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Interview: George DeVack Chief Executive Officer of OLM, LLC HostIndex.com recently had a chance to speak with George DeVack, the CEO of OLM LLC, a large provider of web hosting solutions. Here's our exclusive interview! HostIndex.com: You recently took possession of a new 22,000 sq/ft building to house the OLM Network Operations Center (NOC). What challenges did you face with this relocation? George DeVack: We were really excited to move into the new NOC in Trumbull at the beginning of the year. Obviously, our most important goal was to make this move seamless to our customers. It really wasn’t a problem, since most of our existing customers had been hosted in our Illinois data center prior to the move, and they remained there. After we opened the Connecticut data center, we began filtering new clients to the new facility or the Illinois facility, depending on their individual needs. Our bigger challenge will be in relocating our Illinois customers to the new Chicago NOC we took possession of this summer. That move will probably happen at the end of this year after careful planning and consideration. HostIndex.com: What is the capacity of the data center, and how does it facilitate improved customer satisfaction for the companies you host? What do you consider to be the key elements for a hosting provider to successfully achieve optimum customer satisfaction? George DeVack: The Connecticut data center has the capacity to house over 4,000 servers in its current state, and we can double that capacity rapidly if need be. Our new Illinois NOC will have a much larger capacity (4X ). We are planning to establish a point-to-pointfiber connection between the two centers to improve communications and service which, in turn, will provide faster solutions for our customers. We’ve kept our customers happy by providing consistently reliable Internet connections along with outstanding personal service. HostIndex.com: When you made the move into the new Trumbell, CT facility last December, you were also hinting at expansion plans for Europe and Asia. Will we be seeing those expansions soon? Why are you considering Europe and Asia to grow your customer and revenue base? George DeVack: We actually already have sales from over 150 countries, primarily driven by resellers’ marketing efforts. We have a very good reseller program, and it’s very successful internationally. We still plan to increase our direct marketing efforts overseas, especially as we ramp up our domain registration business with our recent certification to offer international domain names beyond the standard dot-com, dot-net, and dot-org. <%getBannerByGroup("bottom_main")%> HostIndex.com: What role will strategic alliances play in your plans to expand operations overseas? George DeVack: We are currently seeking out a few strong strategic alliances to help us increase our marketing presence in the US as well as overseas. Clearly, we need to analyze the buy vs. build decision when considering things like web site translation and international market analysis. I suspect it will be better for us to partner with somebody that already invented that wheel rather than reinvent it ourselves. HostIndex.com: OLM currently hosts 150,000 domains in more than 150 countries. Clearly this can't be a "one-size fits all' operation. As a hosting provider, how do you successfully adapt your services to meet the diverse needs of your customers? George DeVack: We realize we can't be all things to all people, but we do have a few really strong, flexible plans that we offer our clients that fit most of their needs. Of course, we make it really simple to upgrade from one plan to the next, or to add additional features. HostIndex.com: Customers and resellers alike demand fast response times to all support inquiries. What measures have OLM.net put in place to meet these demands? George DeVack: Well, we have a lot of pride in our customer and technical service staff, which works 24/7. We are constantly training them and monitoring their performance through our customer care program and customized tracking software. For example, our support desk keeps submission histories and gathers stats on average call closure times and individual technician performance. We also make department supervisors responsible for quality control, which includes reviewing the technician's answers and responses to make sure each customer is answered properly. HostIndex.com: Thank you for sharing your time with us here at HostIndex.com; the web's LARGEST hosting directory.