C I Host Celebrates Nine Year Mark
In a highly competitive Web hosting market in which start-ups rise and fall on a weekly basis, achieving exceptional customer service often takes a back seat to offering the lowest price point.

This is part of why C I Host ( cihost.com ) takes pride in celebrating nine years of continued growth and expansion as a Web hosting provider.

In just under a decade, the Dallas, Texas-based Web host has built a client base of more than 250,000 customers in 182 countries, maintained a healthy financial status and continues to offer a diverse range of value-added products and services.

C I Host CEO Christopher Faulkner attributes this success primarily to the company's ability to maintain its financial independence.

"If you look at what we've accomplished, we've done so without any investors, bank lines or credits - it's all paid for in cash, so our company is 100 percent organically grown," says Faulkner. "Everything was bought and paid for in cash and is wholly-owned and controlled by C I Host.

In addition to its wholly-owned data centers in Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago and Newark, C I Host has also invested in a robust and redundant network, which is one of the largest privately owned fiber-optic cable networks in the world.

Coupled with its four data centers, the network enables C I Host to provide customers with geographic load balancing.

C I Host hopes to extend its reach into Europe later this year when it opens its first London facility.

"We kind of waited just a little bit because we opened up our New Jersey facility," says Faulkner. "London is set to open towards the end of this year, followed by the announcement of partnerships with some Chinese operators to sell our services in China under our brand or private label."

In addition to achieving financial independence, C I Host also insists on maintaining full control over all sectors of its business, particularly customer support. The Web host chooses not to outsource its technical support to other companies.

"We maintain a 24-hour operation, and maintain all of that here in Dallas, Texas so we can control the service level as needed," says Faulkner. "I don't believe in outsourcing the most important function of the company to somebody in India who is 6,000 miles away."

Over the past year, C I Host has developed a number of new products including an anti-scam toolbar and other strategies to protect Internet users from Internet crime, and launched a Web-based technology to help musicians promote their music, as well as help nonprofit arts organizations to raise funds to help out victims of national disasters.

The company's imaginative, and sometimes outrageous, marketing campaigns have caught the attention of international media and prospective customers.

Its publicity stunts have included placing the C I Host logo on former-heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield's boxing trunks, sending a contest winner to the edge of space in a jet, and creating the first "human billboard" by tattooing its logo on the back of a man's head.

The unorthodox approach seems to be working, having brought the company plenty of new customers. In the first six months of the first human billboard campaign, some 500 new customers signed up with C I Host.