Sphera Targets Large Enterprise Web Hosting Providers With Greater Opportunity for Service Differentiation and Profitability

Sphera Releases HostingDirector Version 3.7 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1

HostReview.com
Wednesday, November 12, 2003; 12:00 AM

Sphera Corporation, the leading global provider of Web hosting automation and management software today announced the release of HostingDirector® 3.7 is Red Hat Ready, ensuring compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1, boasting flexibility for brand and service differentiation and greater control over service quality. Sphera's HostingDirector and ResellerDirector™ are key components of HostingBusiness Suite™, a comprehensive Web hosting automation and management solution.

"Sphera has made significant improvements in HostingDirector to address the needs of large-scale hosting providers and telecommunications companies and their high-end customers," says Michael Gold, CEO, Sphera. "We are constantly assessing the real-world needs of the market and our customers, adding relevant features and capabilities, as required by the industry's leading providers, that deliver competitive advantages, drive-down their costs and increase their productivity."

Sphera's HostingBusiness Suite streamlines operations and automates management of the most complex large enterprise Web hosting provider businesses. In conjunction with Red Hat's plans to end support for free product versions, Sphera will provide customers with continuity for Linux's operating system by supporting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 in HostingDirector 3.7. This ensures Sphera's customers have secure and up-to-date systems, meet certification requirements by both application and hardware vendors, and ultimately protect the life cycle investment of their Linux operating system.

HostingDirector 3.7 addresses providers' needs to add custom and premium services to maximize revenues while minimizing operating costs. Implementation of the new release of HostingDirector is made simple and quick through a seamless installation process and installation templates that 'remember' administrator settings for repeat installations across multiple servers. New features and several enhancements give hosting providers strategic and competitive advantages:

Advanced Quality of Service (QoS) Module Creates Enterprise Revenue Generation Opportunities, Tightens Individual Account Controls:
HostingDirector 3.7 offers Web hosting providers an advanced QoS module made possible by Sphera's patented Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS™) technology. Sphera's QoS is designed to maximize and control server resources. This includes the ability to define the amount of memory or CPU processing that each individual account (i.e. VDS) may consume at any given time thus enabling the service provider to enforce service level agreements (SLA) with their high-value customers. In addition, the QoS module can control the number of CPU processes, disk space and bandwidth consumption for each VDS. All of these features are controlled and monitored by a powerful reporting system that offers provider real-time access to customer activity. In turn, Web hosting providers are able to charge a premium for guaranteed service levels and increase individual server capacity while controlling the server as well as the resources dedicated to each individual account.

Expanded Software Developer's Kit (SDK) Increases Revenue Streams, Service Differentiation:
Sphera has enhanced its SDK to enable providers to easily add, integrate, customize and manage their own applications centrally using the Sphera control panel. The openness of the platform assures providers and their partners can independently integrate existing and new applications quickly and efficiently without Sphera's assistance. Adding a variety of new service packages differentiates provider offerings, enhances the ability to add new revenue streams, and assures maximization of prior application investments;

ý Improved Graphical User Interface (GUI) Advances Brand Differentiation:
HostingDirector 3.7 features an easy-to-use, customized GUI that lets hosting providers establish unique brand and service identities for its customers. The GUI enables more extensive screen and logo designs using a variety of colors, fonts, and other branding elements. Wholesale providers supporting multiple resellers can offer each customer greater flexibility to create their own brand identity. For example, the reseller Control Panel, VDS Control Panel and alerts can all be customized according to each individual provider's preferences. Self-service branding capabilities makes it easier and faster for customers to add and bundle services, leading to increased revenues, customer satisfaction and retention;

ý New Value-Added Applications - ValueApps®:
HostingDirector 3.7 boasts over 40 ValueApps that deliver the highest level of customer value and provide competitive advantages to hosting providers. In this release, Sphera has added Soholaunch's Online Business Suite, an automated Web site publishing tool for e-commerce, SpamAssasin for filtering and eliminating spam emails, and Tomcat, a popular application server that allows Web site owners to run powerful Java Servlets and Java Server Pages.

HostingDirector 3.7 is available for immediate delivery to new and existing customers.

PR Contact Robin Hodus Sphera Corp. 29 Crafts Street Suite 360 Newton, MA 02458 617-614-1800 rhodus@sphera.com