Tell us a little about your background. What industry experience you have? And what did you do before Atlantic.Net?

Adnan Raja

Today its eleven years since I graduated with my MBA. Soon after graduating, I started my career with K2 Internet. I was responsible to roll out their High Speed DSL service as their Product Manager and also helped with their marketing initiatives. K2 was later acquired by Atlantic.Net and since then I have been a part of Atlantic.Net team.

What is the History of Atlantic.Net and what has led to your success in the hosting industry?

This year Atlantic.Net is celebrating 15 years in business! In 1994, Our President, Founder and CEO Marty Puranik and a classmate founded the company from their dorm rooms at the University of Florida, soon to become one of Florida’s largest privately-owned Internet Service Providers. We made sixteen acquisitions of Internet companies and we were named to the Inc 500 list for three consecutive years and the Florida 100 for four consecutive years due to our fast growth.

We began our structured approach to entering the data center services business in 2000. In 2003, we acquired a 25,000-square-foot World Class Data Center facility in Orlando. Acquisition of the Data Center operations helped shift our focus from getting people online to helping businesses conduct commerce online.

Tell our readers about Atlantic.Net, your products and services.

Atlantic.Net is one of the few survivors of the dot com generation. Atlantic.Net not only survived but also transformed itself into the next generation technology provider. We are here today to fuel the engine of tomorrow’s business needs.

We operate a World Class Data Center facility which was originally built by a company called Colo.com. Our core products include Managed Server Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting and Colocation to name a few.

Do you have any other changes or additions to your service in this coming year?

We are always looking for ways to improve our product offering. Atlantic.Net is all about innovation and staying ahead of the curve. In our 15 year history, we have always changed to adopt new technologies and launch new products.

We have quite a few exciting products in the pipeline including Cloud Hosting and you will hear about some of those in the next few weeks. We are also in the process of exploring acquisition opportunities to expand our foot print into newer markets.

How does Atlantic.Net fit into the web hosting industry? What makes you different?

Hosting has always been an integral part of our day to day operations as an ISP. Atlantic.Net was in fact its own largest client when we took over the data center. Our network spun throughout the Southeastern United States and we were able to consolidate it in all in our carrier neutral Data Center facility.

Atlantic.Net is financially-stable, growing and versatile. We operate very efficiently with little to no debt and are cash positive which means we are here to serve our customers for the long run.

We are also set up to help our customers meet their specific goals. We have customers who use our services to power their businesses in almost every vertical market. What separate us from the crowd is our rational business model and our ability to operate a profitable business with little to no debt. We take pride in our ability to whether the storms; our conservative business model helps us leverage our intellect as appose to leveraging on debt. Our highly skilled expert engineers are our biggest assets.

Besides being dependable, financially-stable and profitable, Atlantic.Net operates State-of-the-art facilities to include:

* 24 x 7 Technical Support and Proactive Monitoring
* Carrier neutral facility with multiple Tier-1 High-speed Redundant Internet Backbone Connections
* Redundant Core Routing
* Diversified Fiber Conduits
* Industrial Grade Uninterruptible Backup Power Supply
* Industrial Grade Diesel Generator with priority fueling contracts
* Redundant HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning)
* Advance Fire Suppression
* World Class Security Systems

How may customers Atlantic.Net currently have and what have you found has been the best way to grow your customer base?

We are pleased to have service thousands of businesses around the globe. Our clients range from small, medium to enterprise level clients. Atlantic.Net is the home for some of the Nations Fortune 500 companies who have entrusted us with their data.

We have long enjoyed referrals from our satisfied clients and this has been the major source of our growth. Atlantic.Net has remained profitable for 15 years because we are able to adapt to change to consistently grow our business.

Do you currently have your own datacenter and where are they located?

Atlantic.Net is privileged to operate its own data center operations and our core data center is located in Orlando Florida.

Do you have multiple backbone connections to the internet?

Atlantic.Net is a fully redundant and carrier neutral Data Center operator with multiple connections to the internet with diverse fiber routes. Our carrier neutral facility is connected to the internet backbone with multiple Tier 1 carriers to include AT&T, Verizon, Level3, TW Telecom, Brighthouse Networks and CenturyLink.

As far as support goes, do you offer true 27/7/365 support with live technicians?

Customer satisfaction is Atlantic.Nets top priority. We deliver same day set-up, provide daily Web site back-ups, 24×7 network monitoring and 100% uptime guarantee. Our Data Center is staffed 24×7x365 for system administration, monitoring and trouble-shooting. Our engineers are available by phone, email, and via live chat.

Can you tell us more about these support mechanisms and to what lengths will you go to satisfy customers needs?

In order to deliver the personalized service our customers are looking for, our upper level Engineers are divided into five areas of proficiency: Windows, Linux, Database, Networking, and Business Continuity (Backups) teams. We have industry certified professionals in each area of proficiency and heavily promote continued education, (re)certification, and training programs to achieve our objective of helping our customers achieve their goals. We have multiple tiers of support team available 24/7/365.

Our expert support is ready to go any length to ensure our clients are happy and satisfied with their service and support levels.

The hosting industry has changed a lot in the last year, what predictions do you foresee for this coming year?

It will be interesting to see how our industry evolves in a recessionary environment. Our industry experienced booming growth in the last few years but that was mostly fueled by debt and leverage. With the current credit crunch only a few Hosting companies may thrive and others that sit on millions of debt may have to revisit their business models.

We see some potential with cloud computing and virtualization for the right operators. Atlantic.Net plans to continue to move forward employing the values that have made us successful for 15 years: vision, modesty and discipline. We will continue to focus on stable growth by providing new products and services for existing customers, obtaining new customers and acquiring other Data Center facilities.

Lastly, what is your favorite website and the most recent book you have read?

I personally like Techcrunch.com, and Businessinsider.com
Recent book is Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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