As usual, we created and tested Qualcomm’s new website in our internal development and hosting environment. Once the website was built solid and performing perfectly, we turned it over to the client. The site’s performance suffered immediately after it was live in the client’s hosting environment – media loaded and ran slowly and various creative elements crashed when the site experienced heavy visitor traffic. After a few vigorous rounds of troubleshooting, we brought the site back into our hosting environment where it ran without a hitch! At this point, we (and they) realized the problem was not with the website, but instead Qualcomm’s own hosting environment.

Like many companies, they had devised a robust marketing campaign designed to drive traffic to the new website. Because of the problems brought about by their hosting environment, the management team quickly determined the launch would only succeed if FireHost continued to host the site. We agreed and in a surprising turn of events, we were transformed into an enterprise-level secure website hosting provider.

Qualcomm eventually worked out the kinks with their own hosting environment and took over hosting the website (which is still live today – http://www.cdmauniversity.com/), but we never turned back. FireHost’s evolution as a secure web hosting provider for business has been driven by one simple principle – everyone deserves to be vigorously protected while never having to sacrifice website performance. Since the very beginning, we have heard and addressed our client’s needs, and the result six years later is a complete shift in our business model.

FireHost’s commitment to providing relevant solutions for businesses continues today as we introduce exciting and innovative secure, web hosting services. With the growing number of attacks on web sites and web services by hackers, the vital need to protect companies’ data, and the growing presence of media and social interaction online, FireHost answers the call by providing industry-leading security for web hosting on some of the best and fastest hosting equipment available. Contact a FireHost Agent today for more information about fast and secure web hosting.

2008 Accomplishments:

• Achieved 99.999% network up-time throughout the year
• Changed company brand from TargetScope Hosting to FireHost in March
• Added FireVault Secure Online Backup services to our portfolio in March
• Migrated FireHost’s presence in Texas to a brand new, North Dallas Data Center in July
• Developed key relationships with important web hosting industry partners at HostingCon Chicago in July
• Expanded FireHost web hosting and online backup services to a Scottsdale, AZ data center in August
• Added CDN services that allow clients to serve content worldwide via 45 POPs in 23 cities in August
• Began hosting high profile clients like the National Breast Cancer Foundation who require maximum up time and speed during huge traffic spikes from national exposure in September
• Integrated Website Security into FireHost network in October
  

The agenda for 2009 is packed just as full of web hosting service enhancements and new web security products that will make choosing FireHost as your web hosting provider an even more clear choice. Here is a sneak preview into a few of the web hosting enhancements you can look forward to in the next year.

2009 Agenda:

• Implement an additional database security layer to facilitate SOX and HIPAA compliance reporting in “one-click”
• Complete the FireHost Customer Portal which will empower new and existing clients to easily and intuitively configure, customize, and manage web hosting service and offsite backup storage plans on demand
• Introduce Load Balancing services and extend individualized server clustering capabilities to every FireHost Dedicated Server client
• Add Virtual Private Server (VPS) capabilities to FireHost’s web hosting solution matrix
• Expand our Microsoft Exchange service to include automated long-term archiving

We’re jazzed about having an aggressive to-do list. As always, FireHost will test, re-test, and test every new hosting product again to ensure it’s a solid solution before adding it to our mix of online data backup and web hosting services.

Goodbye 2008. Hello 2009!