EarthLink Ranks Among Fastest Growing Cloud Service Providers in Annual Talkin' Cloud 100 Report

ATLANTA, July 31, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ: ELNK), a leading IT and communications provider, today announced that EarthLink ranks 15^th among the world's Top 25 Fastest Growing Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) based on percentage of revenue growth for 2012 versus 2011 according to Nine Lives Media's third-annual Talkin' Cloud 100 report. EarthLink was also listed among the world's Top 100 CSPs in the report. In February of this year, EarthLink was ranked the number one managed service provider (MSP) on Nine Lives Media's sister MSPmentor 501 Global Edition list and report identifying the world's top 501 managed service providers (MSPs).

"As EarthLink continues its evolution as a Cloud and IT Service provider, we appreciate that Nine Lives Mediahas affirmed our robust growth in this sector," said Michael D. Toplisek, EarthLink Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "From our popular Hosted Voice product to the recent acquisition of MSP and hosted IT provider CenterBeam, we are listening to our clients and continuously improving and expanding the cloud solutions they need to more efficiently run their businesses. In short order, watch for EarthLink to roll out an even more robust suite of endpoint management and security, hosted collaboration services, mobile device management and end-user help desk solutions."   

The Talkin' Cloud 100 report is based on data from Talkin' Cloud's online survey, conducted January through May 2013. The Talkin' Cloud 100 report recognizes top cloud service providers based on such metrics as annual cloud services revenue growth (both in actual dollars and in percentage growth rates).

"Nine Lives Media and Talkin' Cloud congratulate EarthLink," said Amy Katz, president of Nine Lives Media, a division of Penton. "The Talkin' Cloud 100 honor arrives amid a land grab in the cloud computing market. And the Talkin' Cloud 100 companies are leading that land grab."

Talkin' Cloud, produced by Nine Lives Media, is the go-to resource for CSPs, VARs and MSPs profiting from cloud computing. Talkin' Cloud features a daily blog, research, Channel Expert Hour Webcasts and FastChat videos. It is the first online media destination for channel partners working in the cloud.

In addition to honoring EarthLink, this year's Talkin' Cloud 100 report profiles:

• Cloud Services Providers: CSPs offer SaaS (software as a service), infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and/or PaaS (platform as a service) to partners/customers.
• Cloud Services Brokerages: CSBs, or cloud brokers, recommend and resell multiple cloud services to customers, and often integrate those services.
• Cloud Services Aggregators: CSAs, or cloud aggregators, typically offer a portal that allows VARs and MSPs to source multiple third-party cloud services for customers.
• MSPs (Managed Service Providers) with cloud services expertise: MSPs proactively monitor and manage customers' on-premises and cloud-based systems.
• VARs (value-added resellers) with cloud services expertise: VARs offer a range of IT consulting, deployment, integration and management services to customers.

About EarthLink
EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ: ELNK) is a leading IT services and communications provider to more than 150,000 businesses and one million consumers nationwide. EarthLink empowers customers with managed services including cloud computing, managed and private cloud, and virtualization services such as managed hosting and cloud workspace. EarthLink also offers a robust portfolio of IT security, application hosting, colocation and IT support services. The company operates an extensive network spanning 29,421 route fiber miles with 90 metro fiber rings and 8 secure data centers providing ubiquitous nationwide data and voice IP service coverage across more than 90 percent of the country. Founded in 1994, EarthLink's award-winning reputation for outstanding service and product innovation is supported by an experienced team of professionals focused on best-in-class customer care.  For more information, visit EarthLink's website at www.earthlink.com.

About Nine Lives Media
Nine Lives Media, a division of Penton (www.penton.com), defines emerging IT markets and disrupts established IT markets. The company's IT channel-centric online communities include MSPmentor (www.MSPmentor.net), The VAR Guy (www.TheVARguy.com) and Talkin' Cloud (www.TalkinCloud.com).

About Penton
For millions of business owners and decision-makers, Penton makes the difference every day. We engage our professional users by providing actionable ideas and insights, data and workflow tools, community and networking, both in person and virtually, all with deep relevance to their specific industries. We then activate this engagement by connecting users with tens of thousands of targeted providers of products and services to help drive business growth. Learn more about our company at www.penton.com. Penton is a privately held company owned by MidOcean Partners and U.S. Equity Partners II, an investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co., LP.

SOURCE EarthLink, Inc.