Sitting in my office on a dreary British January day (a Monday to add further insult to injury), I have just come off the telephone to our good friends at Internap HQ, based in Atlanta, Georgia. The weather may not be much better on the other side of the pond at this time of the year, but it is certainly a tonic to think so!
Following our call, I cannot help but reflect that at this juncture in 2012, we were in the midst of partnership negotiations and had yet to put any faces to names or fully explore all the opportunities open to us as partners. Some twelve months on and we are entering the second year of our association, both sides bringing with them a collection of great memories and achievements from 2012. I now know what high-speed internet hosting is all about and my colleagues at Internap understand a little more about Formula One tyre strategy. I should say that not only do I know what high-speed internet hosting actually means, but I have actually seen the effects of it first hand, with the Sahara Force India website benefitting from decreased load times and a greater ability to deal with the spikes in traffic that Formula One race weekends bring. In fact, I am now evangelical about the benefits of HSIH (as I like to call it) to my ever-suffering and IT-literate husband. But of far greater importance than improving my (decidedly weak) IT vocabulary has been the opportunity for key Internap customers and specialist IT media to meet our 2012 driver line-up: Paul Di Resta, Nico Hulkenberg and Jules Bianchi.
Starting with a dinner in New York in June after the Montreal Grand Prix, taking in an IT media briefing in the UK at Silverstone around the British Grand Prix and climaxing in a meet and greet event in Austin, Texas during the inaugural Austin Grand Prix, there have been plenty of opportunities for the friends and customers of Internap to get up close and personal with the senior team personnel and drivers. During these events, the synergies between the two organisations have become increasingly obvious. Both parties apply advanced technology to save time, both are performing in a crowded market place (or grid in Sahara Force India’s case) and both are striving to be the very best in their particular field.
2013 is set to be another exciting year in Formula One’s history, and at Sahara Force India we plan to continue to score strong points and challenge our competitors throughout the season. We have some further activity planned with Internap at key rounds, and some expansion phases planned for our website, www.forceindiaf1.com. One thing is sure, we are in safe hands with Internap as our hosting partner, leaving us time to concentrate on what we do best — racing cars. As for me, well, I hope my IT education will continue. I believe there is an IT cloud as well as our January rain clouds, so that is my next lesson to be learnt. Wonders will never cease…
For more information about Sahara Force India and Internap, read the case study.
