The .cloud top-level domain extension, is now finally available to the general public on a first-come-first-served basis. Businesses and individuals will now have the opportunity to adopt the new domain extension – an alternative to the likes of ‘.com’ ‘.uk’ or ‘.io’ – to better communicate their online brands.
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The level of interest for this new extension has been strong already in the early phases of the launch.
Over the past few weeks leading international cloud players such as Weebly, ePages and Odin released dedicated portals for their cloud offering as part of the .cloud’s Pioneer Program that launched in October 2015.
Innovative start-ups have also jumped at the opportunity to better position themselves in the industry. From emerging cloud service providers such asClouDesire, to social enterprises such as Food.Cloud and FashionCloud, an innovative exchange of digital content for the fashion industry, newer ventures are ensuring that they have a distinct brand online.
Iseult Ward, co-founder of FoodCloud and an early adopter of .cloud said: “.cloud synced perfectly with our company name and brand. By using .cloud we can clearly explain to the public and our key audiences what we do and how our app and web-based business is powered by the cloud.”
FoodCloud was started in Dublin in 2013 and in two years has grown to work with businesses and charities across the 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland and four cities across the UK, moving over 10 tonnes of food a week. The new domain is set to support growth plans as FoodCloud expands over the next year to offer its food redistribution solution to more and more communities, with the end goal of having a world where no good food goes to waste.
The .cloud’s commercial launch got underway in mid-November, with the Sunrise phase ranked among the top ten launches of new domain extensions since 2013 (based on registration requests). The following Priority Registration phase saw incredible interest with more than 2000 orders and close to 200 domain names receiving multiple requests which will now be assigned through auctions.
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A global technology company already profiting from a .cloud web identity is leading online shop software provider ePages, which launched its epages.cloud partner portal as a .cloud pioneer.
Richard Stevenson, Head of Corporate Communications for ePages, said, “ePages’ mission is to deliver best in breed e-commerce cloud services, and the values of cloud are within our DNA. Our portal explores how merchants’ success is driven every day by the power, resilience and efficiencies of cloud-based software-as-a-service – no other TLD could have captured this better, or delivered more engagement”.
“Becoming a pioneer for .cloud was a logical and pleasing step in our corporate story, and of course an exciting one – the nTLD is among the most innovative and eagerly anticipated.
Epages.cloud is a resource for any provider, reseller or developer wishing to benefit from the selling of e-commerce to the SMB and web professional markets. Our .cloud domain is the perfect web address to correctly position ePages to its partners, to communicate modernity and availability and affirm the integral role that cloud technology plays in delivering excellent online services.
Our .cloud web identity has been a crucial element in securing the traffic and engagement we’ve won with the portal so far. Our industry audience, often senior execs and web professionals, are innovators themselves and expect us to be as smart, fast moving and ambitious as they are – our .cloud domain is the right emblem to reflect that”.[/quote_box_center]
A network of over 70 Registrars worldwide is now ready to accept orders for new .cloud registrations. These include leading providers like GoDaddy, 1&1, Name.com, Gandi, Domain.com and OVH.
Francesco Cetraro, Head of Registry Operations at .cloud added: “Today marks an important day for everyone who has been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to own and use a .cloud domain. We have been thrilled with the response to date: first with the wide level of interest in our Pioneer program, which turned out to be one of the best subscribed to date. The Priority phases were also very well subscribed, showing there is a clear interest among companies and individuals to get access to a modern domain extension that helps them better reflect their business capabilities and position their brands in a unique and powerful way.”
Stefano Maruzzi, VP EMEA at GoDaddy, said: “cloud computing has quickly emerged as a key driver of innovation and its importance as backbone of the digital economy is only going to grow in the coming years. IDC estimates that total spend on cloud IT infrastructure worldwide reached 32.6 billion dollars at the end of 2015. In this context, the .cloud extensions represents an attractive and relevant opportunity for creative people and businesses of all sizes. As a leading provider of complete solutions to SMBs worldwide, GoDaddy is extremely pleased to be able to be one of the first providers to share the opportunity offered by .cloud with its customers around the world.”
To find out more about getting a .cloud domain visit: https://www.get.cloud/home.aspx
