GNi, Hosted Solutions Named to Inc. List

Data center service providers GNi Inc. and Hosted Solutions have been named to Inc. magazine’s annual list of the fastest growing companies.

GNi Inc., formerly Global Netoptex, was ranked 349th overall on the prestigious annual list, with a three-year revenue growth rate of more than 792 percent. GNi reported 2003 revenue of $903,715 and 2006 revenue of $8.1 million. The company has 56 employees. Founded in 2002, GNi has 14 service locations across the United States, Europe and Asia.

“GNi continues to record outstanding customer growth and soaring revenues,” said Derek Wise, GNi president and CEO. “Today, with more than 400 customers, 100 percent annual revenue growth and operations in key markets worldwide, we are keeping our promise to execute on our global expansion plans designed to allow our clients access to high-quality solutions.”

New Way Selects Hosted Solutions

New Way Media, producers of a suite of online marketing automation tools, has chosen Hosted Solutions to power its software-as-a-service (SaaS) application. Hosted Solutions will provide New Way Media with a world-class fully managed infrastructure, including dedicated servers, managed firewalls and backup and recovery services from their Raleigh, North Carolina data center.

New Way Media is based in Charlotte and focuses on helping small businesses with web based marketing. In 2002 it launched a suite of web-based interactive marketing tools called WAM (Web Accelerated Marketing). New Way Media also offers hosting solutions.

Hosted Solutions Expands in Raleigh

Managed hosting provider Hosted Solutions will add an additional 17,000 square feet of space to its Raleigh, North Carolina data center facility, the company announced last week. The expansion will bring the total size of the company’s Raleigh data center to approximately 31,000 square feet.

The Raleigh addition marks the beginning of an “aggressive plan” to expand the company’s data center space in existing markets in 2007, according to Rich Lee, founder and CEO of Hosted Solutions. The expansions will provide Hosted Solutions with the ability to support growing customer demand for data center space. “Our strategic, planned growth in space and service offerings gives our customers the personal relationship of a small company and the resources of an enterprise organization,” said Lee, who characterized the expansion plan as “strategic, sensible growth.”

Hosted Solutions Upgrades Boston Sites

Hosted Solutions says it has invested $1 million in infrastructure upgrades for a Charlestown, Mass. facility it bought with its acquisition of Boston Datacenters last October. Upgrades include a redesign of the interior layout to promote better cooling, an improved data backup system, and additional UPS power support.

“The Charlestown facility has been a staple of the Boston Internet community for nearly seven years, and we are eager to keep our facility on the leading edge of technology and innovation,” said Gary McAuliffe, Vice President and General Manager of the Boston facility.

Hosted Solutions said it intends to spend another $1.5 million on the facility in upgrades over the next 12 months. Additional projects include a new power infrastructure suite, a redesigned network operations center, an upgraded security system, and the addition of a Storage Area Network (SAN).

Hosted Solutions Acquires Boston Datacenters

Regional data center services provider Hosted Solutions will expand into New England by acquiring Boston Datacenters, the company said this week. The acquisition will be the first foray outside North Carolina for Hosted Solutions, which was previously known as Springboard Managed Hosting and has focused its business in Research Triangle.

The move gives Hosted Solutions four data centers, including North Carolina facilities in Cary, Raleigh and Charlotte. The deal was announced at a networking event in Charlotte. Gary McAuliffe, general manager of the Charlotte office, will soon move to Boston to run the former Boston Datacenters operation as vice president and general manager. Hosted Solutions, which is privately held, did not disclose financial details of the deal.

“The technology community in Boston is really expanding,” McAuliffe told LocalTechWire. “They are really coming back (from the “dot com” crash). We’re excited to be entering that market.”