The Planet Launches New Channel Program with the Industry's Most Lucrative Referral Incentives

HOUSTON - (BUSINESS WIRE) - The Planet, the global leader in IT hosting, today announced its new Partner Plus program, which includes significant extensions to its already-strong partner program. It includes three specific partner models designed to fit the business requirements of its customers. The new Referral Partner program offers industry-leading commission rates up to 20 percent to reward partners that introduce their customers to The Planet's wide range of products and world-class customer service.

Partners are able to earn commissions or server discounts, depending on the model, from the broadest portfolio of products and services in the industry: dedicated hosting, hosting with advanced services, managed hosting or colocation.

"As other hosting companies and colocation providers are cutting back their programs, The Planet is making significant investments in Partner Plus to build indirect sales and leverage the power of the channel to expand our market reach," said Tom Blair, vice president of Global Sales with The Planet. "Today marks a strategic expansion in our already-successful partner program. Customers select The Planet based on the quality of our data centers and network, which is the foundation for our new Partner Plus Program, and we're now providing a multitude of new reasons for choosing our IT infrastructure resources.

"We set about to reshape the partner landscape, with the most lucrative and creative program in the industry, backed by a dream team of sales, technical and support personnel committed to partners' success. I've been in the industry for more than 25 years, and this is the program I've always envisioned being able to offer," Blair concluded.

"As a reseller, our global customer base relies on us for providing the reliability and connectivity they require to operate their businesses," said Tenko Nikolov, Chief Executive Officer of SiteGround (http://www.siteground.com). "Our business continues to grow, as does our relationship with The Planet. Their commitment to customer support and attention to our requirements makes them an ideal partner for our company, and those are among the reasons we work with The Planet."

About The Planet Partner Plus Program

The Planet Partner Plus program offers three unique models to match any partner's business. Each category provides strategic advantages to enable successful partner relationships. Constructed to ensure zero channel conflict and drive more business, partners benefit from personalized relationships with assigned account managers, expert sales training, and access to events and development programs. The Planet also provides data center tours for partners and their clients, along with meeting rooms to make selling easy and convenient.

Three Program Models, Industry-Leading Financial Incentives: Partners can take advantage of the program that best suits their business objectives:

• Referral Partners - Send customers to The Planet and earn up to 20 percent commissions based on deal size and the total business referred to the company.

• Reseller Partners - Purchase products and services to resell to customers, benefitting from The Planet's buying power, with volume-based server discounts.
• Affiliates - Link customers or Web site visitors to The Planet and receive 100 percent of a referred customer's first month's bill.

Diverse Portfolio: Partners provide more value to their customers with the power to choose from the broadest range of solutions, including colocation, advanced services and dedicated hosting, all the way to fully managed hosting, virtualization and cloud services.

Enhanced Partner Portal: This one-stop shop includes a complete line of sales, training and marketing collateral to increase success.

High-Impact, Personal Relationships: Referral and Reseller Partners are assigned a dedicated Channel Account Manager as a single point of contact to enable their success.

Around-the-Clock Technical Support: Partners are assured of 24x7x365 service and support.

For more information on The Planet Partner Plus, visit the Web site at www.theplanet.com/partnerplus.

About The Planet

The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 18.5 million Web sites worldwide. Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Northstar Managed Hosting and data center colocation, all backed by 24x7x365 support. With the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class service, backed by state-of-the-art data centers and an enterprise-class network, The Planet turns IT into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to grow their businesses. For additional information, visit http://www.theplanet.com.

The Planet
Yvonne Donaldson, 281-714-3602
ydonaldson@theplanet.com
or
Schwartz Communications
Tim Whitman, 781-684-0770
twhitman@schwartz-pr.com