Sydney, 6 July 2007

Interactive Gets Radical

What do you get when you put a 1300cc engine in a fibreglass body shell and make "fun" the primary objective? A Radical Extreme SR3 dual control racecar! Under the expert tuition of five qualified instructors, Interactive and a select group of customers took to the track at Oran Park in five Radicals. After some initial time-trials to get settled into speed mode, it was time to go head-to-head with some of the fastest men and women in IT. With lap times around the circuit approaching the 50 second mark and top speeds of over 150km/hr it was a hard-fought race with the spoils going to the three man team of John Costello (CIO, Ernst & Young), Peter O'Connor (MD, Network Appliance) and Christopher Ride (MD, Interactive). But the major bragging-rights of the day went to our own Chelsie Hemingway (Director of Customer Relationships), who recorded the fastest lap time of the day (50.71 seconds). Congratulations Chelsie! You have put the fastest men in IT, in their place!

Brisbane, 26 February 2007

Eight Mile Plains Nears Completion

Six months into construction, Interactive's new Brisbane data centre/office/warehouse complex nears completion. Christopher Ride (Managing Director, Interactive), Clint Seagrave (Director of Engineering, Interactive) and Andy Jones (Queensland Sales Manager, Interactive) toured the facility with one of the men responsible for it's delivery; Tom Boyle, Graystone Site Manager. "Things are progressing well," Interactive's Paul Cutler (Director of Infrastructure) commented. "The facility will be completed, as expected, in September 2007." "Brisbane is a strong, growing market," Christopher Ride said. "With increasing pressure on infrastructure, such as power in Queensland, and the risk of flooding a constant concern, our customers require the best data centre facilities and BC sites available." Interactive has chosen the Eight Mile Plains Technology Park to locate it's facility. "It represents the safest geography and the best communication systems available in Queensland and is ideally located between Brisbane and the Gold Coast".

Melbourne, 28 February 2007

Interactive Port Park

After 18 months of meticulous planning, Interactive's new purpose-built Victorian head-office turned soil in February. The four-story data centre/office/warehouse complex represents Interactive's largest investment to date. "This complex will provide the most comprehensive systems availability options available in Australia," Christopher Ride, Managing Director of Interactive said. "We are all very proud of the advancements we have made in protecting Australian businesses. This demonstrates our commitment to providing the best solutions available, not only in Australia, but across the world." The new facility is due for completion in January 2008. As a novel way of turning soil, Christopher operated a Case CX130 excavator to move the first 770 cubic litres of dirt. "Thankfully, no damage was done," Christopher commented with a smile. "And the project remains on track."

Melbourne, 18 March 2007

Renault - World Champions!

The Renault Formula One team hosted Network Appliance and Interactive in the Pit area just moments before the 2007 Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix. Simon Green (Vice President, Network Appliance) and Christopher Ride (Managing Director, Interactive) and their teams had the opportunity to see the cars close up and meet the members of Renault including Test Driver Nelson Piquet Jr. Team Marketing Manager for Renault, Jason Campbell, commented, "There are more than 5,000 parts in a Formula One car and each must work 100% perfectly for the cars to reach the finish line." Network Appliance storage is used by Renault to monitor and diagnose each cars performance by live-feed directly back to France, for analysis during the race. This type of technology has the potential to improve performance by as much as 0.1 seconds per lap by correctly adjusting wings, engine settings and brake bias to assist in improving lap times. Renault are the reigning Formula 1 World Champions for the second year in a row after Fernando Alonso took out the title again in 2006.