On January 12th the World was notified of an earthquake that devastated Haiti. The severity of this earthquake has not only caused mental and physical pain and suffering, there has been a critical shortage of supplies and assistance to help the Haitian people through their crisis. Numerous individuals and businesses from around the World have come together to provide assistance in any way they can and today, we’re joining these forces.

Today, the hosting community is coming together as an industry to do our part. We’ve set aside our competitiveness and joined in numbers to help in the relief effort by launching a new Web site – Hosting for Haiti (http://www.hostingforhaiti.com/).  We are grateful to be able to take part in this relief effort along side The Planet, Rackspace, GoGrid, and ServInt.

We’ve partnered with the American Red Cross to provide support, which may include mobilizing relief workers, sending relief supplies, and providing financial resources for recovery. Every dollar donated through our Hosting for Haiti site goes directly to them, an organization that can make the biggest difference in disaster relief. 

We hope that you will join us by making a donation – we know that together, we can make a difference.

If you’re one of our industry partners and want to join us, contact us at info@hostingforhaiti.com about joining the cause. Please help spread the word by sharing the link and information to help provide much needed relief for those in Haiti. 

You can follow the progress of these efforts on Twitter by following @hostingforhaiti http://twitter.com/hostingforhaiti (use the hash tag #hostingforhaiti). 

Become a fan of PEER 1 Hosting today!

You’ve all heard of FaceBook and you’ve all heard of PEER 1 Hosting (okay, maybe not all of you, but we’d like to think so!). If you haven’t already fan’d us we encourage you to head on over to FaceBook, become a fan, and join the discussions.

We’d love to hear your feedback on our discussion board as well as seeing any tips & tricks or ideas that you have. Does your business develop cool and unique products? Are you a developer who has a book full of tips to share? Have you just launched a new product and want to share it? We want to know!

If you have suggestions of what you’d like to see discussed on the PEER 1 Hosting FaceBook page or ideas that you’d like to see us include on our page in general, send me an e-mail at cpugsley@peer1.com. I’d love to hear from you.

Share your business, discuss web hosting, and get updates on what’s happening at PEER 1 Hosting – http://tinyurl.com/peer1hosting

From time to time we like to highlight a customer of ours that is really doing something cool and cutting-edge. So if you haven’t checked out knoodle.com yet, give it a look and ponder…

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO LEARN TODAY?

Knoodle (www.knoodle.com) is a Web 2.0 e-learning service that allows individuals, businesses, and schools to publish and deliver free or fee-based education through multi-media presentations. Instructors can upload videos and slides, and synchronize them together into a webinar-like lesson using Knoodle’s proprietary Play ‘n Sync™ technology. The instructor can set their own prices for lessons and collect payment using the integrated PayPal feature. Customers of Knoodle include Fortune 1000 companies and top-ranked universities, as well as individual Craigslist instructors.

Visit www.knoodle.com or email chief@knoodle.com for more information.

We’ve mentioned previously on our blog that we’re headed to the track again for the 24 Hours of Lemons and we’ve challenged you to a race. Will we see you there?

Last year PEER 1 participated in the 24 Hours of Lemons event that took place in

PEER 1 at 24 Hours of Lemons - Kershaw, South Carolina 2008

Kershaw, South Carolina. We posted pictures and a video interview with Jay Lamm, “The Chief Perpetrator”of the event and we’ll be at it again this year at the “Laissez Les Crapheaps Roulez New Orleans” on June 6-7, 2009.

We’ll have employees from two of our office locations participating – PEER 1 Atlanta and ServerBeach San Antonio. PEER 1’s system administrator Kevin Lee will be leading the team again this year. Last year, we quoted him saying, “I spent so much time at junkyards, I never want to see another one again”. Well, this year he was back at it hitting the junkyards getting the PEER 1 1981 Turbo Diesel Mercedes ready for this years race.

To remind everyone what the 24 Hour of Lemons is all about:

Nasty. Brutish. Not Short Enough.

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The crowd. The spectacle. The pall of blue smoke and roasted clutch discs. In all motorsport, no event captures the universal human need to whale on old crapcans and hoover down greasy barbecue like the 24 Hours of LeMons.

Each LeMons race is for cars purchased, fixed up, and track-prepped for a total of 500 dollars or less. But before reaching the grid, you’ll have to survive trials like the Personal-Injury-Lawyer Anti-Slalom, the Marxist-Valet Parking Challenge, and the Wide Open Throttle Rodthrowapalooza. Twelve hours into the race, the car voted People’s Choice is called in and awarded a cash prize; simultaneously, the car voted People’s Curse is called in and summarily destroyed. At the end of 24 hours, a gala awards ceremony plies the survivors with trophies, plaques, and four-figure purses in canvas bags full of nickels. What’s not to like? — 24 Hours of Lemons Website

For requirements, rules, and fees, visit http://www.24hoursoflemons.com. For track information and location, please visit http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/events/noproblem09/

For more information on the PEER 1 race challenge, or if you’re in the neighborhood and would like to say hello, please contact:

Charnell Pugsley
PEER 1 Community Evangelist
cpugsley@peer1.com
210-798-4413

We’ve partnered with Lisa Sabin-Wilson, celebrity blogger and author of “WordPress for Dummies”, to offer free premium blog templates, valued at $1,200 each, designed exclusively for PEER 1 and ServerBeach.

With an estimated 133 million blogs worldwide and growing, social networking and blogging has become the fourth most popular activity on the Internet, surpassing even e-mail.* For those looking to join the fast-growing blogging community, or just wanting to spice up current blogs, PEER 1 is offering five free custom-designed WordPress themes as a download to anyone who visits the PEER 1 or ServerBeach Web site.

The templates won’t be around for long, available for download only until June 30. To view the different designs and download a favorite, visit the PEER 1 Web site http://www.peer1.com/resources/wordpress_themes.php or the ServerBeach Web site http://www.serverbeach.com/resources/wordpress_themes.php.

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To view the full press release, please visit http://www.peer1.com/aboutus/news.php?id=118

PEER 1 announced today that we are building out on a 41,000 square foot green data center in the Toronto area. Our new facility will implement some of the most efficient products and technologies on the market, including the use of a local well for primary water supply with redundant connection to the city water system to reduce overall carbon footprint and provide lower energy consumption. The first stage is scheduled for completion in early 2010, and will include 7,500 square feet of data center space, and 8,000 square feet of office and staging area. The remaining 25,500 square feet will be dedicated to additional data center space and infrastructure which will be built out in three future phases.

We also announced our membership in The Green Grid. The Green Grid is a global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. The Green Grid seeks to provide industry-wide recommendations on best practices, metrics and technologies that will improve overall data center and business computing energy efficiencies. By joining The Green Grid, we’re trying to do our part in helping influence both developers and end users of data center technology.

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Read press release

A few months back I began a fun little project – exposing our customers and posted about it on our ServerBeach Blog. The goal of this project is to give your business some added exposure. It’s called “You’re on My Shirt”.

Every week I will post a picture of me wearing a client’s branded T-shirt along with a description of your business and a friendly link to your site or blog.

So what’s the catch, you ask? Nothing really. To be featured, all you have to do is be a current PEER 1 client and mail or courier me a T-shirt with your company name on the front and/or back… and that’s it! BTW, size MEDIUM please.

The PEER 1 Blog has a loyal following and is viewed daily by many online users. This new feature is a way for us to extend some love to our clients and get you some more free exposure.

You can view some of the ServerBeach “You’re On My Shirt” pictures and blog posts here: http://serverbeach.wordpress.com/?s=you%27re+on+my+shirt.

To get on my shirt, fire off an e-mail to me and I’ll reply back right away with some details and questions about your business, as well as an address to send me your T-shirt.

Be the first one to get featured!

Charnell Pugsley
Community Evangelist
cpugsley@peer1.com

PEER 1 announced today the official opening of its European headquarters in Southampton UK and the naming of industry veteran Dominic Monkhouse as managing director. There are many reasons why we have expanded to the UK including favorable exchange rates, falling real estate prices, a UK market growth of 25 percent, and the fact we currently have 500 UK and European-based customers. The opening will allow us to further support these customers while attracting new customers in the region.

The opening also includes the launch of our first UK data center, which will offer managed hosting through the PEER 1 brand and dedicated hosting through ServerBeach. As with all of our other data centers, it will be connected to our company-owned SuperNetwork which offers highly scalable and available content delivery to customers through Fast-Ethernet and Gigabit-Ethernet access over 13,000 miles of fibre connectivity.

PEER 1 will be exhibiting this week at the Internet World Expo April 28-30 at Earl’s Court, London. If you have an opportunity, please drop by for a visit. Drinks are on us! Just ask for Dom.

Official press release: http://www.peer1.com/aboutus/news.php?id=111

For more info, visit http://www.peer1.com/uk

Rajan Sodhi, VP Marketing for PEER 1 and ServerBeach

The title says it all. Rajan Sodhi, VP of Marketing and Communications for PEER 1 and ServerBeach was recently recognized for “Thinking Outside the Box“. Rajan has been called an “Everyday Customer Champion“. He spends so much time doing what he does best – being creative … and it works. Much of the creativity is humorous as you can see from the videos that he’s directed – for example “Growing Pains“. But even while it was humorous, it really hit home with many of our customers and the general public which says that he clearly understands the growing pains that many people face in business. You can find Rajan making his way in the social media scene, listening, communicating, and connecting onthe following:

Twitter – @rsodhi
LinkedIn – rajansodhi
Ning -http://peerone.ning.com/

FaceBook, and several other places around the Internet. So if you haven’t already, be sure to follow him on Twitter and while you’re at it check out his blog too “BIG Marketing for Small Business”.

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Picture this: The year is 2005. It’s the The Massive Technology Show being held in Vancouver at Science World. Peer 1 staffers in the back room kitchen feverishly mixing the signature “Peertini.” They’re using extra large garbage cans as mixing vats. (New, clean plastic garbage cans, of course.) Between 4:30pm and 8pm the Peer 1 “bartenders” cranked out almost EIGHT HUNDRED Peertinis (served in special Peer 1-branded glasses) to some very thirsty show attendees. A sea of green drinks filled the Science center.

Happiness abounded and the Peertini legend was born.

THE PEERTINI

1½ ounce Vodka
1½ ounce White Grape Juice
½ ounce Sour Apple Pucker Schnapps
½ ounce Triple Sec
½ ounce Lemon Juice

DIRECTIONS

Shake with ice
Strain into a chilled glass
Garnish with Granny Smith Apple

Smile.