S. San Francisco, Calif., August 27, 2002 – SWsoft, Inc., leader in hosting automation and enterprise server software (www.sw-soft.com), today announced a new program that lowers the entry point for hosting providers to integrate virtual private server (VPS) technology into their existing hosting plans. Based on the Virtuozzo™ technology and HSPcomplete™ 2.0 hosting automation solutions, SWsoft’s program is part of a larger campaign to increase the number of VPS users and offer SMBs access to more hosted applications. www.sw-soft.com/vzpromo

SWsoft’s VPS campaign started in August with a $5,000 promotional price for a full-system HSPcomplete automation solution, which includes billing and fully-anonymous reseller capabilities. www.sw-soft.com/hspcpromo.

Confident that this unique and no-risk way to sell VPS hosting plans will increase the number of SMBs using virtual hosting and jump-start the idling hosting industry, SWsoft lowered the entry-point for a VPS system to $2,500.

The $2,500 price tag includes:

• Virtuozzo-powered VPS licenses for two (2) servers
• Virtuozzo Management Console (VZMC), which uniquely monitors all customers, resellers, applications and servers from a single user-interface
• Installation and access to support plans

HSPs will offer VPS services to increase revenue per-server and per-customer. “I decided to only offer VPS services for my new hosting operations and am now generating over $2,000/month per physical server, far more than the $200/month average per physical server that I could receive with dedicated servers,” added Jackie Yung, CEO of OnSmart (www.onsmart.com). “VPS services are easier for me to sell than dedicated or shared services because it allows my customers all of the benefits of their own server, only for a price closer to that of shared hosting.”

Virtual Private Servers (VPS)
Powered by Virtuozzo technology, which partitions Intel-based and blade servers with mainframe-like functionality, virtual private servers (VPS) are fully-isolated instances of the Linux OS (called “virtual environments”) that function as stand-alone, dedicated servers and allow an HSP to generate more revenue per-server and per-customer. Customers are granted root access and can install any application within a VE or change system libraries on-the-fly. OS virtualization and resource control provide maximum security and isolation – what happens to one VE/customer does not affect the quality of other virtual Linux customers on the same machine.

“HSPs are seeking new revenue sources and VPS plans help to create new hosting revenue - due to low pricing and high flexibility of VPSs, which are perfect for SMBs and others who are conducting more of their important business transactions on the Web” said Craig Oda, VP, Business Development, SWsoft, Inc. “Our goal is to increase the availability of VPS hosting plans, which will breathe new life and revenue into the hosting industry by opening up the largely untapped SMB market.”

“We needed a way to automate our infrastructure and offer customers a virtual hosting option. I was naturally skeptical of investing hard-earned money into a VPS system without making sure it integrated well within my business,” said Ben Ossei, CEO, Computer Advantages. “The low-price point enabled me to begin selling VPS plans to customers, who were slicing the VPS up into virtual web hosts. I also signed up businesses that needed the flexibility to install special applications on their own. VPS is now my top-selling service plan.”

HSPcomplete 2.0 provides a fully-automated infrastructure and a full set of management and reseller user tools that enables hosting providers to support thousands of customers on a single network, integrating a flexible billing system and generating new revenue through reseller and virtual private server (VPS) products. www.hspcomplete.com

Studies Show New Web Services, Virtual Linux Hosting Key to Recent Linux Growth
According to the Netcraft™ Web Server Survey for July, 2002, Apache Web servers, which run on Linux, increased by almost 5%, giving it a 65% overall marketshare (versus 25% for Microsoft). ¹ Currently available on the Linux OS and FreeBSD, virtual private servers and new Web services on Linux are believed by industry analysts to widen this gap even further.

"When Microsoft sets out to dominate a market, they usually do so. But at the same time, IBM is pushing Linux, and Solaris isn't dead yet," said Melanie Posey, IDC in a recent article, referring to Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Solaris operating system. "It's obviously not a slam dunk."

SWsoft will present study results – HSP problems, cost structures, third-party software requirements, bandwidth and hardware usage and business models - in a free Web seminar titled “The New Face of Web Hosting.”

About SWsoft www.SW-soft.com
SWsoft is a leader in hosting automation and enterprise server software (www.sw-soft.com). Since 1999, the company has focused on the development of its patent-pending Virtuozzo™ technology and the HSPcomplete 2 full-lifecycle hosting automation solution. The only end-to-end solutions and services for hosting service providers, e.g. Internet data centers, application service providers, managed hosting providers, SWsoft's products deliver powerful, comprehensive solutions that power data center automate management, accelerate business and infrastructure operations and provide excellent return on investment. For more information about SWsoft, please visit www.sw-soft.com.

^¹ Figure obtained from the July, 2002 Netcraft™ Web Server Survey http://www.netcraft.com/survey/