automated Web hosting software, announced today that its Migration Express
service has been applied to Sphera Corp.’s HostingDirector, providing Sphera
customers with a smooth and affordable transition path from their legacy
control panel to the Plesk Server Administrator(TM) (PSA) 5.0 platform.
Now hosting providers that use Sphera’s HostingDirector, in addition to
Ensim’s WEBppliance for Linux®, can migrate to Plesk’s new PSA 5.0. With
robust channel management and easier access to value-added services, PSA 5.0
improves profitability through more tiers of self-administration and
integrated access to value-added applications directly from the built-in
e-commerce portal, MyPlesk.com. Overall, PSA 5.0 resolves pressing
technological and business problems for hosting providers such as high
maintenance costs, limited feature sets that translate into diminished
profitability, and sluggish vendor upgrade cycles that hamstring
competitiveness.
“Our ability to quickly migrate from Sphera to Plesk ultimately fulfilled
our mission of providing the best possible service to our customers,” said
Josh Knauer, board member for IGC, an organization that provides hosting
services to non-profit organizations. “IGC had an established reputation
for providing stable service and excellent customer support. Unfortunately,
our experiences using Sphera harmed that reputation. It was only when we
began working with Plesk, whose expert technical support, high-quality
software and commitment to customer satisfaction, that we were able to
immediately get back on track with our customers.”
“The PSA 5.0 platform is a dramatic leap forward from the legacy control
panels that are vestiges of first-generation hosting automation tools,” said
George Pappas, president and CEO of Plesk. “The robust functionality and
flawless upgrade path of PSA 5.0 ensure that Plesk customers always derive a
greater competitive advantage. And when the optional Master Interface is
employed, hosting providers realize with PSA 5.0 a new price-point for
enterprise-level hosting management from a single, unified console.”
Plesk’s Migration Express consists of advanced software tools and
professional services. It gives Sphera and Ensim users the fastest and most
effective migration path available to the dominant hosting automation
platform. Throughout the year, Plesk will roll out other Migration Express
packages for Sun Cobalt(TM) RaQ3 and RaQ4 appliances, Alabanza, and other
legacy control panels.
Institute for Global Communications Turns to Plesk
Since the Institute for Global Communications (IGC) (http://www.igc.org) is a non-profit hosting provider that serves
non-profit organizations, it has limited technical resources and
fast-growing demands. IGC had originally selected Sphera’s HostingDirector
as an ostensible upgrade to its own proprietary control panel.
However, during the four months after IGC began migrating to Sphera, more
than 15% of its customers said they were disgruntled.
“It was our highest-level customers who were the most dissatisfied — we
could never get many of the features to work as advertised,” Knauer said.
Even worse, during the time that it took to get the system running, IGC was
unable to add new customers, costing it significant goodwill and revenues.
As revenues fell, IGC found itself spending thousands on support for Sphera,
although the problems were never resolved satisfactorily.
Plesk’s engineers quickly migrated IGC’s business to PSA, helping the
organization rapidly recover.
“Finding Plesk was like entering Shangra-la,” Knauer said.
The Migration Express for HostingDirector
Sphera HostingDirector customers that want to migrate to PSA will enjoy:
- Migration of all client/domain information from the HostingDirector
database into the PSA database. - Minimal server down time.
- Content migration from HostingDirector to PSA hosts.
- Migration of email accounts settings.
- Migration of Hosting Director FTP and email passwords to the PSA encrypted
format.
·
Qualified HostingDirector users must transfer to Plesk appropriate licenses
and related documents. Some changes may apply.
For additional information contact sales@plesk.com
or call 703/815-5670.
Plesk Server Administrator
PSA substantially reduces the support requirements for Web hosting providers
and enterprise users. PSA liberates technical support staff from the tedium
of manual tasks and instead allows them to focus on more important,
value-added services that increase customer acquisition and retention. PSA
has been architected to provide a full range of Web hosting automation
benefits throughout the reseller channel and to the ultimate enterprise
user.
About Plesk, Inc.
Plesk, Inc. develops, markets and supports software that simplifies and
automates the full range of server configuration and management tasks
required for Web hosting. Using point-and-click user interfaces presented
through standard Web browsers, Plesk Server Administrator enables
non-technical customers and Web hosting companies to manage their own
domains, and Web hosting companies and their service resellers to deliver
better and faster customer support at lower cost. In less than two years,
Plesk software has earned the enthusiastic praise and loyalty of hundreds of
Web hosting companies and thousands of their customers. HostingTech
Magazine in November 2001 wrote “In the load test, there was no discernable
difference in performance during heavy CPU usage times. Speed and
simplicity are why Plesk has perhaps the best selling of all the control
panels.” For more information about Plesk, visit www.plesk.com
or call (888) 209-8900.
“Plesk” and “Plesk Server Administrator” are trademarks of Plesk, Inc. All
other product, service and company names are the trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective holders.
