GlobalSign® Press Release

Webfusion extends SSL partnership with GlobalSign

After 18 successful months of bundling SSL and rising to be one of the largest hosters of secure sites in the UK, Webfusion extends partner contract with GlobalSign for a further three years

Leuven, BE – 16 November, 2010 – GMO GlobalSign Ltd. (www.globalsign.eu), one of the longest established specialists in SSL Partner Programs for hosting companies, today announced that its Platinum Partner, leading hosting company Webfusion (www.webfusion.co.uk), has extended its partnership with GlobalSign for a further period of three years. The extended partnership will enable Webfusion to continue to provide its customer base with GlobalSign’s highly trusted and secure 2048bit SSL technology to allow secure ecommerce.

As one of the UK’s largest hosting providers, Webfusion decided to include SSL Certificates within its hosting packages as well as offering them as a standalone product, after joining GlobalSign’s Partner Program in March 2009. To date Webfusion and its customers alike have reaped the benefits of Webfusion adding SSL Certificates into its portfolio. Webfusion has become a top ten hoster of SSL secure sites within the UK hosting market, whilst their customers have benefited from fully securing their websites and online transactions in the knowledge that they are using a highly trusted and well established SSL provider and Certification Authority.

With the continuation of this successful partnership, Webfusion has clearly demonstrated its commitment to bringing SSL and other security solutions to its extensive customer base. International expansion being at the forefront of Webfusions’ growth plans – having launched in the US and Spain and with other territories planned- Webfusion is truly committed to becoming a global hosting provider.

"It is vitally important to us that we partner with the most credible and forward thinking vendors for every third party service we offer. Since the start of our relationship we’ve been able to pass on the value of the GlobalSign brand as well as the strong security its products offer," says Thomas Vollrath, CEO, Webfusion. "Our partnership has many co-marketing initiatives and development plans in place, with on-going industry leading improvements in certificate issuance workflows, as well as continued education to our customers about online security threats - leading to a customer experience both our companies can be proud of."

Talking about the new Website Passport solution, Paul Tourret, Managing Director, GlobalSign said "A website owner has about five seconds to establish trust if they want to minimise abandonment. GlobalSign’s Website Passport technology is an exciting new development that allows website owners to instantly gain credibility. From a website owners’ perspective it is a convenient way to display easy to understand, highly standardised website and company information on all web pages using minimal space. Furthermore the GlobalSign Passport delivers an App based web service platform that allows us to offer an unlimited marketplace of third party services to further enhance trust. Website owners can then customise their Passport and choose services that will best appeal to their particular customer base."

GlobalSign SSL Certificates are currently available from Webfusion at www.webfusion.co.uk, www.123-reg.co.uk, and www.donhost.co.uk. For information on GlobalSign’s partner program, please visit www.globalsign.eu/partners.

About Webfusion
Webfusion Ltd is one of the UK’s leading web hosting groups with 1.4 million hosted websites and 2.5 million registered domains.

Ranked 28th in 2010’s Sunday Times Deloitte Buyout Track 100, Webfusion offers cost-effective, feature-rich hosting packages for a diverse customer-base – from web developers, designers and hobbyists to businesses with complex e-commerce operations. Winner of 2009’s SYB Award for Best Small Business Web Hosting Provider and 2010’s SYB Award for Best Small Business Service Provider, Webfusion’s customers benefit from market-leading security and service including: 24×7 technical support, robust Firewall server protection, one click installation, access to FTP accounts and a state-of-the-art data centre. In April 2010 Webfusion was voted fourth in the Top 10 Hosting Providers in the UK.

The Webfusion group also consists of www.123-reg.co.uk, www.donhost.co.uk www.supanames.co.uk For more information, please visit www.corporate.webfusion.co.uk

Follow Webfusion on Twitter – http://twitter.com/webfusionUK

About GlobalSign
Established in 1996 and as a WebTrust accredited public certificate authority, GlobalSign offers publicly trusted SSL Certificates, EV SSL, Managed SSL Services, S/MIME email security and Code Signing for use on all platforms including mobile devices. Its Trusted Root solution uses the widely embedded GlobalSign Root CA certificates to provide immediate PKI trust for Microsoft Certificate Services and internal PKI, eliminating the costs of using untrusted Root Certificates. Its partnership with Adobe to provide Certified Document Services (CDS) enables secure digitally signed PDF documents, certified transcripts and e-invoices.  These core Digital Certificate solutions allow its thousands of authenticated customers to conduct secure online transactions, data transfer, distribution of tamper-proof code, and protection of online identities for secure email and access control.  The company has a history of innovation within the online security industry and has offices in the US, UK, Belgium, Japan, and China.

GMO Internet Group
GMO Internet Group is a leading force in the Internet industry offering one of the most comprehensive ranges of Internet services worldwide. The group is the top provider of domain registration, web hosting, ecommerce, and payment processing solutions in Japan and operates a host of other Internet services including global online security services, search engine marketing and online securities trading. At the center of the group is GMO Internet, Inc. (TSE: 9449) headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Please visit www.gmo.jp/en for further details.

For further details please contact:

Steve Waite
GlobalSign
+32 16 891900 / +44 1622 766766
press@globalsign.com