The Planet Adds Windows Server 2008 to Its Operating System Portfolio

HOUSTON, March 31, 2008 – The Planet, the world’s largest privately held dedicated hosting company, today announced the addition of Windows Server 2008 to its full line of dedicated server operating systems. The company is now offering four editions of the operating system, available immediately on all servers in The Planet’s broad fleet. The offering includes Windows Server 2008 Web Edition, which is free on single-processor servers. 

Windows Server 2008 features enhanced capabilities and powerful tools that build on the strengths of its predecessors. The new operating system delivers enhanced Web tools, virtualization technologies and security features that, backed by The Planet’s network and six world-class data centers, provide a secure and scalable hosted IT environment.

“As more companies move their complex IT infrastructures to hosted environments, they’re looking for the broadest portfolio of offerings to support their strategic business requirements,” said Urvish Vashi, director of product management for The Planet.  “Windows Server-based solutions are one of the fastest-growing operating system segments in our business, and we expect this growth to accelerate by offering the added security, scalability and unique features that Windows Server 2008 and IIS 7.0 provide.”

“With the addition of Windows Server 2008, we are excited to help The Planet offer its customers an easy-to-manage and reliable platform for the development and hosting of Web applications and services,” said John Zanni, director of Worldwide Hosting at Microsoft Corp. “The new capabilities available in Windows Server 2008, the core of the Microsoft hosting platform for service providers, will allow The Planet’s customers to experience significant new features that enhance their IT infrastructure.”

Windows Server 2008

            The most robust Windows Server operating system to date, Microsoft’s latest release delivers new functionality and improvements to the base operating system. Designed to meet the most exacting business requirements, Windows Server 2008:

·        Provides a solid foundation for business workloads with technologies that simplify server management such as Server Manager, Windows PowerShell and Windows Deployment Services

·        Protects servers from failure and unauthorized connections with security features such as Network Access Protection, enhanced Active Directory services, read-only domain controller and BitLocker drive encryption

·        Hosts Web applications with Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS 7.0), a security-enhanced platform that offers greater flexibility and control through a componentized architecture

·        Consolidates multiple server roles and runs several operating systems on a single physical machine with built-in virtualization technology.

The Planet will offer Windows Server 2008 in four editions:

·        Windows Web Server 2008 enables businesses to rapidly deploy Web pages, sites, applications and services with IIS 7.0, ASP.NET and Microsoft .NET Framework

·        Windows Server 2008 Standard features built-in Web and virtualization capabilities and enhanced security features

·        Windows Server 2008 Enterprise delivers an enterprise-class platform with consolidated identity management features plus clustering and hot-add processor capabilities

·        Windows Server 2008 Unauthenticated Version offers all the Web server power of the Enterprise edition without the ability to run Active Directory and related services.

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 http://www.theplanet.com. 

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