Jonathan Brealey and Tim Beresford have been significant players in the UK's web hosting and domain name registration market for over ten years.

Starting in 1997 they realised that even though the Internet was becoming increasingly popular, web hosting services were predominantly technical in nature. This meant that customers needed a good level of technical expertise to manage their accounts, often including UNIX skills. Jonathan and Tim set out to change this.

At the end of 1997 they launched WebFusion and offered a range of Business, Home and Reseller web hosting packages. WebFusion products were easy-to-use, yet still had many of the features that Webmasters were starting to demand.

WebFusion grew at a fast pace, with a never-ending array of new products and features, including the "Virtual Control Panel", which was first released in August 1998. The Virtual Control Panel was the first automated control panel to be offered by any UK web hosting company, allowing the user to manage their account online via the Web.

In March 1999 Dedicated Servers was launched and was the first UK company to provide dedicated servers for SMEs. It was soon one of Cobalt's (now part of Sun Microsystems) largest customers due to sales of the Cobalt RaQ web hosting server, second only to AT&T. By the end of January 2000 they employed over 30 staff and had annual turnover of over two million pounds, with a net profit in excess of five hundred thousand pounds.

They had also created a purpose-built web hosting data centre with features such as fire suppression, backup generator, uninterruptible power supplies, raised floor, air conditioning, multiple fibre links to the Internet and more.

In May 2000 they sold WebFusion to Host Europe PLC, a web hosting company listed on the Alternative Investment Market, part of the London Stock Exchange. Jonathan became Group Managing Director and Tim was Chief Technology Officer.

After the acquisition, initially WebFusion operated as a separate autonomous company to Host Europe and it was in this time that Jonathan and Tim developed 123-reg, a low-cost domain name registration system that is now the UK's largest domain name registration company.

In March 2003 Jonathan and Tim left Host Europe. In the time that they were there sales grew to 14 million pounds per year; domains under management to 435,000; and there were 75,000 shared hosting accounts, 4200 dedicated servers and over 90,000 customers.

Not content with past success they have now launched Heart Internet, a new web hosting and domain name registration business. Heart Internet's core beliefs include:

• Low prices
• Highly automated systems
• Giving our customers control
• Powerful products
• Small teams of high quality employees

Heart Internet is continuing with the Innovative approach to web hosting that Jonathan and Tim have always pioneered. Two new innovations are available at the launch of Heart Internet:

Free Web Hosting

No charges - ever! Get a fully featured, no limits web hosting solution and pay nothing - ever! We don't run adverts on your site and you can use it for commercial use. This is a first in the web hosting industry.

The UK's Best Reseller Package

The level of flexibility in the way that you can work is unlike anything any other hosting company offers. Unlike with any other hosting company, with Heart Internet domains and hosting are separate entities, like a pick-and-mix arrangement. We provide you with a control panel that allows you to allocate domains to any account at any time and change them at any point. You can configure the packages you want to offer your customers and can edit those individually at any time, without affecting your other users.

First Time Around

Jonathan and Tim pioneered some of the web hosting concepts that are now part of the everyday UK market. These include:

• The Reseller Package - in 1998 when this was launched other hosting companies simply offered percentage discounts for multiple orders.
• The Web Hosting Control Panel - 1998 saw the launch of the Hosting Control Panel to the web hosting market. Jonathan and Tim coined the phrase "The Virtual Control Panel", and now this technology is used all over the world.
• Dedicated Servers for SMEs - in 1999 only technology companies such as IBM and BT provided dedicated servers, often with huge price tags. Jonathan and Tim brought them to UK SMEs for under £100 a month.

Jonathan and Tim continue to push the boundries of web hosting. Not only in terms of price but also quality of service and product enhancment. For more information on Heart Internet:-

• Heart Internet Main Website
• Our Blog
• Latest News

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