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Web Hosting Firm Meshes Linux and ASP.NET
Firm caters to ASP.NET and Linux stacks sans parsing or code transformations.
Netfirms Inc., a Canada-based Web hosting company catering to small and midsized businesses, recently launched a solution that caters to customers who want to develop sites based both on ASP.NET and the Linux stack.
The service lets developers use Web programming frameworks from either platform simultaneously on one site.
Netfirms' approach doesn't involve any sort of parsing or code transformations. It works by executing .NET-based Web apps natively on a Windows clustered server grid, and open source programs -- such as those developed with Python and Ruby on Rails -- on a Linux grid.
Users can manage both platforms through one FTP account, SSH account or control panel. On the back-end, Netfirms' technology directs HTTP requests to the correct cluster of servers.
Netfirms Product Manager Jason Matheson says the new service is in response to customer demand. "Over the past couple of years we've gotten more and more requests from our customers to offer the ASP.NET framework," he says. "We could have launched a Windows-only hosting platform, but we thought the best way to do it was this."
Netfirms offers support for ASP, ASP.NET 1.0 and ASP 2.0, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, MySQL and major Linux scripting languages, among other features. The cost of the service starts at $14.95 per month, with enterprise-level service starting at $49.95 per month. Netfirms hosts 1.2 million Web sites, according to its Web site.
About the Author
Chris Kanaracus is the news editor for Redmond Developer News.