September 2, 2011 — Non-profit organization New Zealand Computer Society announced on Thursday its plans for the development of a Cloud Computing Code of Practice to inform the public about cloud computing issues. This announcement comes a day after New Zealand web hosting provider FlexiHost launched a NZ domain lookup and registration mobile app.

Before he had even commenced, Thomas Spiller has informed ICANN that he will not be joining the organisation as its Vice President of Europe. ICANN announced Spiller’s appointment to the position on 23 June, during its 41st public meeting in Singapore. A search for an appropriate replacement has already begun. According to a Domain Incite report, Spiller decided to take a position at another company instead, and his decision not to take up position at ICANN “may have predated the announcement of CEO Rod Beckstrom’s July 2012 departure earlier this month.” Spiller is a French national who was to have been responsible for driving ICANN’s strategic objectives in Europe and manage the Brussels office. Previously Spiller has worked for the French Prime Minister’s Office and most recently headed up global policy strategy at SAS, one of the world’s largest independent software vendors. Spiller has worked on topics ranging from education, sustainability and innovation to data privacy and cloud computing.

July 29, 2011 — Reseller hosting provider Gazzin.com announced on Wednesday that it has upgraded its reseller hosting plans and overall service offerings. According to the press release, the changes have been developed over the past several months and take effect with this announcement.

Domain name aftermarket sales continue to grow at Sedo with $25 million of sales in the second quarter of 2011. Sales increased 13 percent compared to Q1 2011 and four percent year-over-year according to their Q2 2011 Domain Market Study, which reveals domain industry trends based on its marketplace transactions. Notable sales in the quarter included datacenter.com for $352,500 and navidad.com for $100,000, supporting the .COM’s continued strength and relevance. However, domain sales priced at $5,000 and below accounted for 48 per cent market share, proving that there is a wide range of affordable domain choices for both established companies and SMBs looking to extend their brand online. For example, sunburnt.com recently sold for $8,800 and boatoutfitter.com was purchased for only $1,000. Of sales at the other end of the market, one per cent of sales were in the $50,000 and over category. During the three months ending 30 June, 10,600 domains changed hands on Sedo’s Domain Marketplace. Leading with the substantial $2.5 million sale of gambling.com, Q2 2011 represented the strongest quarter the marketplace has seen in over a year, once the record-breaking sale of sex.com from Q4 2010 is factored out. “The significant increase in sales – one of several optimistic benchmarks this quarter -seems to disprove the theory that the announcement of new gTLDs will diminish the value of existing TLDs,” says Jeremiah Johnston, COO and general counsel of Sedo. “The wide range of relevant keyword domain names available to support seasonal and holiday initiatives provides marketers, entrepreneurs and businesses with boundless investment opportunities that are not only affordable but provide the most significant ROI possible.” In addition, the average sale prices of .com domains in Q2 2011 reached $3,114, a 20 per cent increase over Q1 2011. Average .com sales prices for Q2 2011 were also higher than those for every quarter last year, excluding Q4 2010, which saw the record-breaking sale of Sex.com for $13,000,000. Other highlights of Sedo’s Q2 2011 study include: The .COM extension continues to be the most popular TLD, accounting for 52 per cent of all Q2 TLD sales. The .NET extension came in a distant second with 6 per cent of the market share. Overall in Q2 2011, .DE continued to be the most frequently traded ccTLD on the marketplace, accounting for 18 per cent market share, while .co.uk and .EU each accounted for 6 per cent of the market Ten TLDs contributed to at least one per cent of the overall transaction volume of Q2 2011 apart from the above with the remaining TLDs being .ORG (5%), .INFO (3%), .CO (2%) and .NL AND .ES (1% each) The top ccTLDs according to their average price were .ES (with an average sale per domain of $3,540) and .FR ($3,473) with .ES boosted by a confidential record-breaking sale Median sales prices for gTLDs remained fairly consistent quarter over quarter, despite a significant increase in Q2 2011 median sales prices for gTLDs across the board The .CO extension maintains its position as a top TLD, revealing its staying power since its debut on the top TLD list in Q1 2011 and marks it as a valuable contender for investment and as a valid alternative to .COM and other top gTLDs Fixed price sales accounted for 27 percent of all Q2 transactions, putting it in second place as the most popular form of seller-buyer interaction, following offer/counter-offer transactions (41 per cent). Top US sales include gambling.com ($2,500,000), datacenter.com ($352,000) and consolidation.com ($200,000) with the only non-.COM public sale in the top ten being business.co Sedo’s complete Q2 2011 report can be found online at: www.sedo.com/fileadmin/documents/pressdownload/Q2_2011_DomainMarketStudy_US.pdf

July 6, 2011 — Data center operator Horizon Data Center Solutions announced on Tuesday that it has received the “Authority to Operate” as a cloud computing provider to the federal government. The government has made a commitment to move its services to the cloud as part of its Cloud First policy. This announcement comes almost a month after the US government’s first chief information officer, Vivek Kundra, resigned.

Go Daddy, the world’s largest registrar, has entered into a partnership with a trio of private equity firms in a deal that values the company at $ 2.25 billion. The purchase by KKR & Co., Silver Lake Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures includes assumption of the company’s debt according to an announcement on Friday afternoon US time and will see Bob Parsons, founder and chief executive officer, keeping a minority stake in the company. “What these guys see is a company with a lot more potential internationally and more potential to make partnerships and acquisitions,” Bob Parsons, the company’s chief executive and founder, said. “They’ll help us finance and they’ll help us recruit talent.” KKR, Silver Lake and TCV are aiming to benefit from growth of the Internet, using Go Daddy’s predictable revenue stream and 9.3 million global customers from 48 million domain names to expand and pay down debt taken on to finance the transactions. “I’ve always said we would make a move like this when the right deal with the right partners could help us do the right thing for our customers and our employees,” said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “This is it! We are partnering with KKR, Silver Lake and TCV because of their technology expertise, their understanding of Web based businesses and because their values align with ours. We believe, together, we will take the company to the next level, especially when it comes to accelerating international growth.” “We’re just at the beginning of the Internet in terms of all the additional services a registry can sell to companies,” said Lou Kerner, managing director of the private-shares group at Wedbush Securities Inc. in New York, before the announcement. “Go Daddy is powerfully positioned for future growth as it continues to innovate and add to its truly unique platform of cloud-based software and services, said Greg Mondre, Managing Director, of Silver Lake. “At the same time, we plan to maintain and augment all of the attributes that have made Go Daddy a clear market leader today, including world class customer support and competitive pricing for its 9.3 million customers.” Go Daddy is growing rapidly, not just in domain names but also web hosting and SSL certificates, with sales growing by 25 per cent to $947 million from 2009 to 2010, and the company projects its figure for 2011 to be $1.1 billion. “In Go Daddy, we are pleased to be partnering with a high-growth market leader and an outstanding team,” said Herald Chen, head of KKR’s software and Internet effort. “Building on Go Daddy’s exceptional customer service and loyal customer base, we believe there is significant opportunity to expand the current portfolio of products and services as well as accelerate growth internationally.”

An image of Richard Kagan, executive VP and general manager for the Orchestration Systems business at Infoblox AccelOps ( www.accelops.net ), maker of integrated monitoring solutions for “cloud-generation” data centers, announced on Monday that it has appointed Richard Kagan, executive VP and general manager for the Orchestration Systems business at Infoblox, to its board of directors. The press release from AccelOps calls Kagan a “respected technology strategist and marketer,” with more than 25 years experience in marketing, business development and engineering experience in the telecommunications, networking and security industries. “AccelOps has a tremendous opportunity ahead of us, making it essential we attract the industry’s most experienced and knowledgeable executives,” says AccelOps Elie Antoun, quoted in the announcement