The Planet Adds Windows Server 2008 to Its Operating System Portfolio

HOUSTON--(Business Wire)--
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.

Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of
their respective owners.

The Planet
Katie Solan, 281-714-3622
ksolan@theplanet.com
or
GlobalFluency
Catherine Leahy, 650-433-4150
cleahy@globalfluency.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008