UK2 Group
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THG Ingenuity Cloud Services, formerly UK2 Group, is a global provider of internet services. It forms part of THG Ingenuity, an e-commerce services platform. Its services include
web hosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web h ...
,
virtual private server A virtual private server (VPS) is a virtual machine sold as a service by an Internet hosting service. The virtual dedicated server (VDS) also has a similar meaning. A virtual private server runs its own copy of an operating system (OS), and cus ...
s,
domain name registration A domain name registry is a database of all domain names and the associated registrant information in the top level domains of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet that enables third party entities to request administrative control of a do ...
, management,
dedicated servers A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone else. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have f ...
and a
content delivery network A content delivery network, or content distribution network (CDN), is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. The goal is to provide high availability and performance by distributing the service spatially re ...
.


History


1998–2010

The group's first brand, UK2.Net, was launched in the UK by Danish entrepreneur Bo Bendtsen in October 1998 as a low-cost, no-frills provider of Internet domain names. By 2000, it had become the UK's largest web hosting company, with an estimated 435,000 customers. Bendtsen retired from the company in 2002 but maintained a controlling stake. Following his departure, the company struggled to maintain its market position under chief executive Erik Anderson. Over the next three years, its customer base shrank by around 50%. In 2006 Anderson stepped down, and the group appointed Ditlev Bredahl as chief executive. The next three years were marked by a series of strategic acquisitions, within and outside the UK. In 2006, UK2 Group acquired UK domain name business Another.com. In 2007, it purchased the reseller business of US web hosting company Stargate, which it integrated and rebranded as Resell.biz. It also acquired Stargate's shared hosting business, which was integrated and rebranded as US2.net. In 2007 it also purchased US shared hosting and VPS provider midPhase Services, including the company's ANHosting.com and Autica.com brands. In 2008, it acquired
ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...
-accredited domain registrar Naming Web, and US-based web-hosting brand WingSix from ServerCentral. It also acquired Australian community-focused web-hosting provider Dotable, US-based shared and dedicated hosting provider WestHost, including its data center in Salt Lake City, Utah, and UK-based dedicated and managed hosting company Virtual Internet. That year, it also created the 10TB.com brand, partnering with cloud provider
SoftLayer Technologies IBM Cloud, (formerly known as Bluemix) is a set of cloud computing services for business offered by the information technology company IBM. Services As of 2021, IBM Cloud contains more than 170 services including compute, storage, networki ...
to offer a global, high-bandwidth dedicated web-hosting service. As SoftLayer's network capacity expanded, UK2 upgraded the service and in March 2010 relaunched it as 100TB.com to reflect the increased bandwidth. By 2009, the group had successfully rebuilt its market reputation and returned to financial health. Staff numbers had grown from 30 to more than 200. In February that year, it was ranked the second-most reliable hosting company in the world by hosting market analyst Netcraft. UK2 Group continued to tighten operations in the wake of the
Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...
and, in May 2009, the company closed its overseas call centres, eliminating around 40 jobs in India and 35 in the Ukraine in favour of a smaller support team. At the same time, the group streamlined its executive management team. In 2010, the group launched another new brand, VPS.Net, to cater for the anticipated growth in demand for virtual private servers.


2011–2016

In April 2011,
Lloyds Development Capital Lloyds Development Capital (Holdings) Limited (LDC), is a mid-market private equity house and subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group, established in 1981 as Lloyds Development Capital Limited. From 1999 to 2011, it was known as Lloyds TSB Developme ...
(LDC) - a subsidiary of
Lloyds Banking Group Lloyds Banking Group is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds Bank w ...
- acquired a majority stake in UK2 Group for £47 million (about US$77 million), as part of a management buyout. At this time Bredahl departed, to become CEO of another LDC-backed business, OnApp, and Phil Male, previously chief strategy officer at Cable and Wireless, joined as the new CEO. In 2011, the group announced the launch of HostPuru - a hosting brand targeting the Latin American market and in 2012 it announced it was launching a
virtual private network A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. The be ...
service, VPNHQ. Current list of brands in 2018 with reviews on each one is maintained on whtop.com. The group has expanded into new markets such as Latin America, and introduced a series of new brands and services in a bid to meet the growing demand for hosting and cloud computing services among business and individuals. By 2011, the group was ranked 45 on the list fastest-growing private technology companies in Britain, but in 2012, number 53.


2017–Present

In May 2017, the company was acquired by
THG plc THG plc, formerly The Hut Group, is a British e-commerce retail company headquartered at Manchester Airport, England. It sells own-brand and third-party cosmetics, dietary supplements, luxury goods, and licensed and personalised products onlin ...
for £58 million. It was rebranded as THG Ingenuity Cloud Services and forms the cloud services arm of THG Ingenuity, an e-commerce platform.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uk2 THG (company) Internet properties established in 1998 Domain name registrars Web hosting Cloud computing providers Cloud infrastructure Cloud platforms Cloud storage