SunGard  has acquired 365 Hosting Limited, a Dublin, Ireland-based cloud computing and data centre services company which trades as ‘Hosting 365’.  The acquisition, the terms of which were not disclosed, is not expected to have a material impact on SunGard’s results.

Privately-owned Hosting 365 has built a strong presence in Ireland delivering both data centre managed IT services and, more recently, on-demand computing services within its cloud computing environment.

The company has been providing hosted services since 2001 and operates from two secure data centres in the Dublin area to help ensure the resilience of its solutions. It has pioneered the use of Web-based tools to facilitate customer self-service across all aspects of the service procurement process.  Customers can order and provision their changing computer requirements in near real-time as well as monitor their usage and manage their accounts on-line.

Ed Byrne, general manager, Hosting 365, commented, “We are pleased to become part of SunGard and to augment our product portfolio with SunGard’s capabilities. Much of our success so far can be put down to our commitment to serve our customers’ changing business and technology needs. The addition of SunGard’s world-class range of availability solutions will help ensure that we can continue to reinforce our leadership position in Ireland and can help our customers be even more resilient as their businesses change and grow.”

Keith Tilley, managing director UK and executive vice president Europe for SunGard Availability Services, said, “Hosting 365 has built a superb business since its formation.   The deal has major benefits for both parties: SunGard gains access to a new geographic market and proven cloud computing expertise, while Hosting 365 extends its product range with our own managed IT services, business continuity and disaster recovery solutions.”

About Hosting365

Hosting365 is a hosted infrastructure provider.  The company operates its own 25,000 square feet, state-of-the-art data centre in Park West, Dublin.  Hosting365 was named as Ireland’s 25th fastest growing technology company in the Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 50.  More information can be found on www.hosting365.com.

About SunGard Availability Services

SunGard Availability Services provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software to more than 10,000 customers in North America and Europe.  With five million square feet of datacenter and operations space, SunGard assists IT organizations across virtually all industry and government sectors prepare for and recover from emergencies by helping them minimize their computer downtime and optimize their uptime.  Through direct sales and channel partners, we help organizations ensure their people and customers have uninterrupted access to the information systems they need in order to do business.  Visit SunGard Availability Services at www.sungard.co.uk

SunGard Availability Services has been recognized as Service Provider of the Year an unprecedented six times in the Business Continuity Awards’ eleven-year history, and has been a finalist on all but one occasion: a track record unequalled in the industry.  In 2008, SunGard was presented the 10th Anniversary Award for Outstanding Excellence in Business Continuity.  SunGard and its customers have also achieved success in the Most Innovative Product, Most Effective Recovery, Industry Personality, Lifetime Achievement and Consultant of the Year categories, amongst others.

Representing Intellect, the trade association, on the steering committee for BS 25999, SunGard helped to define the first standard of its kind, which is alerting the wider business community to the importance of business continuity management.  SunGard then became the first business continuity expert to secure certification against the BS 25999 Standard.  It is now in the unique position of being able to assist its customers – both large and small alike – through the certification process drawing on its own experience.

About SunGard

SunGard is one of the world’s leading software and IT services companies. SunGard serves more than 25,000 customers in more than 70 countries.

SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector.   SunGard also provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software.

With annual revenue exceeding $5 billion, SunGard is ranked 435 on the Fortune 500 and is the largest privately held business software and services company on the Forbes list of private businesses. Based on information compiled by Datamonitor*, SunGard is the third largest provider of business applications software after Oracle and SAP. Continuity, Insurance & Risk has recognized SunGard as service provider of the year an unprecedented six times.  For more information, please visit SunGard at www.sungard.com.

*January 2009 Technology Vendors Financial Database Tracker http://www.datamonitor.com

Trademark Information: SunGard and the SunGard logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries.  All other trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

For further information, please contact:

Tom Rutteman/Clare Booty
Brands2Life
Email: sungard@brands2life.com
Tel:  +44 (0)20 7592 1200

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our valued customers, partners and friends a very Happy holidays, and joyous new year!

Our Operations and NOC teams remain on duty and available throughout the holiday period, 24 hours per day, every day without exception.

Our Sales, Admin, Finance and Engineering team will be unavailable for the holidays, on Wednesday 23rd December, through to Sunday 27th December. We will have full service from Monday 28th to Wednesday 30th of December, then closed again from Thursday 31st December, reopening normally on Monday the 4th January.

Have a Happy and Peaceful Holiday and many thanks for 2009!

CAMBRIDGE, UK – 27 May 2009 – Zeus Technology, the only software-based application traffic management company, today announces that Ireland’s leading Outsourced IT Services and Internet Hosting Provider, Hosting365, has joined the Zeus Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA). The partnership will enable Hosting365 to meet the needs of its customers by offering a comprehensive layer-7 load balancing and application acceleration solution with a monthly usage fee.

The Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager (ZXTM) software solution is offered in the market today via a SPLA model, which gives Hosters and Service Providers a significant advantage. Customers business requirements are constantly changing to keep up with and take advantage of the latest web technology. Therefore, there is a growing demand for Service Providers to deliver application acceleration and delivery solutions that go beyond the capabilities of many existing hardware based products.

Kevin O’Connor, Channel Manager, Hosting365, comments: “We partnered with Zeus, so we can have the benefit of providing a traffic management solution in the Cloud, coupled with utilizing a unique SPLA model which enables us to lease the ZXTM software. Flexibility for us is also key. We chose Zeus because it can handle huge bursts of traffic and can scale both vertically and horizontally, so the solution can grow alongside the needs of our customers. Those customers will now be able to take advantage of the powerful Zeus solution by renting it monthly.

“The Cloud is a highly cost-effective platform for the majority of companies, as they can scale their hardware requirements to match demand. Our customers have full control over their infrastructure usage maintaining a handle on costs at all times, as well as significantly reducing their IT web expenditure.”

Deployed literally in a matter of hours, the Zeus ZXTM software provides an impressive range of traffic management features and functionality, is intuitive with an easy to use interface and will run on any server hardware platform.

Hosting365 offers its Cloud hosting solutions as Platform as a Service, enabling customers to pay for services as and when they use them. Thus, as the Zeus SPLA program is a monthly, subscription-based model with minimal up-front costs, it seamlessly integrates with Hosting 365’s business model, by providing on-demand IT services.

Steve Webb, VP Sales, Zeus, adds: “With Hosting365’s specialist knowledge in outsourced IT and infrastructure hosting and as Ireland’s only Cloud Computing provider, we are delighted to have them on board our SPLA program. As more companies choose to outsource their IT services on a highly cost-effective monthly-usage model, Zeus can help Hosting 365 meet their customers’ needs for secure, reliable and scalable loading balancing and traffic management services. This will help ensure their online presence is continuously available 24 hours a day, even during high traffic peaks.”

For more information about the Zeus SPLA program, please visit; www.zeus.com/spla

–ENDS–

About Zeus Technology

Zeus software enables our customers to create, manage and deliver exceptional online services in Physical, Virtual and Cloud environments. Implementing a Zeus solution allows organizations to visualize and manipulate the flow of traffic to their web-enabled applications, thus ensuring a consistently robust web infrastructure. Coupled with the ability to deploy new online services very quickly, Zeus helps provide the competitive advantage businesses need, by making their online services faster, more reliable, more secure and easier to manage. Zeus software can be deployed on industry standard hardware, virtual machines and any Cloud platform, making it the right strategic choice for today and tomorrow. Zeus holds strategic partnerships with world-class companies such as Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Joyent, Oracle, Sun, Qualcomm and VMware. Zeus powers over one million website infrastructures across the world including, BT, Comic Relief, Domino’s Pizza, Gilt Groupe, ITV, PLAY.COM, STA Travel and Virgin Media. Zeus is in a unique position to assist any business looking to enhance their mission-critical Internet service infrastructure.

For more information, visit www.zeus.com.

Commenting on the announcement, Paul Lynch, Sales & Marketing Director, Hosting365, said, “Our Cloud Computing platform has put us in a unique position. We are able to offer a range of solutions including simple web servers or complex, multi-site mission-critical applications and platforms. Combined with our Cloud Computing service, we can offer instant solutions to clients and enable them to grow their infrastructure in line with actual customer demand. Rather than jump in at the deep end, our clients can dip their toe in at the shallow end and steadily swim upstream in these choppy waters.”

“In the current economic climate, companies are looking to lower their running costs and IT spending has been affected as most companies’ investments are underutilised and may not always demonstrate value for money. As a result, we are seeing increased demands for our services as companies can benefit from economies of scale by availing of our multi million euro infrastructure and our staff’s expertise at competitive prices.”

In February 2008 Hosting365 announced a €2 million investment to create its Cloud Computing platform and sold its business division Register365, Ireland’s largest Internet hosting provider, to Namesco for an undisclosed amount last May.

Hosting365’s existing clients include the Irish Stock Exchange, the Irish Government Department for Social & Family Affairs, Certified Public Accountants of Ireland, O2, daft.ie and entertainment.ie.

Monitoring of all services is provided by independent third-party service - Pingdom.com

We recommend customers bookmark the site, as it will also be used to provide notifications of maintenance and issues.

Go to http://www.hosting365status.com/

Commenting on the announcement, Ed Byrne, General Manager, Hosting365, said, “These deals are proof that the strategic decision we made to focus Hosting365 on Hosted Managed Services for the enterprise market has paid off. Through our cloud computing platform Irish companies can, for the first time, avail of the benefits of a multi million euro infrastructure for a cost less then a traditional dedicated server. In the current economic climate, companies have realised that they are overspending on IT and their existing investments are often underutilised. The outsourced managed services model is a cost effective solution as they can take advantage of our economies of scale. Hosting365 combines the best of both worlds by offering world class data centre facilities and the IT expertise of our diverse engineering, technician and support teams,”

“Ireland is quickly becoming a leader in Cloud Computing as evidenced by the deals we have announced today and also the decision by IBM to make Ireland the home of its first Cloud Computing centre. Our Cloud Computing offer is one of the cutting edge services that will help Ireland reach its goal in becoming a knowledge based economy. As the only provider in Ireland and one of only a few companies in the world with a commercial Cloud Computing offering, we are bucking the trend of IT companies experiencing a downturn in the global economy.” Byrne added.

Hosting365 has announced a number of significant company milestones this year, having completed a €2 million investment in new infrastructure and creating 20 new jobs in February and selling its business division Register365, Ireland’s largest Internet hosting provider, to Namesco for an undisclosed amount in May. The company also plans to hire an additional 14 staff in its Dublin and Polish offices by the end of the year.

Hosting365’s existing clients include the Irish Stock Exchange, the Irish Government Department for Social & Family Affairs, Certified Public Accountants of Ireland, O2, daft.ie and entertainment.ie.

With a crisp new design and branding, provided by leading branding and design agency - http://www.atomic.ie - the new site provides detail on a wider range of enterprise solutions, ranging from comprehensively managed colocation, through hosted infrastructure solutions and virtualisation and cloud platforms.

Complete with re-skinned Blog - http://news.hosting365.com and Customer Portal - https://cp.hosting365.com, you can now also follow Hosting365 on Twitter at http://twitter.com/hosting365 and check out a gallery of photos on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/hosting365/

Why not call, email or click live chat today and talk to us about how you can save money, improve reliability and services and get better support from Ireland’s leading hosted infrastructure provider.

Hosting365 today announced that it ranked Number 25 in the 2008 Deloitte Technology Fast 50, a ranking of the 50 fastest
growing technology companies in Ireland. Rankings are based on average percentage revenue growth over five years. Hosting365 grew 1,143 percent during this period.

Hosting365’s Managing Director, Stephen McCarron, credits the continuing move to an outsourced IT and infrastructure hosting model and the company’s position as a leader in both value and enterprise service with the company’s 1,143% revenue growth over the past five years. He said,
“We are thrilled and honoured to be ranked in the Deloitte Fast 50 for the second year running - it is a testament to the passion, commitment and energy of the amazing team I work with, both in Dublin and Krakow.”

The Fast 50 programme, now in its ninth year in Ireland ranks the fastest-growing technology companies in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. This year, there were 17 companies from Northern Ireland in the ranking. The average annual growth rate of the 50 winning companies was 460%.

Announcing the winners of the Technology Fast 50 programme, David O’Flanagan, Partner with Deloitte, Dublin said: ?Congratulations to our 2008 Fast 50 winners – their success is indicative of the innovative technology companies present in Ireland. To have 16 new companies in the awards is a true sign of the talent and creative thinking that is present in
the technology industry in Ireland. It is this innovation and fresh thinking that will ensure Ireland’s continued success in this competitive industry.?

The awards took place in the Guinness Storehouse on October 16th. Industry figures speaking at the event included Jim Breen, CEO, Pulse Learning, John McElligott, Director of Strategy and M&A, eBay Global Classifieds and David Tansley, Partner, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Deloitte UK.

Details of the final Technology Fast 50 ranking list are available to download at
www.fast50.ie.

Webtrade & Hosting365Hosting 365 is Ireland’s largest hosting provider with over 35% of the market, and operates its own 25,000 square feet, state of the art data centre in Park West, Dublin. Their deal, thought to be worth around €100,000, is for the provision of website hosting solution for Webtrade’s client base. Hosting365’s Hsphere clustered solution will allow Webtrade to create and manage web hosting plans at ease for their customers, with added functionality such as full transparency of usage data per client to enable easy invoicing.

Founded in 1998, Webtrade is one of Ireland’s longest established and highly successful web development companies having developed more than 500 websites for businesses and government agencies.

Commenting on the deal, Gary Cosgrave, Sales Director, Webtrade (pictured right), said, “Hosting365 was chosen giving us confidence that they can accommodate our own technological growth while ensuring our clients receive a service level that’s second to none.”

Kevin O’Connor, Channel Manager, Hosting 365 (pictured right), which was named as Ireland’s seventh fastest growing technology company in the Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 50, commented, “Our dedicated solutions are tailored for customers seeking a flexible, stable and secure hosting solution.  As Ireland’s only Cloud Computing provider, we can provide on demand IT services.  Our cloud hosting solution offers our customers with a fully redundant solution, providing automatic failover of dedicated server solutions at both a physical and virtual level.  This means that their server is constantly available within the Hosting365 cloud server environment. Should an individual data centre encounter issues, services can simply fail over to another available data centre facility within the Hosting365 cloud network.”

“At Hosting365 we are trying to change the way businesses think about IT and how they buy hardware or software applications.  We invest in the very best technology, infrastructure, R&D and technical staff so that our clients can enjoy Ireland’s most sophisticated IT infrastructure with absolute efficiency, flexibility and security.  This enables our customers to concentrate on what’s important to them – growing their business!” O’Connor added.

Apart from the usual web design and web development, search engine optimisation, email and website hosting offerings, Webtrade’s services include online booking and reservation systems, onlinemarketing and their Content Management System, Siternity.

Siternity is based on the Software as a Service model (SaaS) which they claim reduces the lifetime ownership costs of websites by over 50%.  Webtrade’s clients receive a novel warranty that the standard features of their websites are permanently in-step with the latest web technologies, and with regular upgrades, clients are informed as to what the new and improved functionality entails and how it will benefit their on-line presence – making this investment very appealing to the business community.

Discover More About - www.hosting365.ie and www.webtrade.ie