Media Coverage

2008-04-04
PEER 1 Nabs Four Tellys

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By Rob Lewis, Techvibes Blog

I just heard from PEER 1 that they will be picking up four Telly Awards this June for two of their videos - episode one of Growing Pains and their Customer Profile on Plentyoffish. The Tellys honor the very best in local, regional, and cable television and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, and work created for the web. There were over 14,000 entries submitted in various categories this year from 50 states and 5 continents.

Episode 2 & 3 of Growing Pains will be released on May 1st along with the launch of PEER 1’s new $10,000 Grand Prize Giveaway.To enter the contest, they’re asking people to upload a short film describing their web hosting growing pains, funny situations in running their online business and/or difficulties in getting their start-up off the ground. Videos will be judged on creativity and originality. The winner will receive a $10,000 and their video will be used in future PEER 1 online advertising. Not bad.

On a side note, PEER 1 continues to step up their marketing efforts with the Headline Sponsorship of GigaOM’s Structure 08 event on June 25th, 2008 in San Francisco. Nice work Rajan.

2008-02-19
PEER 1 Q2FY08; No Longer Transitioning, Positioned for Growth

By Philbert Shih, TIER 1 Research

PEER 1, a dedicated hosting and colocation provider, reported its Q2FY08 results, which showed yet more progress on both the top and bottom lines. Top-line revenue growth continued across both the colocation and dedicated/managed hosting segments, while bottom-line gains are now a regular occurrence. It has been quite a ride for Peer 1 over the last few years. Peer 1 took over the loss-making dedicated hosting assets of Interland and undertook the formidable task of integrating that with Rackspace's ServerBeach business and its legacy colocation business – businesses that straddled both sides of the 49th parallel.

PEER 1 now positioned for growth
PEER 1 has proved convincingly that it is no longer in this transition/integration phase. The financial picture is healthy and continues to improve, while the new organization and operations structure is now in place, along with a consolidated executive management team. PEER 1's next step will be to evolve its hosting business, which T1R has classified as mostly standard dedicated, but already has a large base of customers that are buying managed services. The company is also aggressively building added value around its hosting offerings with things like storage and developer sandboxes for software-as-a-service companies.

The timing for PEER 1 could not be better. The SMB/small enterprise managed and dedicated hosting space is a segment that several hosters are trying to jump into. Rackspace is here and The Planet and Verio have identified this as a key focus. Meanwhile, up and comers like SoftLayer and Layered Technologies straddle this ground and Hostway of late looks like it might want to jump into this game as well. PEER 1 has settled in nicely and has positioned itself well to take on these rivals.

Financial details
Revenues for the quarter came in at $22.22m, which was up 6% Q/Q from $20.95m, and up 23% Y/Y from $18.06m. After some up-and-down quarters in the early part of calendar year 2006, PEER 1 has shown steady top-line revenue growth. In the previous four quarters preceding the current quarter, PEER 1 has generated revenues of $18.06m, $18.75m, $19.82m and $20.95m. A small part of this growth can be attributed to the growth in the Canadian dollar. However, this applies almost entirely to the co-location and bandwidth segments, which are focused exclusively on the Canadian market (PEER 1's original roots). For the recent quarter, the rise in the Canadian dollar accounted for a $0.82m increase.

The dedicated hosting business is, however, largely unaffected by the rise in the Canadian dollar and has shown strong Q/Q growth. In the last four quarters, top-line dedicated hosting revenues have jumped from $13.41m to $14.03m to $14.63m and $15.21m. The last two Q/Q gains were 4.2% and 3.9%.

The revenue mix for the quarter was 68% dedicated hosting ($15.21m), 15% co-location ($3.25m), 12% bandwidth ($2.54m) and 4% services ($1.21m). In terms of segment growth, co-location, bandwidth and services brought in a combined $7.0m in revenues, which was up 37.5% on a Y/Y basis from $5.09m. Dedicated hosting for the quarter was $15.21m, up 17.3% Y/Y from $12.96m.

Cash flow from operations was $3.72m, up Y/Y from $3.55m. Peer 1 finished the quarter with $7m in cash and a reduced debt load of $17.7m.

Moving to the bottom line, cost of sales was $12.09m, for a gross profit of $10.12m (and a gross margin of 45.5%), minus $6.21m in operating expenses (detailed below), translated to $3.90m in operating income and $1.88 in net income. Net income was up 51% Q/Q from $1.24m and up 123% Y/Y from $0.84m.

Operating expenses for the quarter came in at $6.22m, up from $4.81m on a Y/Y basis. Overall, opex was still relatively steady, comprising 28% of revenue, compared with 27% a year ago. Using a six-month comparison, PEER 1 opex for the last two quarters was 29% of revenue, up Y/Y from 27%. A $2.9m network upgrade, however, played a part in the uptick here.

2008-01-29
We Get IT - Great Branding?

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By Dave Young, Young Copy

Great branding comes along every once and a while, and is even more rare in the hosting industry. However, there are several major players who know how to take a hosting brand to the next level. Meet Peer1, a server colocation and managed hosting solutions provider. They nailed it with their new "We Get IT" slogan. Rarely do you see a hosting company with such a powerful tag line. And since they are in the Information Technology (IT) sector, playing off "IT" and "it" just makes sense. I wanted to learn more about who's behind the slogan. Who came up with this well-positioned slogan? Was it an outside source or an internal source? Finding out was easy. And well worth it.

Typically the first place I look is in the marketing department. After visiting Peer1's Management Team page, I immediately found Rajan Sodhi, VP of Marketing/Communications for the company. Under Rajan's profile he has a link to his blog. I figured he would discuss the "We Get IT" slogan there and quickly found out I was right. Rajan's Big marketing for small business shed new light on the subject. I had to scroll down a bit to find the exact post, but the We Get IT post not only shed some light on the slogan, but opened many new things to discuss including video marketing, viral marketing, contest marketing, and so much more.

More on video, viral, and contest marketing in future blog posts. Back to the Peer1 slogan. Rajan and his team have a clear vision of what they do, or want to do, for their customers. Personally, I think the slogan is brilliant. What I would really like to know is how long they spent coming up with the slogan and the process(es) they took to reach that point. Did they define their target market? Did they profile their ideal customer? Did they have to segment their audience? What or who sparked the creativity? And the biggest, and most important question of them all, has the new slogan helped increase sales?

Hopefully soon I can get an interview with Rajan and find out more details. Most marketing executives are really passionate about their achievements so I'm sure Rajan will be more than enthusiastic to share some insight on the success of the new slogan.

To answer the post's question "We Get IT - Great Branding?" the answer is, well, yes! The true test will be the statistics six months out, a year out, even two years down the road. Branding is essential to the success of your business and will help you stand out from the crowd in any industry, even one as saturated as the hosting industry.

2007-11-29
PEER 1 Promises Cheaper, Easier SaaS for ISVs

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By Shane Schick, ComputerWorld Canada (29 Nov 2007)

Canadian infrastructure provider PEER 1 is using deep discounts on consulting services as part of a program to entice independent software vendors to make the move to an on-demand model for providing applications to their customers.

Vancouver-based PEER 1 on Wednesday described the program, which quietly launched about a month ago, as an “incubation and enablement� service. Using Microsoft products such as SQL Server, participants will work with Peer 1 and Microsoft experts to either create software-as-a-service (SaaS) versions of their products or new products that can be delivered on demand.

In the traditional on-premise model, companies buy software and install it locally and use it for a fee. In the SaaS model, enterprises use applications only as they need them, which can create a lot more fluctuation in terms of demand.

For companies like PEER 1, SaaS represents a business opportunity to provide the infrastructure that allows companies to scale business depending on the ebb and flow of what enterprises want.

Robert Miggins, vice-president of business development with PEER 1, said the program will make the move to SaaS a lot more cost-effective for independent software vendors (ISVs), particularly if they are using Microsoft technologies. Miggins said some customers could expect to get $10,000 worth of business or technical consulting for $3,000, or about a third of the cost. This might include, for example, engineers from Microsoft and Peer 1 helping an ISV figure out how to ensure they can reliably support their users if they receive a lot of requests for an on-demand application at the same time.

“It’s a bit of a discretionary thing because there are some very real costs borne on our side. If we feel like we’re going to get the benefit of a great customer relationship, then we’re happy to make the investment now,� said Miggins, adding that much of the brainpower would come from Microsoft-approved consultants. “We would help create the engagements, but it’s not like we’re getting into a different business ourselves.�

Customers under PEER 1’s program, which is called SaaS3, include Horsham, Pa.-based DonorPerfect, which provides fundraising software for non-profit organizations. Jon Biedermann, the firm’s vice-president, said DonorPerfect has been offering SaaS products from as far back as 2001, but that PEER 1 and Microsoft were able to offer some best practices.

“What’s been very nice is I flew down and met with their brain trust. They have some ridiculously smart people,� he said, adding it would have cost his firm at least $2,000 or $3,000 to improve the availability of its software. “What we’ve done is taken their recommendations into effect and made SaaS that much more fine-tuned.�

PEER 1 said the SaaS3 program will allow ISVs free access to a development “sandbox� that includes the use of a dual-core Dell server running Microsoft’s SQL Server database. Miggins said this would probably save ISVs about $250 per processor compared to what they would pay otherwise.

“A lot of traditional ISVs are used to the way they do business,� said Lee Hadsock, PEER 1’s senior manager of business development. “SaaS means they have to change how they sell, how to compensate their sales team, how they bill for product, how they support it.�

Although Rackspace and Toronto’s Q9 offer similar programs, Biedermann said DonorPerfect estimated they could get the same services with PEER 1 without paying nearly as much.

“You’re biggest gamble is going to be on the right infrastructure. Half of it is hardware but software is the other half,� he said. “If you don’t get it right, you’re screwed. There’s no other way to really say it. You’re in trouble.� While SaaS adoption has been difficult to track so far, a recent report from research firm Gartner Inc. said three-quarters of all SaaS products have been bought by business unit managers rather than IT managers.

2007-10-25
Web hosting Videos Get More Entertaining

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WHIR Happenings

I recently stumbled upon a hilarious little video made by the folks at PEER 1. They have produced a short film, viral video, advertisement - whatever you want to call it. They have aptly named the film "Daddy's Little Girl" and it apparently is the first episode in the "Growing Pains" series. Check it out below.

I am excited to see a Web hosting provider get creative with video and use it to their advantage, if even to amuse and hopefully assist in brand recall. We are so used to the traditional data center video tour, this is a good break from the ordinary.

A job well done folks. I hope the video goes far and you get what you wanted out of it because it certainly does not look like a cheap production. I look forward to the others.

Have you noticed any cool Web hosting videos around?

2007-10-01
Web Host, PEER 1, Honours Its Clients

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Party at Toronto’s C Lounge celebrates PEER 1’s customers’ achievements.

October 1, 2007 (TopHosts Event Coverage) - Web Host PEER 1 threw a party at Toronto’s upscale C Lounge on September 26th to honour its’ clients achievement.

In a brief speech to the sizable crowd consisting of PEER 1 employees and customers, president and CEO Fabio M. Banducci joked that he wasn’t one of the dancers on the small stage (near the back of the venue that seemed to be receiving most of the attention) then thanked everyone for coming out to what was the first customer appreciation night in almost two years, adding that the client base was well-represented.

“Without customers, we wouldn’t have a business and so we’re very much customer-focused and (with) our whole vision, our aim is to enhance our customer experience and part of that experience is being able to share our gratitude,� Banducci said.

He added that the Web hosting company is seeing very good market dynamics across all of its core services and a large number of its customers are finding new and novel ways to leverage the Internet which is increasing their dependency on the Web and driving the need for outsourced resource solutions. There’s a strong need for this in the small- and medium-sized business market.

“These are important decisions our customers face in terms of outsourcing their infrastructure so we’re just very grateful that there are over 9,000 customers that we have currently, (and) that we’re their infrastructure provider of choice.�

This was a sentiment that Domenic Macchione, president of Rebel Networks, a Mississauga-based outsourced internet infrastructure and managed website hosting solutions provider shared. He said the party was “awesome� and that it felt good to be appreciated.

“I’m very happy with the service from PEER 1 Networks,� Macchione said. “We have our equipment in data centers in the US and what I like is specifically in the Canadian marketplace (is) their network covers a lot of hot spots in Toronto.�

Roger K. Yang, CEO of Avema Corporation, a Toronto-based telecom solutions provider, was also enjoying himself. He said that during the four years that Avema has been with PEER 1, they have not experienced an outage, not even during the blackout of August 2003.

Ultimately, the event was for clients like Macchione and Yang according to Rajan Sodhi, vice president of marketing and communications for PEER 1.

“The way we look at it is that customers are doing cool and innovative things online and happen to be leveraging our IT resources to be able to do so, speaks volumes and volumes to what we do,� Sodhi explained. “So what we want to do is that make sure we celebrate what they’re doing, celebrate their success stories, celebrate their business and show our appreciation.�

2007-09-27
PEER 1 Appreciates its Customers, Demonstrably

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Last night, PEER 1 Network, the dedicated, colocated and managed hosting provider held a customer appreciation event at the reliable Toronto party-hosting spot C-Lounge. A few of us from theWHIR had the opportunity to attend, and while it wasn’t informative in any traditional manner (nor, I should clarify, was that the intent), I did walk away with some interesting impressions of PEER 1 the organization.

Notably not a business event, the evening did provide for some opportunities for customers to throw back a couple of "peertinis" on the company, talk business with one another, or to get to know the parts of the PEER 1 team they didn’t already know.

I had the opportunity to speak several times, and at some length, to Jose Santos, director of marketing for the company, who has the sort of unique perspective that allows him to provide a very specific assessment of the environment at PEER 1. That is, he has been working with the same dedicated hosting assets since the days of Dialtone Internet, which was acquired by Interland, which later sold its Dedicated hosting business to PEER 1 on the way to becoming the consumer-focused Web.com.

Santos, as a result, has experienced a range of working environments, and a variety of corporate approaches to the same customers and products. He’s noticeably not exaggerating when he says the working environment at this company is the best he’s experienced, and that it would take more than money (or, you know, a lot of money) to convince him to move on just now. In PEER 1’s approach to customers, to marketing and to its business, he sees a lot of potential.

PEER 1, in the humble opinion of one of its hard-working executives, has the potential to be something special. And Santos wants to be there when it happens. It’s an interesting way to receive that kind of endorsement, for me, and it felt particularly resonant.

What that means for customers, in the case of this party, is a display of appreciation that really is that. Nothing more. The company had representatives in town from a few of its various locations, and it made for a unique opportunity to entertain the local clientele. According to Santos, the sales team was under explicit instructions that they were not selling that evening.

According to CEO Fabio Banducci, to whom I admittedly spoke for just a few minutes, this event was the first of several the company plans to bring to customers close to each of its several US locations.

2007-08-31
Georgia CIO Leadership Association CIO of the Year Awards Welcomes New Sponsor: PEER 1

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The Georgia CIO Leadership Association (GCLA) is happy to acknowledge the patronage of PEER 1 for the upcoming CIO of the Year® Awards event. Peer 1 joins other distinguished organizations that share interest in promoting the expansion of business technology in Georgia with their sponsorship of this annual event honoring senior technology executives.

Since 1999 PEER 1 has created a world-class IT infrastructure, delivering highly scalable and reliable managed, self-managed (ServerBeach), and co-located hosting services through 15 state-of-the-art data centers across North America connected by our ultra-fast Internet network backbone and backed by our 100% uptime guarantee.

Since its humble beginnings in 1999, PEER 1 has grown in to a highly respected, profitable organization with over 280 employees in 12 cities in the United States and Canada. PEER 1's unique combination of high touch and high performance is a key reason why many businesses choose PEER 1 as their web hosting provider.

"We are proud to sponsor the Georgia CIO of the Year Awards," says Ted Smith, VP of Operations. "This is a great opportunity to honor the technology executives that adhere to many of the core beliefs held by PEER 1 in the enterprise infrastructure segment, innovation, creativity and vision as well as a strong belief in the Georgia technology community."

The GCLA CIO of the Year® Award Event recognizes excellence among C-level executives in the IT/ IS space. Nominations are gathered from within the IT community and are judged by a panel of senior executives; nominees represent a range of Atlanta-based businesses that meet specific criteria for revenue and number of employees.

All corporate sponsors of this prestigious annual event are invited to attend the finalists' reception, award ceremony and receive acknowledgement of their support in print, video and the Internet.

Additional sponsorship opportunities are available; visit the official Georgia CIO of the Year® Event website for more information, downloadable sponsorship enrollment forms, and updates as the nominee finalists are selected in October.

techlinks.net/cioawards

2007-06-04
B.C.'S Fastest-growing Companies Revealed: The Annual PROFIT 100 Ranking

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PROFIT magazine reveals its exclusive annual ranking of Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies today

TORONTO, June 4 /CNW/ - "Should we pursue this opportunity?" is a question that confronts all growing businesses. The phenomenal revenue growth of the 2007 PROFIT 100 companies - averaging 2,095% over the past five years - shows how skillfully they've picked and seized the best opportunities out there. Even more impressive is that their climb to combined annual sales of $11.5 billion hasn't come at the expense of profitability: 78% of the PROFIT 100 were in the black in their most recent fiscal year, averaging net income of 10.4% of revenue.

"PROFIT 100 companies are the new heroes of Canadian business, creating jobs at home and products used around the world," says Ian Portsmouth, editor of PROFIT magazine. "They've accomplished this by building great employee teams, exploiting export markets and rapidly responding to the customer's fast-changing needs."

Opportunities in all sectors

The firms achieving these remarkable results operate in a dizzying array of sectors. The 2007 PROFIT 100 boasts companies in debt collection, energy production, junk removal and GPS tracking. You'll find retailers, marketing agencies, software developers, Web-hosting services and IT consultants on the list. And, contrary to its reputation as a sunset business, Canadian manufacturing is going strong, with producers of mattresses, clothing, furniture and other goods occupying positions on PROFIT's 19th annual ranking of Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies.

Read more

2007-04-11
PEER 1 Tops Canadian Web Hosting List for April

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PEER 1 is Voted Top Canadian Web Host by TopHosts Canada for April 2007

April 11, 2007-(TORONTO, ON)- Web hosting novices and enthusiasts throughout North America have made TopHosts Canada the industry authority since 2001 and the Top 10 list remains one of the most highly regarded gauges of success among Web hosting providers in the region. TopHosts Canada has voted PEER 1 as the Number One Web Host for April 2007.

In selecting the best Canadian Web hosting provider each month, TopHosts Canada scrutinizes and measures hosting providers on several criteria including exceptional customer care practices, breadth of service and product offerings, innovative marketing approaches and technology adoption.

“PEER 1 is honored to be recognized by TopHosts Canada and it’s audience for this award,” said Rajan Sodhi, VP of Marketing and Communications for PEER 1. “We’re aggressively building a company that delivers a one-stop, scalable Internet infrastructure solution that leverages our rock-solid network. Whether managed, self-managed, or co-location hosting, we’re here to service the client with no bias to one form of hosting. It’s about what the client needs and this award reassures us that we’re moving in the right direction.”

PEER 1 continues to enjoy robust growth across its Web hosting operation particularly showing strong demand in co-location and dedicated web hosting solutions. The company reported recently that its data center expansion in Vancouver is complete, increasing the company’s co-location capacity by over 140 cabinet equivalents. Additionally, PEER 1’s expansion of its Toronto data center, accommodating a further 125 cabinets, is scheduled for completion by June 2007.

The fact that PEER 1 significantly grows its customer base “with modest incremental capital expenditure” is tribute to its leadership in the industry and testimony to its strong management team.

About VerticalScope Inc.
Toronto, Canada-based VerticalScope Inc., the parent of TopHosts.Com and CA.TopHosts.Com, is a leading international media company that creates authoritative industry portals, directories and content services, covering a wide array of vertical industries. Our verticals offer a unique perspective on the latest news, featuring thought-provoking articles, and insightful analysis. Visit www.verticalscope.com.

About PEER 1
PEER 1 is a leading Internet infrastructure provider delivering highly scalable hosting and co-location solutions to ensure a client�s online presence is fast performing and available 100% of the time. Since its inception in 1999, the company has grown to include data centers and network points of presence in 17 major cities across North America and Europe, all connected by PEER 1�s world class Internet network. PEER 1 serves a variety of small- and medium-sized businesses including emerging technology companies, hosting providers, online gaming providers, Internet phone (VoIP) companies, and professional services organizations. The company�s headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and the stock is traded on the TSX Venture exchange under the symbol PIX. For more information visit http://www.peer1.com.

Source: VerticalScope Inc.

Marketing/Advertising Contact: Marino Brilli, Business Devt. Manager (VerticalScopeTechnology Division), 416-341-8950 ext. 239, or email: mbrilli@verticalscope.com.
Editorial Contact: Cliff Boodoosingh, Senior Technology Editor, 416-341-8950 ext. 232 or email: cliffb@verticalscope.com.

Website: http://www.CA.TopHosts.com
Website: http://www.peer1.com
Website: http://www.VerticalScope.com

2007-04-05
Business Edge: Feds Open Door To Telco Deregulation

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By Monte Stewart - Business Edge, Vol. 4, No. 7

Small businesses and Internet-based tech companies are welcoming Ottawa's interest in allowing more foreign ownership in the Canadian telecommunications market.

Federal Industry Minister Maxime Bernier has indicated the Tories will further deregulate the industry by easing restrictions on foreign ownership.

Under current law, firms based outside Canada are limited to a 46.6-per-cent stake in Canadian-based firms.

Bernier recently told analysts in New York that a forthcoming federal panel will examine telecommunications as part of its sweeping review of competition policy. The future panel, expected to be established this fall, will follow up on a telecommunications review panel that last year endorsed the idea of allowing foreign telcos to have a greater presence in Canada.

Although the first panel was commissioned by the former Liberal government, Bernier, a staunch free-market advocate, has already adhered to some of its recommendations.

For example, he has asked the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to consider market forces more often as it sets new rules - and also expressed interest in allowing more outside ownership.

Many groups have balked at increased foreign ownership in telecommunications on nationalistic grounds and concerns about national security.

But small businesses and tech-company operators say the potential economic gains outweigh such fears.

"It's good for the consumer," says Ted Mallett, Ottawa-based vice-president of research and chief economist for the Canadian Federation of Small Business, which represents 10,000 small and medium-sized firms across the country.

"It means prices are kept down."

Mallett says the arrival of more major players from the U.S. and other countries will create more and bigger opportunities for small firms. Foreign firms will also help stabilize the market, he adds.

John Williamson, federal director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, agrees increased foreign input in the domestic market will create more opportunities for Canadian companies both at home and abroad while also helping them become more competitive.

He says the Canadian industry will be able to become more effective while domestic prices will become more market-based.

Some labour and sovereigntist groups have contended increased foreign ownership will spell Canadian job losses. But Williamson says "the whole notion that protectionism saves jobs has been largely discredited."

He contends Canada's experience with NAFTA shows industries affected by free trade are actually better off.

Tech company operators say they're torn between their love for Canada and their company's potential economic gains when it comes to more foreign ownership.

Bill White, chief information officer for Vancouver-based PEER 1 Network, says more foreign ownership is necessary for the Canadian telecommunications industry to become more globally competitive.

PEER 1, which provides co-location and hosting services, won't necessarily benefit from further deregulation of telecom services, but it may help the firm's customers who rely on former phone and cable TV utilities such as Telus and Shaw for Internet access.

Greater foreign ownership could also enable large U.S. players to take over major Canadian firms such as Telus and BCE Inc., the parent of Bell Canada.

Telecom markets were abuzz last week following rumours of a potential acquisition of BCE Inc. by a U.S. private equity firm. However, BCE officials denied any "ongoing" discussions were being held.

Bruce Hobbs, president of Stargate Connections Inc., a business Internet-services provider based in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, says concerns over greater foreign ownership could be much ado about nothing.

The domestic market is likely too small for major U.S. firms to want to take over giants such as Telus and Bell, he says. But, he adds, "I could be wrong."

Meanwhile, an internationally recognized telecom and resource-management expert says Canada must allow more foreign ownership of its telecommunications sector if the country wants to become more globally competitive.

Restrictions on foreign ownership tend to leave domestic companies "looking inside and not being as competitive as they should be," says Leonard Waverman, the incoming dean of the University of Calgary's Haskayne School of Business. "Here we are worrying about international security issues, and I don't see (foreign ownership) as a major problem."

Waverman says by allowing firms from the U.S. to gain bigger stakes in domestic firms, Canadian firms in other sectors will be able to acquire larger stakes in U.S. sectors, such as airlines.

"I think it's got to be a two-way street," says Waverman, who is currently the chairman of the London Business School's economics department. "The U.S. has lots of restrictions."

But the loosening of restrictions in specific sectors should occur gradually, he adds, following bilateral and multi-lateral negotiations.

There are aspects of the Canadian telecom industry that are already very successful Waverman says.

"We have a higher fixed-penetration rate. Firms like Rogers and Telus and Bell are first-class companies. What one would gain (from allowing more U.S. ownership) is further economies of scale on purchasing.

"If they're willing to pay a large premium and to buy up the shares, then they must have synergies or something better they can do with those assets than what other managers can do."

Tight restrictions on foreign ownerships also limit the performance of capital markets, he notes, because investors can't spend money on projects in which they're quite willing to invest.

Waverman says the telecom review panel's report is very valuable, because it shows what Ottawa has been doing in terms of shifting the CRTC toward competition policy and away from day-to-day regulation.

"We engage too much, I think, in retail-price regulation," says Waverman. "(Remove) some of those constraints and let (incumbents such as Bell and Telus) compete against some of the entrants, by making it clear to them that competition is fair competition. If they tend to abuse any kind of market position they have, that you throw the bricks up."

Basil Peters, a Vancouver-based investor in tech startup companies, says the bigger issue is deregulation of Internet access - already achieved - which allows tech companies to sell high-speed ADSL services.

Peters, who manages the Fundamental Technologies II fund, predicts online video services will be tech operators' next target for deregulation.

2007-03-28
Washington Post: Enabling the Spammers

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SECURITY FIX, Brian Krebs on Computer Security

Spammers are having a field day with a string of recently discovered security vulnerabilities in MailEnable, an e-mail server program offered by many large, dedicated Web hosting companies.

Over the past few months, MailEnable has released updates at least a half dozen times to fix quite serious vulnerabilities in its various products that attackers can use to completely hijack vulnerable systems. Unfortunately, it looks like many customers either are not registered (and thus not receiving e-mail notices from MailEnable about the flaws), or they are simply ignoring the alerts.

"We are seeing hundreds of mail servers getting compromised via the rash of MailEnable vulnerabilities that have been discovered and announced in the last few months," said Lawrence Baldwin, chief forensics officer for myNetWatchman.

Baldwin's company often is contacted by people who were referred by an Internet service provider that has blocked the customer from sending e-mail due to evidence that his or her system has been compromised and is being used to blast out spam. myNetWatchman also gives away a program that will monitor your firewall logs for odd activity and alert you if your system shows signs of compromise.

Exploit code showing would-be spammers exactly how to exploit the MailEnable flaws has been posted to several high-profile exploit sites (ironically, one exploit is named "maildisable.pl"), and attackers have been using them with great success, Baldwin said. "We could actually see that the miscreants became aware of a new vulnerability in early to mid January, had a full month of ravaging and pillaging MailEnable systems" before a patch was released.

myNetWatchman has had nearly four dozen referrals from MailEnable users who scanned their systems and found infections. That's a significant share of its traffic: The company generally receives between 100 and 200 distinct submissions each day.

Baldwin said that in addition to using hijacked systems to send spam (this guy apparently had someone sending Western Union scam mails through his MailEnable server last week), the bad guys are dropping code that steals passwords on the infected system. It also spies on the Microsoft Windows remote desktop protocol (RDP) traffic to steal passwords from users who log on remotely to administer their mail servers.

But wait, it gets better. The attackers also appear to be planting tools that enable them to crack encrypted Windows system passwords. Why would hackers in this day and age go through all the trouble of doing that when they already have total control over an infected machine? According to Baldwin, many Web hosting providers using MailEnable are placing large numbers of systems on the same Windows Active Directory domain and using the same password to remotely configure the machines. Ergo, crack the password of a Web hosting provider using this set-up, and you suddenly control all of the hosting company's mail servers.

Ron Bradburn, director of engineering for Vancouver, Canada-based PEER 1 Dedicated Hosting, said his company bundles MailEnable for its dedicated hosting customers and that PEER 1 began receiving a spike in support calls related to compromised MailEnable systems in mid-February. "That's when the hackers started actively exploiting that and potentially setting up large bot networks."

Bot networks, also known as botnets, are large groupings of compromised PCs that cyber criminals use for everything from spamming to attacking others online to hosting scam Web sites. After a brief lull in botnet activity over the December holiday season, the number of new, compromised machines has skyrocketed recently. According to Shadowserver.org, a volunteer, nonprofit group that tracks botnets, the number of compromised machines has tripled in the past two weeks.

Bradburn declined to discuss his company's network setup or say how many of his customers were compromised by this vulnerability. "I can tell you that it's been a big problem for us. MailEnable is a very widely used e-mail client because it's free, but a lot of people don't monitor the third party software installed on their Web hosting machines."

Unfortunately, organizations whose servers have been compromised will remain compromised even after applying the MailEnable updates. The more popular exploit for these vulnerabilities works by injecting itself into the Windows logon process, which can be quite a tricky thing to fix.

"I think the hackers' intentions have been to collect as many login accounts or authentication mechanisms to the compromised machines as they can, so that even after the infection is cleaned up, they can still get back in," he said.

Bradburn said PEER 1 offers back-up services that can help customers recover from such intrusions, but that many customers do not choose that option. For those folks, he said, the only safe route is to reinstall the operating system on the Web host.

It's an even trickier thing for the anti-virus companies to even detect: This attack uses four different components, few of which were detected by any of the more than two-dozen anti-virus scanning engines over at VirusTotal. That's scary, when you consider that this malware has been in the wild for more than two months now. The result of each scan are available at these four links here (if you're having trouble viewing the results, make sure you've enabled Javascript for Virustotal.com).

2007-01-31
ServerBeach jumps on GameRail

January 31, 2007 St. Louis, Mo. Progression, LLC dba GameRail today announced that it has completed a direct connection with high performance hosting provider ServerBeach. GameRail subscribers and free beta users will bypass the high latency Internet for direct access to ServerBeach's distributed hosting platform that hosts popular game serving providers such as Wolf Servers.

"We are excited to connect with ServerBeach. Gamers now have access to great titles on great servers on the ServerBeach Platform via the GameRail Network" said GameRail's President Blake Ashby.

Online multiplayer computer gaming is one of the fastest growing entertainment activities in the U.S., with over 40 million people now playing regularly. GameRail recently introduced the first network designed to meet the speed and quality needs of online gaming. GameRail's bypass network delivers a "direct connect" from the game player to the game host and avoids the congestion and inefficient routing paths of the regular Internet. Once GameRail and the subscriber's provider of Internet access are interconnected, the subscriber's game play packets bypass the multi-hop, high latency Internet and hot route on a dedicated, national broadband network connected to the game host.

GameRail's nation-wide, private backbone with Phase 1 access points in seven major cities is presently establishing peering relationships with access providers, game hosts and data center/collocation providers who support game hosts.

About GameRail:
Progression LLC, a Missouri LLC dba GameRail, ( www.gamerail.com ) is a facilities-based network operator that is dedicated to delivering superior performance to the online gaming community. GameRail directly connects game players to their favorite game hosts and vice versa, thereby eliminating game play degrading high latency hops on the Internet. GameRail has interconnection facilities in 7 major US markets including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and St. Louis. Mo.

2006-10-05
PEER 1 is Voted Top Canadian Web Host by TopHosts Canada

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PEER 1 Named Number One Web Hosting Provider for October 2006 on TopHosts Canada Top 10 List

Each month CA.TopHosts.Com reviews hundreds of hosting providers and selects the host who ranks best on commitment to customer service, breadth of Web hosting services and innovation in both marketing and technology.

TopHosts Canada has selected PEER 1 as the Number One Web Host on the prestigious CA.TopHosts.Com Top 10 list of Canadian Web hosting providers.

“PEER 1 has performed admirably in the Web hosting arena and continues to accelerate in providing a diverse customer base with outstanding hosting services and technical support,” said Rob Laidlaw, CEO of VerticalScope, a media leader and parent to CA.TopHosts.Com.

PEER 1 (TSX-V: PIX) recently announced that it has extended its high performance Internet network to connect to the second largest Internet exchange in Europe: AMS-IX of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

About VerticalScope Inc. Toronto, Canada-based VerticalScope Inc., the parent of TopHosts.Com and CA.TopHosts.Com, is a leading international media company that creates authoritative industry portals, directories and content services, covering a wide array of vertical industries. Our verticals offer a unique perspective on the latest news, featuring thought-provoking articles, and insightful analysis. VerticalScope currently prints over 750 million pages per year through its various print magazines, and has successfully launched magazines into some of the most competitive consumer markets with titles such as Modified Magazine, which currently has a readership of over 1,000,000 car enthusiasts per month. Visit www.verticalscope.com.

2006-07-08
Hostreview.com: Peer 1 Ranked the #4 Fastest Growing Company in Canada and #1 in BC by Profit Magazine

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Peer 1, the first Internet infrastructure provider to offer a 100% uptime guarantee, has been named 1st in BC and 4th in the nation in the 18th annual Profit 100 ranking of Canada's Fastest Growing Companies based on five-year revenues. Published in the June issue of Profit and online at Profitguide.com, the Profit 100 is Canada's largest annual celebration of entrepreneurial achievement.

Mr. Fabio M. Banducci, Executive Vice President of Peer 1, said, "Peer 1 is honored to be recognized by Profit Magazine. The award speaks to how Peer 1 is providing reliable bandwidth to a growing list of customers and that validates the hard work of our employees in the US and Canada who continue to exceed expectations".

Peer 1’s world-class IP network and co-location services give its customers the freedom to focus on growing their business knowing the company is behind them every step of the way. Serving organizations of all sizes in the financial, government, education, retail and technology sectors, its high-performance solutions help the clients succeed at what the do best.

The Vancouver, Canada based Internet infrastructure solutions provider has grown its revenue by more than 10,000% over the past five years – FY2005 revenue of $24,113,000 vs. FY2000 revenue of $232,062, and has increased the number of its employees from 13 to 230.

Mr. Banducci revealed the secret to Peer 1's growth, "Even though we are 20 times larger than 5 years ago, our growth process is actually very careful and strategic. We didn’t speculate by building ahead of the market, but we are growing in response to market opportunity. We saw some of the web's most demanding users needed more bandwidth and reliability. Online retailing and gaming sites were not getting what they wanted from the big telcos and the small ISPs and Peer 1 took decisive action to meet their needs."

Peer 1's smart growth strategy included taking advantage of folding ISPs to buy equipment, as well as Peer 1’s acquisitions of ServerBeach and Interland’s dedicated web hosting.

"ServerBeach and Interland are integral to our growth and success and those acquisitions stem from Peer 1’s belief that you win with value and by adapting to market changes," Mr. Banducci explained. "Whether it’s buying equipment and assets at fire-sale prices during the market crash, or acquiring strategic pieces such as dedicated hosting and self-managed server offerings…we thrive on discovering opportunities."

The acknoledgement Peer 1 received from Profit Magazine will certainly open new doors for development. Mr. Banducci said, "This recognition may bring a few more opportunities our way, but our strategy won’t change. We may not grow as fast in the next five years, but I can promise you Peer 1 is prepared to take advantage of emerging opportunities."

Peer 1 delivers leading-edge server co-location, network and dedicated hosting to web-centric businesses and SMEs worldwide. Since its inception in 1999, the company has grown to 12 state-of-the-art data centers and 17 points of presence across North America, all connected by Peer 1's world class Internet network. Peer 1 has established a reputation in the marketplace for delivering consistently warm, personal and friendly customer support in a manner that appears unique in the industry. It serves customers who range from gaming to VoIP, to enterprise.

2006-06-01
Succeed with caution: Profit 100 Ranking: Profit Magazine

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Find a lucrative niche, stick to it, and never get in over your head. By following that formula, Peer 1 stood tall as Internet giants fell

By Camilla Cornell

When Peer 1 Network Enterprises Inc. began offering its high-performance Internet service to businesses in 1999, bandwidth sold for $1,000 per megabyte. Today, it goes for less than $100. Which raises the question: how could Peer 1 possibly grow its revenue by more than 10,000% over the past five years as market pressures decimated the price of its core product? According to Peer 1 president and CEO Lance Tracey, the simple answer is "very carefully."

Tracey and Mark Teolis, the company's vice-president of network and co-location, launched Vancouver-based Peer 1 (TSXV: PIX) to pursue a lucrative gap in the market: namely, Web-centric organizations, such as online retailers and gaming sites, whose demands for high bandwidth and even higher reliability were unmet by the big telcos and smaller ISPs. But rather than observing the "build it and they will come" mantra that doomed other online players, Peer 1 expanded its facilities only as fast as it could secure new customers. At the same time, it developed "peering" relationships with other networks, allowing traffic to flow between them at no cost. The result was high speed and reliability for customers at less cost to Peer 1. "We were a lot more flexible, too," says Teolis. "If you went to Telus, there were a lot of rules, regulations and paperwork, and sometimes it took two months to actually get up and running. We can do same-day."

The firm's frugality served it well when supersized ISPs such as WorldComm and Global Crossing crashed in the tech wreck and sold their assets at fire-sale prices. "We bought equipment from these companies where we could get them for 20 cents on the dollar," says Tracey. "Or we rented facilities that were fully built out and just moved into them without having to invest the capital costs."

More recently, a pair of acquisitions added dedicated Web hosting to Peer 1's service offerings. The firm now owns 13,000 Web servers, renting them out to customers who can't or don't want to invest in servers of their own. The so-called "server farms" allow Peer 1 to cross-sell hosting and bandwidth, thus generating more traffic, which in turn allows it to cut a better deal on bandwidth. Teolis adds that value-added services such as managed hosting offer higher margins and make Peer 1 less reliant on selling a commodity like bandwidth.

Greater profitability will be appreciated by shareholders of Peer 1, which lost $2.5 million in the year ended June 30, 2005. But they can find comfort in the firm's rising gross margins and healthy earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, which topped $5.7 million on revenue of $26 million in the six months ended Dec. 31, 2005. Results like those explain Tracey's confidence when he says, "The future for Peer 1 is just unlimited."

2006-05-11
The Hosting News: PEER 1 and Spawnpoint Offer Free Gaming

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Internet network and hosting provider, PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc., and the Spawnpoint.com Gaming Community will offer free downloads and exclusive content.

Shane Robinett, Founder of Spawnpoint.com commented, ''Gamers are drawn to Spawnpoint because of the screaming-fast, no limit downloads powered by the PEER 1 network. They keep coming back because they can track their skill and rank on our leaderboards, we have cool and interesting content, and they know that they will find the files they want to download here first.''

Launched in February 2006, Spawnpoint is the brainchild of Robinett of PHXX Networks in partnership with PEER 1 Network Enterprises. With PEER 1's high performance network and dedicated server offerings, and PHXX's technical and gaming savvy, the project is geared at delivering the latest in gaming downloads, news and technology, with the best network possible. Spawnpoint is a fast and powerful gaming site for serious gamers wanting to have a place to compete as well as find a community of like-minded people intent on enjoying the gaming experience.

Mr. Robinett continued, ''Unlike similar sites, we don't put a limit on how much you can download. With the PEER 1 Rapid Edge content delivery network, we can support multiple people downloading movie files as large as 1000 megs without annoying interruptions. We're here to give gamers what they want when they want it. Capping usage goes against that philosophy. Everything we do is focused on making the gaming experience the best that it can be with unrestricted access to community, competition and content.''

An open community of over 300 professionally administrated gaming servers support such games as Counter-Strike: Source, Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Half-Life, and more.

Exclusive content written by regular contributors include ''Gamer Girl'' with a unique female view of gaming, and ''Ancient Admin'' which is written by an ex-New York beat cop with a funny and sardonic take on the world of gaming. Spawnpoint is also the place to go for information on Game Wikis, reviews, and information on new releases.

The community is powered by PEER 1's Rapid Edge Content Delivery Network that enables fast downloads of huge files consistently delivered at over 1 megabyte per second to broadband users.

According to Spawnpoint, a new gaming community for serious gamers, it has already earned the loyalty of hundreds of thousands of gamers in the first three months of its existence. More than 200,000 unique visitors every month are on the site, with growth of more than 30% each month.

Spawnpoint is a gaming community which strives to deliver the very best gaming experience possible, with downloads of the latest games and game movies, a leaderboard to track rank, and unique content. The project is a joint effort by PHXX Networks and PEER 1.

PHXX is a partnership of engineers and business leaders experienced at delivering services to financial markets and technology dependent business sectors ranging from small to large businesses. PHXX delivers solutions in web and software development, data mining and analysis, business continuity and disaster recovery planning, and more. In addition, PHXX manages and delivers digital content and data to anywhere and anyone on the globe. Specializing in data distribution services, it leverages partnerships and expertise to provide information.

PEER 1, is an Internet infrastructure provider, delivering client-centric solutions from Internet network and co-location to dedicated hosting with solutions for companies of all sizes. Since its inception in 1999, the company has grown to include data centers and network points of presence in 16 major cities across North America and Europe. PEER 1 serves a variety of customers including hosting providers, online gaming companies, Internet phone (VoIP) companies and many small and medium sized businesses. The company's headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and the stock is traded on the TSX Venture exchange under the symbol PIX.

To learn more about Spawnpoint, please visit: www.spawnpoint.com