Adds gigabit speed & VPN services for the benefit of virtual rack customers.

The Planet, a privately held dedicated hosting company, today announced the addition of Gigabit speed and Virtual Private Network (VPN) services to its virtual private rack solution. The company states that these upgrades offer the benefits of enhanced network performance and increased functionality for virtual racks.

It adds that the upgrade to 1Gbps network connectivity allows customers to transfer data faster between servers both within their virtual rack environment and to other servers on the Internet. As a result, customers can host higher-scale, more complex environments and offer more bandwidth-intensive services such as streaming media. The cost for Gigabit Network Uplinks is $10 per month per server, it says.

The company explains that it is also adding VPN services to all customers with dedicated firewalls in their virtual rack environment. This value-added service offers customers remote access to their network and greater security. Customers can choose between site-to-site IPSEC VPN or Cisco AnyConnect VPN for individual end-users.

"We introduced virtual racks to provide a cost-effective, automated solution for large and small complex hosting environments," said Urvish Vashi, The Planet's director of product management. "By adding these upgrades, we're able to better meet the needs of one of our fastest-growing customer segments."