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RECORD-BREAKING POWER OUTAGES, RISING WATER REINFORCE RATIONALE FOR MANAGED HOSTING SERVICES, IT REDUNDANCY AND BACK-UP

DALLAS (June 10, 2004)

When a powerful storm hit the Dallas, Fort Worth and surrounding communities this week, millions of residents lost power, as did many businesses. But while residents faced inconvenience, area companies faced lost revenue, productivity and – potentially – a predicament that could sink their businesses.

But not for Dallas-based ISN Software Corp., which lost power for about 14 hours this week. ISN maintained operations by relying on two clusters of servers – one located at its site and another within a secure network operations center provided by NeoSpire, a managed hosting services company that delivers redundant power supplies and other safeguards around the clock

“Before too long, the backup power supplies we have on-site had run out,” said Bill Addy, CEO of ISN. “But that didn't happen at NeoSpire. They stayed up the entire time.” ISN is an application service provider for companies in the oil and gas industry. The company’s customers rely on software that they access through the ISN Web site, which is hosted by NeoSpire. “Since NeoSpire stayed up the entire time, our customers saw no impact,” Addy said.

That’s saying a lot after a storm packing 80- to 90-mile-per-hour winds and thousands of lightning strikes. Many homes and businesses remained without power for up to five days.

“In some areas, this storm had winds approaching tornado-like speeds,” said Mitch Gervis, CEO of NeoSpire. “It's a perfect example of why disaster recovery plans and redundancies are so important. You never know when or where a major storm might strike and our clients simply cannot afford that kind of down time.”

Gervis recommends that businesses immediately evaluate their IT systems’ redundancy and backup systems. A few of his recommendations include:

Choose a managed hosting provider with redundant power systems (including UPS, ATS and a generator)
Ask your hosting provider how often they test their back-up power systems (even though they have them, do they actually work?)
Make sure that your hosting provider has planned for an extended outage
If you are hosting yourself, back up all of your files on a regular basis
Make sure that you are able to restore your data from your back-ups

About NeoSpire

NeoSpire Inc., based in Dallas since 1999, provides managed Web hosting services for organizations that deploy mission-critical Web sites and Web-based applications. Customers include Cellular One, Dallas Stars, Top Flite and the United Way, among others. The company has been named to the Dallas 100 list of Dallas’ fastest growing private companies for the past two years.

For press contacts and interviews, contact Roy Miller at (972) 716-4070 x235, or via e-mail at rmiller@transsynergy.com.