The Planet Expands Hosting Partner Program

HOUSTON, March 31, 2009 – The Planet, the global leader in IT hosting, today announced a broad range of new options for its Hosting Partner Program. For the first time, The Planet is opening its entire product portfolio to partners, which adds valuable opportunities and the power to choose precisely the best services for both their businesses and their customers. Partners are now able to resell not only The Planet’s dedicated servers, but also managed dedicated servers, managed hosting or data center colocation services. Hosting Partners program members can accelerate revenues by reducing provisioning time from weeks to days or hours for setting up their customers’ IT infrastructures.

The Planet offers partner-only discounts up to 15 percent, contingent on the amount of business conducted with the company. Additional discounts are available for customized opportunities and long-term contracts. Hosting partners gain access to a full portfolio of marketing sales tools to support the growth of their businesses.

“In today’s economic climate, more companies are looking to reduce their IT expenses using hosting services,” said Steve Kahan, vice president of marketing and product management with The Planet. “Our newly expanded Hosting Partner program provides a significant advantage to partners and resellers who can now provide value-added services to their customers, backed by our world-class data centers, and enterprise-class network and support.” 

Hosting partners and resellers can sell services in any of the company’s six data centers in Houston and Dallas; it’s soon-to-be-opened 86,000 square foot data center in Dallas; or in its new London facility.

Combined with The Planet’s Referral Partner program, customers now have an option to simply refer business and receive a commission, or provide hosting services to their own customer base using the company’s world-class data centers.

            About the Hosting Partner Program

By becoming an Authorized Partner of The Planet, customers can tap into the growing and global multi-billion dollar hosting and data center services market to generate new revenue and business from current clients:

·         Eliminate upfront costs:  Hosting partners can provide their clients more competitive bids by eliminating cap-ex requirements and using The Planet’s enterprise-class network and SAS 70 Type II-certified data centers.

·         Lower risk, flexible contract terms:  Partners can reduce their risk and choose contract terms as low as month-to-month, a one-year option or other negotiated terms up to three years.

·         Gain faster time-to-market options:  Many orders can be placed and provisioned in less than

24 hours.

·         Receive around-the-clock support:  Technicians actively monitor The Planet’s hosted environment 7x24x365.

·         Use our turnkey infrastructure:  Hosting Partners gain access to eight world-class data centers, multiple tier-1 bandwidth providers and Dell hardware, which eliminates partner upfront investments.

·         Obtain discounted rates, promotions: The Planet offers exclusive reduced rates and promotions for partners contingent on the amount of service conducted with the company,

·         Boost recurring revenue:  By using continuous monthly billing for high-margin services, partners gain recurring revenue without additional staff time.

·         Power to choose:  The Planet offers the broadest range of products and services in the industry, which provides hosting partners with a range of choices to fit their customers’ requirements.

To learn more about The Planet’s Hosting Partner program, visit the Web site at  http://www.theplanet.com/partners-resellers/ or call 1-866-865-4441.

About The Planet

The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 15.7 million web sites worldwide.  Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Northstar Managed Hosting and data center colocation, all backed by 24x7x365 support.   With the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class service, backed by state-of-the-art data centers 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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