Market Entry Backed by New Proactive Anticipation Advantage Methodology; Introduces Planet Northstar Brand for Managed Web Hosting Line

HOUSTON, July 8, 2008 – The Planet, the global leader in IT hosting, today escalated its hosting leadership role with its entry into the managed hosting arena. Under a new moniker designated exclusively for its managed hosting line of business – Planet Northstar Managed Hosting – the company has developed a rigorous proactive methodology – not just reactive support – that helps customers leverage technology to support and grow their businesses. Small- and medium-sized customers can take advantage of enterprise-class IT managed hosting services – starting with just two servers – backed by a dedicated team of seasoned IT professionals who are personally accountable for their success.

Most managed hosting companies provide a single choice in service – it’s either managed hosting or managed hosting — and nothing beyond. The Planet now provides customers the power to choose precisely the type of hosting they require. Whether it’s self-managed dedicated hosting, self-managed with optional services or a fully managed hosted solution, The Planet offers customers with the power to choose without being forced to make sub-optimal choices in infrastructure or services. (See separate release issued today: “The Planet Extends Leadership in Dedicated Hosting with New Advanced Services”)

In an industry dominated by a reactive support service mentality, Planet Northstar is based on a simple premise: proactive planning, preparation and prevention, which are far more valuable than purely reacting to problems as they occur. Every managed hosting customer is assigned a team of specially selected, highly trained IT professionals with years of experience who are personally accountable for their success. Each team is led by a technical account manager and includes a senior database administrator, senior systems engineer and network specialist. In addition, each customer has access to other certified senior engineers for specific functions such as storage, backup, e-mail and security.

“In large organizations, every CIO expects their IT teams to conduct extensive planning sessions, setting up test beds and evaluating results to be certain performance criteria are met,” said Steve Kahan, vice president of marketing and product management with The Planet.

“By contrast, most managed hosting companies simply don’t take the time to conduct the required planning critical to managing IT infrastructures for their customers, which is a grave disservice. In fact, they typically throw a raft a people at the problem when something goes wrong. With the Planet Northstar proactive Anticipation Advantage methodology, planning is extensive, and each plan is different, depending on the customer’s business requirements and growth goals. In our view, an hour of preparation is worth far more than 10 hours of frantic support.”

“Enterprise customers select managed hosting solutions almost entire on two issues: price and support,” said Tier1 Vice President and Research Director Dan Golding. “Methodologies and planning mechanisms that encourage proactive support will boost enterprise customer satisfaction and help increase the share of corporate IT spend flowing into the managed hosting sector.”

“Here at Atitude, we don’t see Planet Northstar as a hosting provider,” said Helder Conde, Chief Technology Manager Atitude Digital Media based in Sao Paolo, Brazil (www.atitude.com.br). “We see them as a real strategic partner that will actually help us deliver the best service to our clients so we remain at the forefront of this business. As a customer for more than three years, we know the quality and reliability they provide, and the new managed services offering is exactly what we needed. They listened and delivered, just as they promised.”