The main site for Amazon.com was down for several hours on Friday starting at 10:30 PST and lasting over 2 hours. No reason has been given yet for the outage. Though their stock did take a bit of a hit the real pain will be felt as they try to explain how this happened and more importantly why it won’t again.
SSL partner program specialist for web hosting companies, GlobalSign, has reported that it has experienced an extensive increase in its partner membership program for web hosts and ISPs.
With many partners switching from competing SSL reseller programs, the new partners have cited such factors as better margins, strong, feature packed SSL Certificates, and dedicated account management as reasons for joining GlobalSign. As a result, the partner program has started the second quarter of 2008 with hundreds of satisfied new members.
David Caputo, Owner and President, Positronic Design noted, ”As an online services provider, switching to GlobalSign has significantly improved our revenue potential for our SSL line. As SSL has become an essential add-on for web based companies, we now provide a one-stop-shop for web design, service development and security. Customers really understand GlobalSign’s simplified SSL product range, which means we provide SSL Certificates that best fit their needs without requiring time consuming pre-sales efforts on over-complex product offerings.”
The new partners include Positronic Design (a former GeoTrust/VeriSign partner) and CompuLink (a previous GoDaddy partner) – two focused online services companies based in Holyoke, Massachusetts and Portland, Oregon respectively.
Rich Rice, Owner, CompuLink remarked, ”When evaluating an SSL Provider for our customer base, we wanted a credible partner whose primary focus is SSL who can deliver the highest level of browser ubiquity to support mobile devices as well as all popular browsers. GlobalSign has a very clear view of the SSL market and has instructed us very well on how to sell SSL effectively and (increasingly importantly) how to migrate customers from standard domain vetted Certificate types to the next generation Extended Validation SSL Certificates.”
Partners control SSL business through a revolutionary management interface or API. The Partner Certificate Center enables web hosts to quickly, simply and conveniently manage all their customers’ SSL Certificates. GlobalSign’s ”self-service portal” architecture means the reseller can react quickly to their customers, with even basic functions such as Certificate reissues and invoice generation being handled without the need to rely on technical support people.
Other key features of GlobalSign’s Reseller Program include the ability to buy using a Pay-As-You-Go model, with zero commit and high discounts. The ability to sign up and manage sub-resellers makes GlobalSign unique amongst SSL Providers. All new Partners receive a free fully valid one year SSL Certificate.
Steve Waite, Marketing Director for GlobalSign added, ”We’re happy to report that GlobalSign is shaking up a stagnant SSL market dominated by just one or two players. In 2007 we recorded the highest increase in growth rates of all the major SSL Providers and we’re set to be just as disruptive in 2008 with new technologies and initiatives. Plus, with almost 50% of the world’s SSL Certificates residing with North American companies, it’s no surprise that US web hosting companies are taking advantage of the huge opportunity to sell the GlobalSign brand into a market that wants something different.”
Established in 1996 and as a WebTrust accredited public certificate authority, GlobalSign offers publicly trusted SSL, including new Extended Validation SSL Certificates, S/MIME and Code Signing Certificates for use on all Windows platforms including Mobile. The GlobalSign Trusted Root program allows the widely distributed and highly trusted GlobalSign root CA certificates to provide immediate trust for Microsoft CA and other inhouse CA users, thereby eliminating the costs associated with supporting non-trusted root CA certificates within an enterprise. These core GlobalSign solutions allow its thousands of enterprise customers to conduct secure online transactions and data submission, and provide tamper-proof distributable code as well as being able to bind identities to client certificates for email security and remote two factor authentication, such as SSL VPNs. The company has a rich history of innovation within the online security market and operates sales and support offices in the US, UK, Belgium, Japan, and China with services available in a number of European and Asian languages.
GMO Internet Inc. (CEO Masatoshi Kumagai) is headquartered in Tokyo and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, First Section (Code: 9449). Its Internet based business areas include Internet infrastructure and media.
To learn more about the GlobalSign Partner Program, please visit: www.globalsign.com/partners.
