National Vision Selects Internap's High-Performance Colocation, CDN and IP Services to Support Rapid Business Growth

ATLANTA, March 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Internap Network Services Corporation (NASDAQ: INAP), a provider of intelligent IT Infrastructure services, today announced that National Vision, Inc. (NVI), one of the nation's largest optical retailers, is leveraging multiple Internap services, including its robust, scalable colocation and Content Delivery Network (CDN), powered by its patented, high-performance IP network. Internap's flexible platform will allow NVI to meet its increasing IT Infrastructure demands, which are being driven by rapid growth.

NVI is the fourth largest optical retailer in the U.S., with more than 700 retail locations spanning 44 states. Opening approximately 40 new stores annually, the company has a strong growth trajectory, and in 2011, it acquired AC Lens, one of the fastest-growing online contact lens providers in the world. As a result of the acquisition, NVI needed to consolidate the infrastructure for more than 12 AC Lens ecommerce websites. In addition, NVI was seeking a world-class facility for its existing infrastructure, which was housed in its own data center – a converted, former Walmart store with limited space and power capacity.

Rather than invest the substantial time and financial resources necessary to expand its internal data center, NVI sought an IT Infrastructure provider with a full portfolio of services that could easily and cost-effectively scale to meet its current and future requirements. NVI selected Internap based on the scope and flexibility of its portfolio, as well as its unique network performance capabilities. Internap's colocation will provide scalability and redundancy as well as critical anti-DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) protection, while its global, route-optimized Performance IP™ service with TCP acceleration (XIP™) will ensure fast, seamless website access for NVI customers that are placing and tracking orders online and for employees accessing business-critical applications. Additionally, Internap's CDN will distribute NVI's website content across its data center footprint so that it is delivered to end users as quickly as possible – from the geographic location nearest to them.

"As an online and 'brick and mortar' retailer, our primary business priority is ensuring that we deliver a superior experience for our customers. And as we continue to grow, working with the right IT Infrastructure provider is critical to helping us achieve this goal," said John Vaught, chief technical officer at National Vision. "Internap provides us with the flexibility to meet our full range of IT Infrastructure needs today and in the future as our requirements evolve. We are confident that Internap will enable us to grow customer satisfaction and increase the efficiency of our internal business operations through its unparalleled network performance, backed by a 100% uptime SLA."  

Internap works with some of the nation's leading ecommerce and retail providers, including six out of Internet Retailer's top 10 online retailers. More than 3,700 customers worldwide rely on Internap's high-performance IT Infrastructure services; they span a wide range of industries including financial services, gaming, media and entertainment, online education, retail, software and technology and SaaS, among many others.

"Retail organizations like NVI require a high degree of IT Infrastructure flexibility to meet significant fluctuations in demand – from massive traffic spikes to plateau periods, along with a network that is purpose-built to ensure customer satisfaction," said Paul Carmody, senior vice president of product management and business development at Internap. "With one of the most diverse portfolios in the industry – ranging from dedicated hosting and public cloud to private cloud, managed hosting, colocation and a CDN – Internap is uniquely positioned to meet retailers' full range of needs, including unmatched availability and performance guarantees."

Editor's Note: Adding to Internap's retail industry traction, the company also announced today that Vermont Teddy Bear is leveraging its CDN, accelerated IP transit and colocation services to ensure a seamless, high-quality experience for online shoppers.

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About Internap

Internap provides intelligent IT Infrastructure services that combine unmatched performance and platform flexibility to enable our customers to focus on their core business, improve service levels and lower the cost of IT operations. Our unique trio of route-optimized enterprise IP, TCP acceleration and a global content delivery network improves website performance and delivers superior end-user experiences. Our scalable colocation, managed hosting, private cloud, public cloud and hybrid offerings provide enterprises the flexibility to adapt to changing business needs and future-proof their IT Infrastructure. Since 1996, thousands of companies have entrusted Internap with the protection and delivery of their online applications. Transform your IT Infrastructure into a competitive advantage with IT IQ from Internap. For more information, visit http://www.internap.com/, our blog at http://www.internap.com/blog/ or follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/internap.

About National Vision

National Vision, Inc. (NVI) is the fourth largest optical retailer in the United States, operating 700 retail locations in 44 states through the U.S. National Vision employs over 6,000 employees, and our retail divisions include America's Best Contacts & Eyeglasses, Eyeglass World, Vision Centers inside select Wal-Marts, Vista Optical inside Fred Meyer and Optical Centers on select military bases. National Vision has plans to open over 40 America's Best and Military locations annually. For more information, visit http://www.nationalvision.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include statements related to the performance of our IT Infrastructure services and the expected benefits to be received from them. Because such statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, there are important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These factors include the actual performance of our IT infrastructure services; our ability to complete expansion of company-controlled data centers within the expected timeframe; our ability to sell into new data center space; our success in attracting and retaining key talent; the actual performance of our IT infrastructure services; our ability to respond successfully to technological change; the availability of services from Internet network service providers or network service providers providing network access loops and local loops on favorable terms, or at all; failure of third party suppliers to deliver their products and services on favorable terms, or at all; failures in our network operations centers, data centers, network access points or computer systems; our ability to provide or improve Internet infrastructure services to our customers; and our ability to protect our intellectual property, as well as other factors discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Given these risks and uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. We undertake no obligation to update, amend or clarify any forward-looking statement for any reason.

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SOURCE Internap Network Services Corporation