The BCTIA’s Technology Impact Awards celebrate successes within the industry and the companies, people and innovation that continue to put British Columbia on the map and serve as role models for others in the province. This year, over 100 applications were received from technology companies of all sectors and sizes and from all corners of British Columbia.

“PEER 1 Hosting is a well-deserved recipient of this year’s Company of the Year award,” said Pascal Spothelfer, President and CEO of BCTIA. “Over the years, they have demonstrated excellence by delivering reliable, high-performance Web Hosting solutions for its customers.  We wish them much success and look forward to seeing continued growth and prosperity in the years to come.”

“PEER 1 is honoured to be recognized amongst fellow BC technology innovators at this year’s awards,” said Fabio Banducci, president and CEO, PEER 1 Hosting. “We know the important role the Internet plays for our customers and have worked very hard over the years to manage their online presence, so they can focus on growing their business.”

Press Release

BCTIA Awards

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.

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.

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

We’ve just recently launched SmartMonitoring^TM, a full suite of advanced monitoring solutions now available for our managed hosting customers. Utilizing the platform of partner, Absolute Performance Inc., SmartMonitoring provides in-depth data and analysis to better anticipate IT needs for business success. This offering, which will be expanded to all product lines later this year, represents strategic momentum in working together with best-of-breed companies to provide PEER 1 customers a valuable range of products and services.

“With the launch of SmartMonitoring, we are offering the best monitoring services available, while continuing to provide the advanced hosting services that are in greatest demand by our customers,” said Tim Varma, director of product management for PEER 1. “SmartMonitoring will help our customers increase efficiency and maximize IT resources, which is especially vital in today’s economy. With our fully scalable hosting solutions and services, PEER 1 adjusts to customers’ needs and helps them be more cost effective, to keep their businesses running smoothly.”

With SmartMonitoring, PEER 1 customers can choose the services and features, from basic to highly complex, that are most vital to their business success. These services are available through SmartMonitoring’s on-demand platform interface, which provides anyone in the organization, from CEO to system engineer, understandable, information on how application and system components are working together. This real-time data gives insight into potential issues so they can be proactively addressed in the most efficient and timely way.

For more information and full press release, please see http://www.peer1.com/aboutus/news.php?id=117

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.

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

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.

Continuing to highlight fast-growing customers as part of our recently launched “Million Hits” campaign, we would like to introduce you to LANDFLIP, who has experienced significant growth since joining PEER 1 in October 2007. PEER 1 provides LANDFLIP, a top land real estate online listings site, the scalable managed hosting solution needed for its intense online growth.

Founder, Ryan Folk, recently told us that, “The speed of the network is phenomenal, and the PEER 1 infrastructure allows access to LANDFLIP with extreme speeds from anywhere.”

In LANDFLIP’s first year with PEER 1, they experienced a 460 percent growth and now see more than 350,000 unique visitors each month! The company continues to grow, despite today’s economy, as people are looking for more tangible assets and land is an advantageous option.

A big congrats to the folks at LANDFLIP on their success and growth. For more information, please visit our Resource Center and view the LANDFLIP case study: http://www.peer1.com/resources/questions/145/LANDFLIP

Remember, if you’ve experienced, or are experiencing, sudden online growth, we want to hear about it! Tell us about your experience and we’ll share your story here.

Thank you PEER 1 customers for showing us the love. In our most recent Customer Pulse Study, you gave our Managed Hosting services a Net Promoter Score of 30, a 76 percent increase over last year. To put this score in perspective, according to Satmetrix 2009 Net Promoter Industry Reports, among Internet service providers only 3 of the 9 providers received positive scores, with AT&T topping the list at just 11. Adobe led consumer software with a high score of 46, Verizon Wireless led cellular providers at 40, and Apple led computer hardware at an incredible 77.

So, what is a Net Promoter Score (also called Net Referral Score)? It is based on the idea that every company’s customers can be divided into three categories – Promoters, Passives, and Detractors – by asking one question:

How likely is it that you would you recommend PEER 1 to a friend or colleague?

Customers respond on a 10-point rating scale and are categorized as follows:

• Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.
• Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.
• Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.

To calculate our Net Referral Score, the study takes the percentage of customers who are Promoters and subtracts the percentage who are Detractors. This resulted in a score of 30 for PEER 1. A strong customer focus is very important to us. We take all your feedback to heart to further improve our communications, product offerings and support. Thanks to all of you who participated in this year’s study and we won’t stop trying to win you over. That’s a promise.

See official release