EIM promotion tempts customers to host in UAE

Companies or individuals who apply for the service between now and 12 November 2003 will save up to Dhs1,390, depending on the solution they choose, and be able to host their site free of charge for two months. All applicants taking part in the promotion will also receive free registration to the '.ae' domain name for one year, giving them a local presence and identity online. Once the two-month free promotion is complete, customers who apply for the service to be stopped will be under no obligation to continue with the agreement.

A major draw of hosting in the UAE is the tax breaks that can be received. Companies hosting their web sites in the EU or US are subject to pay VAT tax of between 15% (Luxembourg) and 25% (Denmark), depending on the rate of VAT of the specific country. The UAE, however, does not impose such taxes.

"Many companies throughout the region have traditionally hosted overseas, in countries including the US or Europe," commented Maroua Naim, General Manager, EIM. "Besides the obvious problems this creates due to time and physical boundaries that hamper effective technical support, the additional VAT charges of hosting abroad are also becoming a concern. Throughout 2003 the number of customers hosting with EIM has risen by over 30%, from 5,000 to over 6,500. We are confident that by offering a two month free promotion, many more companies and individuals will realize the inherent benefits of hosting locally, and choose to remain with EIM Web Hosting."

Another central draw to companies hosting in the region is the speed at which local customers can access the sites. If a local user is accessing a site hosted overseas, the time used to access that site is greatly increased because they need to connect via the global Internet. When the site is hosted within the UAE, however, the user can connect directly to the local server.

All four of EIM's hosting solutions have been included in the two-month free promotion: The Starter package, the Economy package, the Advanced package and, finally, the Ultra package (details at www.eim.ae/webhosting).

For simple web sites, the Starter and Economy package provides technology to host static web pages that provide information in a catalogue format. Ideal for individuals or smaller companies, the Starter package provides five e-mail accounts and 20MB of storage space, which can host more than 500 web pages. The Economy package, meanwhile, gives 150MB of storage and 15 e-mail accounts.

For the larger enterprises, the Advanced and Ultra solutions provide technology to host complex, dynamic web sites. These top-of-the-range hosting packages integrate an array of technologies, from Flash Generator to MySQL and support for Application Service Provider (ASP) from ChilliSoft. The Advanced package offers 300MB of storage space and 25 e-mail accounts, whilst the Ultra solution includes 500MB and 35 e-mail accounts. For all the packages, however, the storage space and number of e-mails can be increased to meet the specific requirements of each customer.

"With the UAE widely recognized as having the most advanced Internet infrastructure in the Middle East, many companies are beginning to move their IT outsourcing requirements into the local market," added Naim. "The Etisalat Data Centre is second to none in terms of technology and security capabilities and the availability we offer against any downtime is amongst the highest in the world. "