March 4, 2004 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- At the unveiling of EV1Servers' (ev1servers.net) second data center on Wednesday, CEO Robert Marsh reassured customers that EV1's decision to pay The SCO Group a licensing fee for Linux servers will not affect their businesses, and will protect them from potentially having to deal with expensive litigation.
"We believe that this is an important step, so that we can continue our business and our customers can grow their business without fear [of expensive lawsuits]," Marsh said.
On the day of the data center opening, two days after the SCO deal was struck, SCO announced that it had launched its first end-user lawsuit against US car parts dealer Autozone, calling for the company to cease running Linux and pay unspecified damages.
Marsh announced earlier this week that EV1 had purchased UNIX licenses from the SCO Group, which claims that UNIX code found in Linux violates its intellectual property rights. Marsh has already tried to put customers at ease about the decision by posting a notice on the EV1Servers forum, explaining his reasoning. Some of EV1's 42,000 customers, however, are not convinced and have expressed disappointment that by paying the fees, EV1 has potentially helped fund SCO lawsuits.
Recognizing their ongoing concerns, Marsh again addressed the licensing issue during his speech at the grand opening of EV1's second Houston-based data center - a $20-million facility spanning over 48,000 square feet. About 100 of EV1's local customers, and another 30 business partners from across the States, Canada and the UK attended the opening of the state-of-the-art building.
Marsh said the construction of EV1's second data center is the most exciting thing the company has done, but admits it is also the scariest because of the mass investments and resources bundled into one venture. He said he could have created the data center at less cost, but wanted this facility to make a statement about EV1 and the security of its future.
The newest center, comprised of all-Dell units, combined with EV1's original 68,000 square-foot data center furthers EV1's claim to the title of world's largest data center and dedicated server hosting company. As of its launch, the new facility had about 2,000 working servers, but EV1 expects that number to grow to about 34,000 servers by the time the data center is fully operational.
The center is not fully completed, and planning and engineering for the second phase of construction, which will include more room for servers and three additional generators, will begin in March. EV1 is not yet sure how long it will take to complete.
Marsh said EV1 will continue to devote itself to deploying entry-level servers, working with Red Hat Linux and Microsoft platforms. Microsoft account manager Ken Fiore welcomed these comments, agreeing with Marsh that there is room for both platforms.
"Customers want another option. They want something low cost without the licensing hassles," Fiore said. Through EV1, Microsoft is pushing its alternative choice - the Web Edition kit, a "low-cost hosted operating system."
Web Edition is proving to be a success with EV1 clients. In the last month, Fiore said EV1 has sold 900 Microsft servers - a number Fiore hopes will jump to 1,300 by June.
UK-based Web host Joel Moss, of HomepageUniverse (homepageuniverse.com), also attended the data center's grand opening and is confident the new data center will help his business grow. Calling himself a "devoted customer," Moss has 13 EV1Servers and plans to buy more. "This makes me feel secure and gives me a lot more confidence in what they are doing," said Moss, whose company hosts about 1,000 clients. "If they can do all this they should be around for a long time to come, so that is going to be good for my business."
