Trellix, a private-label provider of Web site publishing technology and managed hosting services, says it is moving aggressively to become the dominant supplier to small business providers at a time of massive market consolidation.

The Concord-based company Thursday unveiled its new hosting platform and announced that domain name registration service Namezero is the latest customer to outsource their Web publishing and hosting to Trellix.

"Entrepreneurs who create and maintain their own sites are looking for full-featured, easy-to-use Web publishing solutions because they don't have the time, skills or desire to be Webmasters," says Trellix CEO Don Bulens. "In this rapidly evolving market, companies who offer Web services to small businesses can't possibly meet this need themselves. They need a provider like Trellix that can react to market demand and provide them with the very best Web publishing tools and platform customization at a low cost."

According to Trellix and IDC figures, the number of U.S. businesses with fewer than 20 employees that have Web sites will double to nearly 15 million by 2003. Nearly two-thirds of these businesses will build their own Web sites. In addition, Web sites are being created to attract and service new and existing customers, rather than to conduct e-commerce, which only accounts for 20 percent of sites created.

Market figures show that by 2003, $6 billion of the $9 billion small business Web site market will be for a basic Web presence - sites without any type of e-commerce involved.

Trellix's customers include nearly 30 of Media Metrix's top Web properties, including About, BizLand, CNET, McGraw-Hill, Terra Lycos and now Namezero.