Member Spotlight: Hostway

“The Internet’s growth is fueled by competition and innovation by companies that depend on an open and level playing field,” Enright said. “That balance can be undermined or even destroyed at any time by legislation or regulations—net neutrality, for example—written by from well-intentioned, under-informed lawmakers that may have been swayed by large, well-funded interest groups.

 Although many take it for granted—that level playing field can be undermined or even destroyed at any time by legislation or regulations that either restrict the ability to innovate or provide specific competitors with an unfair advantage.

Often times, this legislation comes from well-intentioned lawmakers that either do not understand the framework of the Internet, or have been swayed by large, very well -funded organizations that would stand to benefit from a strategic advantage. One such example is net neutrality: imagine if access providers were able to prioritize their own content of that of our own hosting customers? What if Google decided that Google Fiber customers could only access content hosted in Google data centers? The very existence of the hosting industry as we know it depends on an open and neutral infrastructure.

“This is where i2C comes in. They work to educate legislators on the need for an open Internet  and aggressively work to block any legislation that would be detrimental to that open architecture,” Enright continued. “Hostway is proud to be an active corporate sponsor, and we look forward to working together to keep the Internet a level playing field.”