Press Release - Groups To Certify Web Hosting Firms
Formerly Web Week
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 1998
Groups To Certify Web Hosting Firms
Two separate, recently founded organizations want to help make choosing a hosting firm easier than ever. Industry onlookers, however, are unconvinced that these groups made up of hosting firms--will offer their members any real business advantage.
The Web Host Guild (WHG) announced its inception at the Fall Internet World 98 trade show, held this month in New York City. A few days earlier, VeriHost announced its own presence. Each group will offer member firms a "seal of approval" based on their ability to meet certain performance and customer-service standards. Both groups announced plans to apply for non-profit status. Neither group includes members from the other.
Preston Dodd, an analyst with Jupiter Communications, said he is skeptical that hosting firms can effectively police themselves, but he said an initiative to set some standards couldn't hurt.
"I don't believe in complete benevolence on the part of any moneymaking organization," Dodd said. "[But] if you can take out the bad apples through self-regulation, it's good for everyone involved." WHG was founded by Jonathan Caputo, president of Sumo Inc., a Sunrise, Fla., publisher of a number of Internet-related Web sites including the Ultimate Web Host List. WHG this month announced a board of directors that includes executives from Concentric Network, Hiway Technologies, and server assessment firm NetMechanic. Membership costs $250, plus $250 per quarter. Members will be required to provide such services as 24 hour emergency support and daily incremental backups, and will have to pass monthly NetMechanic Web server tests.
VeriHost was founded by Robert Laidlaw, president of TopHosts Inc., which runs the Top Hosts Web hosting list. VeriHost's board of directors includes executives from Advanced Internet Technologies, Burlee Networks, and pair Networks. Membership will cost $150 per year, and qualification terms include biannual CPA checks of business credentials and remote status checking for customers. VeriHost's announcement took some by surprise, including WHG's Caputo.
"I'd say the timing is kind of interesting," Caputo said, adding that WHG's efforts were fairly well known. Laidlaw denied that VeriHost sprang up as a reaction to WHG, saying his organization was something those involved had been actively planning for months.
Both WHG and VeriHost claimed autonomy from their founders' own Web hosting companies. Interestingly, Sumo's recently published Ultimate Web Host List failed to include any of the companies backing VeriHost. Top Hosts' list of Top 15 Web Hosts includes none of companies represented on the WHG board of directors and only three of the 16 firms announced as WHG charter members.
Laidlaw said VeriHost has an edge because of lower dues and because its members are selected by an independent CPA according top redetermined criteria.
"That means any host has a fair chance of getting in," Laidlaw said, "whereas if we had board members choosing, they may have some conflicts of interest." WHG's Caputo disagreed. "What I would say to that," he said, "is really, the best people to decide whether a hosting company meets a specific criteria are the hosting companies themselves."