The Planet has completed its merger with EV1Servers and relaunched with a new web site, upgraded infrastructure and an emphasis on managed hosting. The integration of the two dedicated server providers, which were both acquired last May by private equity firm GI Partners, results in the retirement of the EV1Servers brand.

The Planet is now the world's sixth-largest hosting company, according to Netcraft's Hosting Provider Switching Analysis, with 1.89 million hostnames on its network, trailing only Go Daddy, 1&1 Internet, Microsoft, Google and Germany's Intergenia AG. The Planet says it now has more than 22,000 customers housed in six data centers, and combined revenue of approximately $110 million. It has also upgraded its network with high-speed 10 gigabit ethernet links with Level 3, Savvis, Global Crossing and Verio Networks.

The "new" Planet also hosts more than 16,000 SSL-enabled web sites, according to the Netcraft Secure Server Survey, making it the world's third-largest host in that category. Customers using SSL are typically more valuable because they are more likely to purchase additional services to ensure the security and performance of their e-commerce operations.

This year's hot trend in web hosting is grid computing, which employs server clusters to bring the advantages of enterprise-level infrastructure to affordable web hosting plans. As with any trend in web hosting, it hasn't taken long for a price war to break out.

On Tuesday Los Angeles hosting firm Media Temple unveiled GridServer, offering industrial-strength specs for just $20 a month. The account comes with 100 gigabytes of disk space, 1 terabyte of monthly data transfer and the ability to host up to 100 domains. Two other prominent grid initiatives launched this year by dedicated hosting companies, ServePath's UtilityServe and Rackspace-backed Mosso, price their grid hosting plans at $99 a month. Media Temple's pricing could also prove disruptive to shared hosting providers with clustered hosting plans, including NetFirms and Cartika Hosting, which offer cheaper monthly pricing ($9.99 and $14.99, respectively) but much lower allowances for disk space and bandwidth.

Globix has exited the hosting business by selling its U.S. operations to Quality Technology Services for $20 million. In August the company sold Globix UK and its European network to Telecity Redbus for $62 million. The U.S. deal provides Quality with managed hosting customers in Santa Clara, Calif. and New York to supplement its existing operations in Atlanta, Kansas and Indiana. The sale is expected to close within the next month.

The history of Globix closely tracks broader industry trends, as it built big during the dot-com boom, commissioning 400,000 square foot data centers in New York and Boston to accommodate an expected flood of hosting customers. The company later filed for bankruptcy protection, emerging as a leaner competitor. Earlier this year, the company reviewed its operations and decided to focus on its network connectivity business.

Quality Technology Services was formed in September 2005 when the Quality Group of Companies purchased the assets of the former e^deltacom, including a 376,000 square foot data center outside Atlanta. Quality said today that it has acquired an existing 960,000 square foot data center facility in the Atlanta market, and plans to announce a New York data center site shortly.

HostGator says hackers compromised its servers using a previously unknown security hole in cPanel, the control panel software that is widely used by hosting providers. "I can tell you with all accuracy that this is definitely due to a cPanel exploit that provides root access and all cPanel servers are affected," said HostGator system administrator Tim Greer. "This issue affects all versions of cPanel, from what I can tell, from years ago to the current releases, including Stable, Release, Current and Edge."

cPanel has just released a fix. "Running /scripts/upcp will fix the vulnerability in all builds," cPanel said in a message on its user forums. "Please note that this is a local exploit which requires access to a cPanel account. ... If you believe you have been exploited through this vulnerability, you are welcome to submit a support request for assistance."

Hackers gained access to HostGator's servers late Thursday and began redirecting customer sites to outside web pages that exploit an unpatched VML security hole in Internet Explorer to infect web surfers with trojans. The existence of the new "0-day" exploit of cPanel leaves a large number of hosting companies vulnerable to similar attacks until they install the patch. The riusk is mitigated somewhat by the fact that it is a local exploit, meaning any attack on a host must be launched from an existing account with cPanel access.

Managed hosting provider DataPipe announced Tuesday that it has secured a $12 million private placement investment, and will use the funding to buy additional data center space. The funding continues a period of strong investor interest in the hosting sector. The first half of 2006 saw a flurry of acquisitions involving major hosts and domain registrars, and investment bankers say the industry is also attracting private funding from investors wanting to participate in the industry's growth.

The New Jersey company said its recent growth has prompted a global expansion. The first deal is close to home. "We have purchased a 36,000 square foot facility in central New Jersey," said Robb Allen, founder and CEO of DataPipe. "We are in the process of upgrading the infrastructure to meet the standards required of a Tier 4 facility (the highest rating under an industry standard from The Uptime Institute)." Allen said DataPipe expects to begin installing clients in the new data center in the first quarter of 2007 and expected to announce further data center acquisitions in the near future.