SAS 70 Type II Compliance:  The Planet successfully completed the Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70 (SAS 70) Type II audit.  Developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 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. 

Dallas Data Center Expansion:  Based on popular demand for its products and services, the company began construction on an additional 12,000 square feet in its Dallas D6 data center, bringing the total data center footprint to 167,000 square feet.

New Virtual Racks:  Adding to its popular, fast-growing private rack portfolio, the company introduced new virtual racks for customers who require advanced solutions that are both cost-effective and offer a smaller footprint with as few as two servers. 

Executive Appointment:   In a newly created role, the company appointed Robert Walters to lead its newly formed storage and backup business unit, with responsibilities for leading strategy and developing new products to extend the company’s portfolio.  Walters joins the company from Rackspace, with previous experience at EMC. 

Data Center Award:  TechTarget’s SearchDataCenter.com awarded Vice President of Facilities Jeff Lowenberg its prestigious “Data Center Manager of the Year” award.  Lowenberg was recognized for his work that will save the company more than $1 million on energy costs in 2008 alone.

Headquarters Award:  Sponsored by the Houston Business Journal, The Planet won the Landmark ’08 award for “Best Corporate Headquarters Relocation.” 

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 7.6 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, The Planet turns IT into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to grow their businesses.  For additional information, visit www.theplanet.com.

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