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This week in hosting

This week in hosting saw continued news on hot topics such as improved security measures, the ever-popular “greening” of the industry and the confirmation of a long-circulated rumor concerning the merging of two giants in the domain services industry.

Well-known internet infrastructure provider VeriSign announced this week that it will begin embedding the VeriSign Identity Protocol authentication technique into the newly launched Cisco Small Business Pro SA 500 series security appliances. Known as VIP, this functionality will allow small businesses to take advantage of corporate security measures, protecting against a range of internet threats for all employees required to log into a highly secure network. VIP allows secure areas to request not only a standard username and password but also a unique six-digit security code generated randomly by a given user’s VIP authentication credentials.

To legitimately safeguard business networks and the data that resides in them, companies can no longer rely on simple username and password sign-ons. With VIP authentication, we’re helping small businesses remain a step ahead of attacks that could have serious financial and competitive implications. And with VIP, the process of implementing and managing two-factor authentication has never been easier or less costly. – VeriSign’s Consumer Authentication Solutions VP Kerry Loftus

The growing trend of eco-friendly infrastructure and green practices in general showed its face in the United Kingdom this week as British IT firm BCS announced that it will be launching a green IT certification aimed at offering IT professionals and the companies they work for the tools and knowledge necessary to continue to compete in the every-greening IT sector. Offered in English, German and Spanish, the strict qualification offered by the green IT program is meant to mimic the existing standards for energy efficiency found in the UK in the form of the BREEAMM; similar standards are in place in North America, known as LEED.

And finally, the week’s most noteworthy acquisition saw domain marketplace Sedo confirm long-standing rumors by officially announcing its purchase of ParkingPanel, a domain monetizing service provider known for products that enable owners of a large number of domains to increase traffic and profit through advertisements. Sedo plans to merge the ParkingPanel services and current customer-base with its own brand, combining its domain parking service with the revenue-increasing options offered by the purchased company to provide their customers with a broader scope of domain name services. Some critics have expressed concern that the increased offering could lead to more domain “squatting” in the future, a beef shared by every web user who has ever landed on a domain parking page full of advertisements by following a search engine result that they expected to lead to an informative page; the effect remains to be seen given the early stage of the acquisition.

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Tags: acquisition, BCS, BREEAMM, certificate, certification, green IT, hosting industry, identity protocol, Kerry Loftus, LEED, merger, ParkingPanel, purchase, safety, security, Sedo, UK, VeriSign