The Planet Reports Record First Quarter

April 29, 2008; 02:31 AM

HOUSTON, April 28, 2008 – The Planet, the world’s largest privately held dedicated hosting company, today discussed its results for the quarter ended March 31, 2008.  The Planet provides quarterly updates to its customers, business partners and prospects with information relative to new initiatives and its progress.

“We had a spectacular first quarter, exceeding our revenue plan and our metrics across every organization,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Douglas J. Erwin.  “Customer satisfaction, a key performance indicator, reached an all-time high, underscored by the fact that existing customers added significantly to their portfolios.  Two of our 1,600 new customers joined our top 50 account list, evidence that larger organizations understand the value we deliver.  In addition, companies beyond the core technology markets are discovering The Planet and entrusting us with their critical IT infrastructures.  Private racks, which are among our most complex offerings, continue to provide significant momentum with quarter-over-quarter growth in excess of 70 percent.

“Through 2007, we made monumental changes in our operations and invested heavily in our core infrastructure, in essence planting the seeds for our success.  This year, we’re harvesting the fruits of those efforts.  We will continue to fine-tune our operations across the board to deliver value to customers and the business,” Erwin concluded.

            “The Planet again produced a record quarter, with the highest year-over-year growth rate in more than a year-and-a-half,” said Chief Financial Officer Kevin Klausmeyer.  “Our economies of scale and previous investments in people and infrastructure have clearly set the stage for healthy growth.”

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First Quarter Highlights

Strong Customer Activity:  In the first quarter, the company added 1,600 customers.  The greatest portion of growth in the first quarter came from the company’s current customers, as they expanded their technology footprint in its six world-class data centers.  Year-over-year, the company experienced a 60 percent growth in customers with billings of more than $5,000 per month.       

Green Initiative:  The company announced results of a six-month trial designed to reduce power consumption and increase data center operating efficiency. While critical server loads increased by 5 percent and power used for cooling decreased by 31 percent, the company reduced power by up to 13.5 percent through a broad range of improvements. The new “green” initiatives, conducted across its six world-class data centers, are expected to deliver cost savings in excess of $1 million in 2008 alone.

New Affiliate Program:  Expanding its partner offerings, the company added a new affiliate program, which provides commissions for those interested in hosting, simply by making referrals.  Referrals are captured through a Web site designed expressly for affiliate-referred traffic.

Dedicated Backup Extension:  The company added a new advanced backup server, the largest and most powerful in its fleet. Equipped with 6TB of capacity in an enterprise-ready RAID5 configuration, the Dedicated Backup Server provides resellers and heavy-content users with exceptional performance, security and instant backup capacity for mission-critical environments.    

NTT America Partnership for IPv6:  The Planet announced plans to adopt the NTT Communications IPv6 next-generation protocol.  Planned for availability in late 2008, IPv6 provides a vast improvement over the current IPv4 standard, which was deployed in the 1980s.  The new protocol increases address space, provides support for mobile devices, and improves quality of service and data security.

Microsoft Windows 2008 Server:   The company added Windows Server 2008 to its full line of dedicated server operating systems.  

Executive Appointment:   In a newly created role, Scott King was appointed senior director, data center operations, for the company’s six world-class data centers in Houston and Dallas. He reports to James P. Treuting, vice president, sales and operations.

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 www.theplanet.com

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