Woe Daddy!
Internet hosting giant GoDaddy, which has provided Web services to about 50 million businesses and is widely known through its commercials featuring race car driver Danica Patrick, yesterday reported widespread outages for its clients but disclosed few details about the problem.
A hacker who claimed to be associated with the group Anonymous claimed responsibility for the outages — but the group later denied it was involved.
While it could not be determined how many of the millions of companies that pay a monthly fee for GoDaddy’s Web-hosting services were affected by the outage, it was clear it was widespread.
One New York City businesswoman said the glitch threw her company, Only Nine Apparel, into chaos.
“It’s mayhem,” said Jamie Gorman, CEO and president of Only Nine. “Clearly, no business is going on today, because everything is through the GoDaddy server.”
It couldn’t have come at a worse time for Gorman. It is Fashion Week, which also means marketing week for clothing companies like hers.
It was impossible for her to fill orders or e-mail her staff across the country, and it was a familiar story for all the businesses who vented their anger on Twitter and other social media.
However, by 4 p.m., Gorman said e-mails started trickling in and at least some of her business was coming back. By evening, GoDaddy claimed that most business was restored.
It wasn’t the first time GoDaddy — known to detractors as No Daddy — has faced mass criticism.
During the debate over the Stop Online Piracy Act before Congress last year, GoDaddy was vilified for initially supporting the bill before changing its stance.
The service saw a steady exodus of business after the its highly unpopular stance prompted protests.
Businesses pay a monthly fee for GoDaddy’s services that power their websites, e-commerce activities, e-mail and other crucial activities.
Rob Holmes, a security expert with IPcybercrime, said yesterday that whether or not GoDaddy was hacked, the outage showed the dangers of shared Web hosting services.