Pasadena, California - (Website Hosting Directory) - November 2, 2006 - ASP.NET and SQL hosting firm, DiscountASP.NET, has launched an Open Control Panel Initiative, with a beta control panel web service API, designed to enable development of customer's applications that interact with individual hosting account management systems.

The goal of the Open Control Panel Initiative is to offer an open hosting system framework which provides customers with maximum control over their hosting presence management. To support this initiative, DiscountASP.NET introduces the control panel API, a standards-based ASP.NET web service API library which customers can use to develop their own web, desktop, or mobile applications that interface directly with their web hosting account. In this Phase I API beta launch, DiscountASP.NET expose methods to display news and resource usage, view and modify email settings, and manage some aspects of Internet Information Services (IIS), such as recycling the application pool.

Takeshi Eto, VP Marketing commented, ''We believe the Open Control Panel Initiative and our control panel API represent a major step toward a next-generation hosting experience. Our customers can move beyond accepting hosting management using a host-defined web-based control panel. Customers now have a choice to use the control panel as a hosted application product or manage their hosting presence through web services and customized user-driven solutions.''

DiscountASP.NET customers activate access to the API through their control panel and are assigned a unique Authentication Key. A Sandbox Key is also provided so that customers can test their applications without the risk of making changes to their hosting account.

The download includes the binary executable as well as the complete source code. Customers are free to extend these applications. For example, the Usage Alert Tool is a systray application that allows customers to specify their hosting account and set thresholds for various hosting resources such as bandwidth, disk space, email storage space, and SQL database disk space. The tool displays an alert when the hosting account reaches any of the thresholds. With this tool, the customer no longer has to log into the web-based control panel to review their hosting account resource usage.

Mr. Eto continued, ''Our guiding principle has always been to offer cutting edge ASP.NET technology and provide customers with increased flexibility and control. This API launch delivers on these promises and demonstrates our commitment to innovation.''

DiscountASP.NET is an award-winning provider of Microsoft Windows-based shared hosting, focused on providing the best value in ASP.NET web hosting and SQL database hosting. DiscountASP.NET is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and featured ASP.NET Host in the Microsoft ASP.NET Hosting Advantage Program. The DiscountASP.NET web hosting plan includes instant activation, access to custom-built ASP.NET-powered control panels, web hosting on secure and reliable ASP.NET platforms where each website is hosted in its own isolated application pool, and access to many free ASP and ASP.NET components.

To learn more about the control panel API, please visit: http://community.discountasp.net.

For more information about DiscountASP.NET, please visit: www.discountasp.net.