independenceIT Chooses EarthLink for Virtualized Cloud Hosting Services

ATLANTA, Sept. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ: ELNK) a leading IT and communications provider, today announced that fast-growing information technology services company independenceIT (iIT) has selected EarthLink's virtualized Cloud Hosting services to deliver Cloud Workspace™ and application platforms to iIT clients. iIT chose to partner with EarthLink for virtualization to improve the performance of its virtualized platform and to dedicate its internal resources to development, support and enhancements rather than data center management. Earlier this year, EarthLink and independenceIT signed an agreement enabling EarthLink to offer iIT's Cloud Workspace solutions to customers as a part of the EarthLink's IT Services product suite.

Previously, iIT operated three data centers and was forced to continually invest in additional hardware and engineering staff to support its rapid growth. To meet its increasing demands and maintain strategic focus, iIT searched for a solution that would provide greater scalability and cost control over its IT infrastructure and software platforms. iIT found that solution in EarthLink's Cloud Hosting service within EarthLink's data centers. Click here to read EarthLink's complete iIT case study.

"Our focus is on developing our cloud delivery and management platform and the Cloud Workspace environment for our clients, not managing network infrastructure," said Charles Buck, iIT Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder. "Utilizing EarthLink's Cloud Hosting service, network infrastructure, and data centers allows us to remain focused on core product development, freeing our developers and systems engineers to bring new and enhanced solutions to our clients."

Virtualizing its data center operations with EarthLink provides iIT the right mix of capabilities and flexibility for its client base. With this approach, iIT maintains control over its servers but reduces hardware and manpower costs. The company can also scale its computing resources more quickly as it brings new clients on board. Plus, as a VMware vCloud provider, EarthLink offers the power and ease of use associated with the VMware solution. EarthLink is also equipped to meet iIT's specific security and compliance requirements. Critical to the company, its clients and their end customers, the EarthLink architecture provides a 99.999 percent uptime guarantee and 24x7x365 monitoring.

"With EarthLink Cloud Hosting, we eliminated the need to add infrastructure or engineering resources to scale our operations, while reducing our annual costs by an estimated 16 percent," said Buck. "We're able to keep our team very focused on profit-generating technology advancements, bringing new platform enhancements to market faster and keeping ahead of the competition while staying lean."

With EarthLink, iIT can also add or remove server space without paying for more than it needs. Moving forward, as iIT adds new clients, the company's automation platforms will create custom virtual machines and on-demand cloud workspaces with all of the applications and end user needs via integration with EarthLink's myLink™ IT Services Center.

"EarthLink Business is committed to simplifying IT complexity," noted Michael Toplisek, EarthLink Executive Vice President of Products and Marketing. "For customers like iIT, with our Cloud Hosting solution we can streamline IT environments with flexible, agile service delivery through virtualization. We worked closely with iIT to design a customized solution to meet its specific business requirements. This unique combination of integrated solutions and personalized service helps businesses improve productivity, manage change, minimize risk, and improve their IT infrastructure, data networks and voice communications."

iIT's Buck agrees, "We feel our products and platform are unique, and iIT truly appreciates the dedication, collaboration and customized approach that EarthLink provides. Any partnership comes down to people and execution. In the end, that's what we bought with EarthLink, the out-of-the-box, flexible thinking and willingness to get it done," added Buck.

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 28,800 route fiber miles with 90 metro fiber rings and 4 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.net.

About independenceIT

independenceIT (iIT) is an industry leading technology company that enables VARs, ISVs and MSPs to provision and support cloud services through its award-winning management platform.  For more than a decade, iIT has successfully delivered the complete Cloud Workspace and facilitated organizations' rapid transition away from traditional IT to quickly realize the cost savings and operational advantages of the cloud. Please visit www.independenceit.com for additional information.

SOURCE EarthLink