Web hosting provider CrystalTech (crystaltech.com) launched a new sales promotion on Thursday that provides customers with two months of dedicated hosting for free.

CrystalTech’s dedicated plans offer powerful hardware, sizeable amounts of bandwidth, Windows 2003 Standard, Microsoft IIS and multiple add-on options. Under the new promotion, CrystalTech is also offering $700 worth of software for free, including mail, statistics and FTP software.

“With a variety of hardware configurations to choose from and a comprehensive pre-installed software package, we feel that our dedicated hosting plans provide a value unmatched throughout the hosting industry,” says Robert Cichon, CrystalTech’s chief operating officer. “When you combine this promotion with CrystalTech’s competitive prices, you can have your own enterprise-level hosting solution with our renowned service and support at remarkable savings.”

From now until June 15, customers that order a new Windows dedicated hosting plan and use the promotion code JUNEDEAL will receive two months of free hosting with a waived setup when they prepay for the first three months. More details regarding the promotion can be found on the company’s Web site.

Data center operator Data393 (data393.com) announced on Thursday that it has signed a colocation agreement with image hosting service Photobucket (photobucket.com), to locate some of the company’s data storage equipment in Data393’s Englewood, Colorado facility.

Data393 will provide Photobucket with a data storage environment that includes power, cooling and access to a 10 gigabit Ethernet connection. Photobucket will use its own equipment and software, and Photobucket staff will manage the company’s operations in the facility.

Photobucket provides a service for sharing and publishing visual content online. Images and videos stored on Photobucket can be linked from blogs, eBay auctions and other separate sites.

“We selected Data393 due to its capacity to handle large amounts of Internet traffic,” says Photobucket co-founder and chief technology officer Darren Crystal. “This agreement gives Photobucket access to an additional secure data storage facility with room to grow. With its massive, redundant 10GigE Internet pipeline, Data393 is one of only a few data centers in the country with enough bandwidth to support Photobucket’s fast-growing business while ensuring we remain online and active.”

Domain registrar and Web host Easyspace (easyspace.com) announced on Friday that it has added more than 40 new templates to its Rapidsite service.

The company says its Rapidsite software enables customers to create their own Web sites easily, without requiring technical skills. The tool provides a choice of design templates, styles, navigation and color schemes, as well as the option to upload images.

The 44 new templates were designed by Easyspace’s design team, and include designs specifically tailored for florists, garages, tradespeople, photographers, taxi companies and DJ and karaoke suppliers.

Easyspace says it plans to introduce more than 50 new templates in the coming weeks.

Web hosting provider VIA USA (vianetworks.net) announced this week it has launched new link mail programs that will give CIOs and IT managers the ability to reduce IT expenses while improving corporate email performance and functionality.

Link mail is designed as a management expense control program, to help CIOs and executive managers decrease wasted IT resources by only paying for usage as it happens. Link Mail also increases productivity by enabling IT staff to focus on core business competencies rather than email uptime. It reduces corporate risk through enhanced security and anti-spam features with guaranteed uptime and escalation processes.

“Link mail addresses corporations growing concern for SAS compliant email solutions that collaborate over technologies from the Internet to wireless phones, while improving the reliability, functionality and storage” says Patrick Gaul, president of VIA USA.

VIA USA is one of the oldest Microsoft hosting companies, having served the Microsoft hosting community for more than a decade. The company provides a full range of Internet-based solutions focused on small to medium sized businesses.

Web hosting provider HostGator (hostgator.com) announced on Friday it is offering PHP 5 and MySQL 5 support with all its shared hosting plans at no additional cost.

“We get so many requests from our customers for PHP 5 and MySQL 5 that we felt compelled to make it available to them for no extra charge,” says Brent Oxley, president and founder of HostGator. “Providing power, ping and pipe and 24-hour support is not enough. At HostGator, we feel it is necessary to support all our customer’s specific needs and to make it available to them at the lowest price point possible.”

HostGator’s shared hosting plans are priced at $6.95, $9.95 and $14.95 per month, with a semi-dedicated virtual hosting plan priced at $74.95 per month.

PHP is a server-side scripting language used to create dynamic content that facilitates interactivity with databases. MySQL is a popular open course relational database.

Web hosting provider iSERVE (iserve.co.nz) announced on Thursday its plans for a multi-million dollar development to build New Zealand’s biggest virtual hosting platform.

The company plans to embark on a major development that will include a substantial, fully redundant information backup and recovery facility and the implementation of an always-live Linux, Microsoft and Apple certified support desk. It will also develop several geographically diverse, carrier neutral hosting facilities within New Zealand enabling iSERVE to offer New Zealand’s only 100 percent network uptime promise.

To assist with the funding of this development iSERVE is offering new lifetime hosting plans, Life Plan and Life Plan Plus. Both plans entitle clients to host as many Web sites, domain names, email addresses and POP mailboxes as they want without paying for hosting again.

“If the response of our existing customers to this offer is anything to go by, we expect to raise a significant portion of the capital required,” says Joy Cottle, general manager for iSERVE. “By offering the lifetime hosting plans we can help raise the cash needed without using external sources, while keeping our regular cashflow stabilized, which is why we have capped the offer to a limited number.”

The plans - the first lifetime Web hosting plans to be made available in New Zealand - are guaranteed for life, says the company.

Private label Web service provider ResellerClub (resellerclub.com) announced on Thursday that it has added the .cc and .tv domains to its portfolio of services. The domains will be available to resellers at the promotional introductory prices of $17.99 and $24.99, respectively.  

The addition of the .cc and .tv domains, says ResellerClub, will enable the company’s resellers to extend their own product portfolios, and expand their global reach. Resellers can also promote .cc and .tv domains as alternatives to domains already taken in the generic domain space.

“Introducing .cc and .tv perfectly falls in line with our philosophy of providing resellers with the most comprehensive product portfolio at phenomenally low prices,” says Bhavin Turakhia, CEO of ResellerClub. “Resellers are exposed to tremendous value while reselling .cc and .tv domain names as these can easily translate into valuable branding entities for various media, financial and email organizations.”

ResellerClub says the integration of the new domains is the latest addition to a growing list of domains already offered through its service. Domains already in various stages of implementation include .tw, .mobi, .cn, .nz and .uk, among others.

Data center operator and managed service provider Peak 10 (peak10.com) announced on Thursday that it had completed a successful review of its emergency management plan. It also updated its Web site to provide businesses with information on its disaster recovery solutions.  

Peak 10 says its review was designed to ensure that the company can provide customers with a secure facility and redundant infrastructure, along with weather and disaster recovery information before, during and after a hurricane or other natural disaster.

According to Peak 10, every type of organization should have a disaster recovery plan in place, whether to protect its data from hurricanes, cyber attacks or human error.

“With the increased number of hurricanes in the past two years, more organizations are realizing the importance of being prepared,” says Jeff Biggs, vice president of operations and engineering for Peak 10. “We take our responsibility as a DR partner seriously and have tested our emergency plan in all data centers to ensure Peak 10 can maintain the security and availability of our customers’ technology infrastructure, data and applications in the event of a disaster.”

Web site building software developer CM4all (cm4all.com) announced on Wednesday that Canadian Web hosting provider NetNation Communications (netnation.com) would begin marketing CM4all’s WebsiteCreator to customers in North America.

Using CM4all, NetNation customers can easily create and maintain Web sites.

A subsidiary of Hostway, NetNation provides specialized hosting for individuals and organizations. The agreement extends CM4all’s existing agreement with Hostway, which began in 2005.

The deal is the second major customer win for the European company CM4all in Canada. The company announced a deal with Web hosting provider dotCanada.com earlier this year.

“CM4all WebsiteCreator is evolving as the definitive choice for Web site creation software in North America,” said Robert Schovenberg, CEO of CM-AG. “We are delighted that NetNation, Canada’s top-ranked Web hosting company has selected our software for their customers’ Web site building needs.”

Web hosting provider and domain registrar Go Daddy (godaddy.com) announced on Wednesday it has added another layer of security to its Web hosting by deploying TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention Systems to block attacks.

GoDaddy put TippingPoint systems in place to protect all dedicated and virtual dedicated hosting servers at no additional cost. The intrusion prevention system is an in-line device that scans traffic and, based on rules, determines whether data packets are legitimate or malicious.

“Security is a top priority at Go Daddy,” says Neil Warner, Go Daddy’s chief information security officer. “TippingPoint systems have an established track record of success. Our customers deserve this extra protection for their hosting accounts.”

In addition to the security feature, each dedicated and virtual dedicated hosting plan includes free rapid setup, a free SSL certificate and 24-hour customer support, physical security and network monitoring.