The Planet Internet Services

Infobox_Company
company_name = The Planet
foundation = 1998 | company_type = Private
location = 315 Capitol Avenue, Suite 205, Houston , Texas 77002
key_people = Douglas J. Erwin Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
industry = Hosting
products = Dedicated Hosting, Managed Services
homepage = http://www.theplanet.com
slogan =

The Planet is the world's largest privately held dedicated server company [cite web
title = The Planet Offers Enterprise-Level Performance and Storage for SMBs with New Server Launch
url =http://www.webhostgear.com/index.php?art/id:408 ] . In May 2006, the company merged with Everyones Internet, which previously ran the EV1servers brand. Now all services provided by both companies have moved to The Planet. The combined operation has over 22,000 customers and host over 2.8 million websites. [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Planet Launches New Web Site
work =
publisher = WebHostGear
date = January 18, 2007
url =http://www.webhostgear.com/index.php?art/id:394
format =
doi =
accessdate = ]

The Planet's support system is called Orbit and is located at "orbit.theplanet.com". Prior to the completed merger, The Planet operated under several different brands. They include: "Server Matrix", which served the low-price end of the market; "Total Control", which featured servers with complete remote control, such as DRAC and Remote Console capabilities; "Insomnia365", The Planet's gaming division, which features The Planet's proprietary game server control panel, "Cortex".

Orbit was the main way customers knew they were dealing with The Planet as a company rather than with one of the different brands they operated. The Planet now sells servers almost exclusively through their website rather than different brands which had been unified into their website.

May 2008 Fire

At approximately 6:30pm (CDT) on 31 May 2008, an electrical transformer in the equipment room at the "H1" data center in Houston short circuited, causing a fire and explosion which resulted in extensive damage to the equipment room. All remaining power to the facility was shut down on orders from the local fire department. The incident resulted in approximately 9,000 servers being taken off line. Most of the 7,500 affected customers services were restored by 2 June 2008, however servers located in the ground level "Phase One" of the datacenter were not brought online until 5 June 2008. There has been severe damage to some customers' hard drives as a result of the power loss in the H1 data center.

References