After a relatively modest increase in new registrations in 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis, new .BE registrations rebounded strongly in 2010 with another record in the number of new registrations according to the 2010 annual report. There were more than 257,000 new .BE registrations in 2010, almost ten per cent better than in the previous year. Renewal numbers were also very good in 2010 with an 83 per cent renewal rate of existing .BE domain names, ranking in the top five globally. The growth in active domain names was nearly 13 per cent in 2010, meaning that 2010 was the year in which the magic mark of 1,000,000 domain names was passed. At the end of June 2011 there were 1,156,953 .BE domains registered. DNS.be also did some research into why .BE domain names are registered. The findings were broadly similar to previous years with over three quarters (77%, 77.7% in 2009) of registrants linking an email address to the domain and a website in 84.3% of cases (82.3% in 2009). The registry found that only 12.2 per cent of registrations are defensive (and hence is not linked to either an email address or a website) compared to 12.4 per cent in 2009. In recent years DNS.be have seen a fall in that percentage. The registry considers this a positive change because it means a larger number of domain names are being used more actively. Most registrants have only one domain name registered, with over three quarters (435,794 – 78%) of registrants having just one domain name. 64,868 (12%) registrants registered two domain names while the average registrant has 1.96 domain names. In other news in 2010, security was increased with a new procedure was introduced in July 2010 that ensures tighter checks are made on all new registrations. This will result in higher quality of whois data. At the same time, these new checks make it more difficult for fraud and other illicit practices to gain a foothold. Greater security in the .BE zone is also a particular focus in the registry’s objectives for 2011. For 2011, one of the key developments will be the replacement of all of the hardware on the registration platform, including a number of network connections. This will enhance the performance and availability of the platform. It will also mean an optimisation of costs for DNS.be over time. DNS.be are integrating some of their name servers as part of anycast clouds, while a number of European locations will receive new equipment. The DNS.be 2010 Annual Report contains a lot more statistics and information on .BE domain names. To download the report in full, see www.dns.be/pdf/Annual_Report_en_2010.pdf . To register your .BE domain name, check out Europe Registry here .

A core responsibility of the Executive Council (EC), under the APNIC Bylaws, is to ensure that APNIC’s strategies meet the dynamic Internet environment. The APNIC Member and Stakeholder Survey is a key tool in that process, which the EC commissions every 2 years, to help us to understand the needs of the APNIC Community, and to set strategic direction accordingly. The Survey also provides APNIC with valuable information on the performance of the APNIC Secretariat and the objectives it needs to meet over the coming period. In February 2011, APNIC released the results of latest survey, which was conducted by Professor Ang Peng Hwa of the Singapore Internet Research Centre (SIRC). The EC has released its response to the 2011 Member and Stakeholder Survey. This APNIC announcement was sourced from: www.apnic.net/publications/news/2011/survey-ec-response

Web Hosting – Abingdon, UK – Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, has today announced that it will support VMware vShield Endpoint from later this year.  Kaspersky Lab’s support of VMware vShield Endpoint will offer comprehensive protection for virtual machines from the latest malware threats without compromising speed and performance. New online research undertaken for Kaspersky Lab by YouGov reveals that around one in four (26 per cent) of IT managers surveyed considered security to be a major concern when implementing virtualized environments.

PressMediaWire.com (Press Release Distribution) – Apr 19,2011 – bestwebdesignagencies.com, an independent authority on search vendors has named the Top 10 Web Hosting Firms for the month of April 2011.  As the net continues to become a more crowded and cluttered place, the need for a good hosting company increases. Once the website is created and developed properly, the work does not end there. It is just as important that the website is taken to the real world on a quality platform

A screenshot of Data Storage Corp’s website (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – Data protection and business continuity solutions provider Data Storage Corporation ( www.datastoragecorp.com ) announced on Monday that it has expanded its Westbury, New York data center. According to the press release, this expansion has enabled the company to offer its SafeData virtual data recovery solution from its facility.  DSC says additional enhancements made at all four of its data centers will provide its clients with more optimized performance of their data backup and recovery solutions. “We have been able to offer our virtual data recovery services from our other data centers, but are now pleased to be able to provide our New York area clients with the same viable cloud-based data recovery solution,” Chuck Piluso, chairman and CEO of Data Storage Corporation said in a statement.  The company says the key upgrades made to its data centers include network storage platform and firewall security.  “The additional enhancements made to our data centers will shorten the data recovery times for our clients and those managed service providers utilizing our offsite backup facilities,” Matt Grosso, EVP technical operations and engineering stated.

An image of MICRON RealSSD P300 solid state drives (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – Web hosting provider SoftLayer Technologies ( www.softlayer.com ) announced on Thursday that it has launched MICRON RealSSD P300 solid state drives.  According to the press release, the new SSDs are available in 50GB, 100GB and 200GB capacities and provide secure enterprise-class storage for high-performance applications. Last week, SoftLayer launched its Technology Partners Marketplace to showcase current SoftLayer SaaS and independent software vendor customers’ products and technologies

A screen shot of EdgeCast’s Application Delivery Network interface (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – CDN provider EdgeCast Networks ( www.edgecast.com ) announced on Wednesday the general availability of its Application Delivery Network, marking the end of a three month beta .   According to the press release, the beta cycle included internal testing and testing with more than 10 companies. During the beta, sites realized performance gains ranging from 40 percent to more than 250 percent, EdgeCast says.