Hostway Hoping to Profit as More People Turn to VPS

LONDON - August 01, 2004 - Hostway UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hostway Corporation, today announced the introduction of a brand new range of Linux Virtual Private Servers (VPS). The company hopes the new line will further differentiate its highly customer-focused brand of business hosting services, and simultaneously address a growing demand for low-cost dedicated servers in the UK.

Hostway already supply a range of Windows® and Linux based dedicated servers to a large number of companies in the UK SME sector, including well known names such as U.I.P., Hamley's and Nokia. According to Hostway though, dedicated hosting remains a relatively costly option for most small businesses and consumers, who find themselves restricted to shared hosting platforms as a result.

The current interest in Virtual Private Servers is largely down to the economies hosting providers can pass on to VPS clients, who essentially enjoy dedicated server like performance and autonomy, but at a fraction of the normal cost. VPS is based on the concept of 'mainframe' partitioning that allows dozens of partitions to run multiple applications on the same server, with a 100% guaranteed equal share of resources (i.e. Processor, Disk, RAM) for each client on the Server. Under Linux, this partitioning is controlled at Kernel level. Recent advances in the technology mean that, in terms of data security, performance, and the freedom to install whatever is needed, a Virtual Private Server can now function exactly like a stand-alone dedicated server.

"Our Linux VPS is a really exciting proposition" explains Hostway U.K. CEO Rob Lovell, "especially for hosting resellers, online application developers, and high traffic business sites because it delivers exactly what these users need - complete control over domain management, allied to Root access rights, in a completely secure environment. As the costs of hardware, network connectivity and systems maintenance are distributed, it represents an affordable choice, even for higher end shared hosting customers. What's more, it's backed up by a wide range of quality, open source software and tools that work really well together."

There is more good news for VPS customers. Unlike most shared hosting contracts out there today, Hostway's VPS products are covered by a Service Level Agreement that reimburses the client for outages over and above an agreed limit.

"Our VPS clients effectively have the best of everything: low-cost dedicated server performance, allied to easy domain administration, complete with SLA coverage. As members of Hostway, they can also be confident they are dealing with a truly customer-focused, forward thinking company, that will look after them through-out their growth life-cycle" summarises Mr Lovell.

Hostway's Linux VPS solutions start at £49.95 per month. Further information can be found at www.hostway.co.uk/virtual

Hostway UK
Rob Lovell - CEO Europe
Phil Turnbull - Press Relations
6&7 Harbour Exchange Square
Docklands
LONDON
E14 9HE
Tel: +44 207 538 8000
Fax: +44 207 538 8001
www.hostway.co.uk
Email: philip.turnbull@hostway.co.uk

Hostway Worldwide
Hostway Corporation provides award-winning web hosting services with eight locations in the US, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Korea, and Australia. Serving customers both small and large, Hostway provides best of breed hosting infrastructure with innovative online tools to help customers broaden their reach and grow their businesses online. Hostway offers a wide range of managed hosting services ranging from simple shared hosting plans to complete dedicated server and VPS solutions to now over 300,000 customers worldwide.