The Planet Advances Private Rack Offerings with Enterprise-Level Security and Performance Solutions

March 27, 2007; 05:53 AM

HOUSTON – The Planet, now the world’s largest privately held dedicated hosting company, today added new services for its private rack customers with the availability of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) 5500 Series Firewalls and Foundry ServerIronXL load balancer.  Offering enterprise-class security and performance while ensuring high availability and bandwidth, the new products enhance one of the industry’s most comprehensive private rack solutions.

The Planet’s Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewalls offer customers access to next-generation security and VPN solutions, so their organizations can securely deploy mission-critical Web sites and applications, while maintaining high-performance and availability.  

E-commerce organizations are legally required to meet the stringent compliance requirements of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Standards.  Firewalls provide a core component for adhering to these regulations which require companies to secure cardholder data and credit card transactions.

The Foundry ServerIronXL load balancing switches are the world's most deployed application traffic management devices.  ServerIronXL switches, with intelligent application-aware load balancing and content switching, significantly improve performance by optimizing the use of all available server resources.

“Protecting customers and ensuring our e-commerce site operates at peak performance is absolutely essential for business success,” said MyRadioStore.com E-Commerce Director Jared Eikenberg. “The firewall and load balancer provide that security and optimizes site visits so our customers can get to us quickly.  With the explosive growth of satellite radio hardware and accessories, private racks also give us the flexibility to accommodate the more than 400,000 monthly site visits to MyRadioStore.com.”

“The onslaught of e-commerce sites has driven security, performance and scalability to the top of the agenda for our customers. And in light of PCI data standard compliance, the ability for Web site visitors to execute secure transactions with rapid response rates is critical,” said The Planet’s Vice President of Marketing Steve Kahan.  “Cisco ASA Firewalls and the Foundry ServerIronXL load balancer build on our commitment to delivering premium performance and compliance and security solutions with an on demand IT infrastructure.  This is especially critical to private rack customers who employ multiple servers as the IT backbone for their business.”

For private rack customers interested in more information on the Cisco ASA Firewall and Foundry ServerIronXL load balancer, please visit: http://www.theplanet.com/specialized_solutions/private_racks/.  

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.