Verio Recognized for Specialization Excellence in Hosting / Advanced Infrastructure Solutions for 2006 Microsoft Partner Program Awards

July 27, 2006; 08:50 AM

Centennial, Colo. — Today, Verio announced it has been recognized with a Specialization Excellence Award in Advanced Infrastructure, with a focus on Hosting. The company was recognized for excellence in delivering Microsoft-based customer solutions at the 2006 Microsoft Partner Program Awards. An awards ceremony was held July 12 in Boston at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.

“Recognition by Microsoft for our infrastructure and hosting solutions reflects Verio’s strong commitment to customers in providing the best Microsoft-based hosting and managed solutions possible,” said Kiyoshi Maeda, president and acting chief executive officer for Verio. “Verio has consistently invested more resources in its Windows-based platform and solutions, and by giving our customers access to a variety of these solutions, as well as our own MultiSite services, we have seen great success and will continue to augment our offerings with innovative functionality for SMB and midsize enterprise customers.”

Awards were presented in a number of categories, with winners chosen from a pool of more than 1,800 entrants worldwide. The Advanced Infrastructure Solutions Specialization Award recognizes partner excellence in delivering solutions including Web-based applications, internal and external portals, solutions for managing large amounts of data and translating it into business intelligence, and more efficient communications both within the enterprise and from remote sites. Verio was chosen for a 2006 Specialization Excellence Award for this competency in the Hosting category by showing the skills and expertise to design and implement innovative, cost-effective solutions that incorporate these technologies.

“We are honored to congratulate Verio as one of our Specialization Excellence Award winners,” said Allison Watson, vice president of the Worldwide Partner Sales and Marketing Group at Microsoft. “Its achievements this year have helped raise the standard for delivery of customer solutions and support, and we thank Verio for choosing to build on Microsoft technologies.”

Receipt of the Specialization Excellence Award is based on a partner’s demonstrated ability to deliver specific solutions within a specialized subset of Microsoft’s competency areas, solutions categories that represent a particular business practice area or partner business model. Requirements to achieving a specialization competency include certifications, exams and customer references. Multiple awards are distributed in four categories: Partner of the Year for Technology Innovation, Partner of the Year for Sales and Marketing, the Specialization Excellence Awards, and Microsoft Initiative Awards, which also includes the Winning Customer Award.

About Verio
Verio Inc. is a leading provider of hosting and managed services for small and midmarket companies and partners worldwide, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT America, US subsidiary of NTT Communications, which provides complementary global network access reaching over 200 countries worldwide. The company offers businesses a range of Internet services, including Web hosting, managed services and value-added professional service offerings. Verio supports its operations with highly reliable and scalable global infrastructure and systems including the NTT Communications Global IP Network, and provides business solutions to customers and partners in more than 146 countries. More information can be found at www.verio.com.

Verio and the Verio logo are trademarks and/or service marks of Verio Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other names are trademarks or registered marks of their respective owners. ©2006 Verio Inc. All rights reserved.