Dublin-based website traffic analysis player StatCounter has added its 100th server to its infrastructure in an outsourcing deal with IT provider The Planet in a deal valued annually at over US$500,000.
The increase in server capacity reflects Irish-owned StatCounter’s rapid growth. The Planet is the world’s largest privately held dedicated hosting company. StatCounter uses the company’s data centres in both Houston and Dallas, including its high-end private racks.
The number of members to the end of June 2007 grew by 50pc to 1.5 million globally, compared to June last year when membership stood at 900,000.
The company added almost a quarter of a million (242,000) new members in the first half of 2007.
“By outsourcing our server technology we can keep costs down, minimise downtime and devote more resources to our members,” said Aodhan Cullen, CEO and founder, StatCounter.
“We much prefer to invest in R&D and services rather than in boxes. With The Planet’s secure environment, its broad range of products and 24/7 service, we’re able to focus on our business instead of managing a powerful IT infrastructure.”
A recent report by Frost & Sullivan’s Stratecast Partners confirms StatCounter’s experience owning and operating its own IT infrastructure is significantly more expensive. By relying upon The Planet’s hosted IT solutions, companies can reduce costs by more than 75pc over three years.
Another study by BizTechReports.com finds that companies using a hosted IT infrastructure suffer fewer security incidents and technical failures, and are more likely to engage in cutting-edge technologies and e-commerce.
“StatCounter is a great example of the new wave of entrepreneurial internet companies that harness the web to create a global business using hosted IT services,” said The Planet’s vice-president of marketing and product management, Steve Kahan.
“We’ve watched StatCounter’s tremendous trajectory, as they’ve grown from a single server into a significant customer powerhouse. By minimising IT costs and maximising The Planet’s powerful scalability, and world-class network and data centres, StatCounter can focus on what they do best; provide their members with first class web site traffic analysis.”
Aodhan Cullen, who founded StatCounter, was recently named by Businessweek as Young European Entrepreneur of the Year for 2007.
By John Kennedy
