AtlasTG, headquartered in Seattle, provides outsourced application software support services and software for clients worldwide. The company specializes in remotely supporting custom-built applications and networks using proprietary process, monitoring, and management systems.

As a publicly traded company, AtlasTG’s market capitalization was recently as high as $47,450,000.  The new company formed from AtlasTG’s assets will be 100 percent debt-free, and will operate as a private, wholly owned subsidiary of Architel.

“Recent developments in software, monitoring systems and communications now permit IT outsourcing services to be effectively offered from remote sites,” said Scott Ryan, chief executive officer of Architel.  “Adding AtlasTG’s software and support capabilities extends our ability to serve new client segments and to build upon AtlasTG’s global customer base.”

“This agreement ensures that AtlasTG customers will continue to receive the high level of service they have come to expect – and that’s only the beginning,” said Dennis Sita, chief technology officer at AtlasTG. “Combining AtlasTG’s technology and know-how with Architel’s human and capital resources will enable us to bring innovative services to market and reach our full potential.”

In addition to its core support services, AtlasTG in August introduced AtlasTG Tools 3.0, a software suite for IT management and monitoring that offers more comprehensive integration than other products on the market.  A software-as-a-service offering, AtlasTG Tools 3.0 includes reACT™ incident management software, proACT™ monitoring software, bizACT™ reporting software, and interACT™ knowledge management software.

“AtlasTG’s product development team now has the resources to drive the software-as-a-service model using the diverse toolset developed by AtlasTG over a period of three years and at a cost of millions of dollars,” said Architel co-founder Alexander Muse, who will assume the role of chairman of AtlasTG.
With the addition of AtlasTG’s support and software businesses, Architel will maintain support operations in Dallas; Seattle; and Manila, Philippines.

Also as part of the transaction, Architel will acquire BLive Networks, a hosted desktop sharing service purchased by AtlasTG in 2006.

According to Om Malik, “It is no longer possible for many Sprint customers and Cogent customers to directly communicate across the Internet,” Cogent said and alleged that Sprint was in “violation of a contractual obligation to exchange Internet traffic with Cogent on a settlement free peering basis.” The two companies are in litigation over the issue.”

The good news is that the internet is ’self-heeling’ allowing traffic to find another route, the bad news is that this ’spat’ will slow down the internet.  If your internet connection seems slow today, I would bet money it has to do with Sprint and Cogent.  Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

Architel will create up 10 ‘Hot Standby’ Windows or SQL Servers for a one time fee of $5,000.  Each a complete duplicate of the primary server.  In the event the primary server fails, our engineers would ‘engage’ the ‘Hot Standby’ until the primary server can be repaired.

Microsoft Windows 32 and 64 bit AMIs are supported.  Usage charges are passed through (no mark up) starting at $.125 per hour.  If you are interested, please contact sales 214.550.2000.

We have witnessed two well known IT companies in Dallas miss payroll this week.  We are working with them to transition their clients AND their employees to Architel.  We are increasing our cash reserves in order to help other local IT companies in the event the credit crunch makes it impossible to meet their obligations to employees and clients.  If your IT provider is having problems or if you are an IT provider worried about short term cash needs please give us a call, we can help.

Architel has been a member of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of North Texas for several years.  Since the events of 9/11, each year the organization has remembered those who died and honored those who either gave or risked their lives to save others - now called Freedom Day.  This year Pam Gerber, the executive director of EFNT, thought we could celebrate Freedom Day by serving those who serve us - firemen.  Startups from around North Texas donned their red t-shirts and headed to various firehouses around the city.  Architel was assigned Firehouse 46 and our team is in the process of cleaning, painting, landscaping, replacing carpet, replacing countertops, refinishing wood lockers, tinting windows and whatever else our 50 person team can accomplish in a single day.  Here are some pictures from the event.

I began by explaining that most of the long haul fiber entering Dallas hits the Electra POP near the AA center.   Originally leased (99 year lease) by Western Wireless, then IXC, who became Broadwing and ultimately purchased by Level (3), the small facility is home to most of the long haul fiber in Dallas.  There isn’t enough room in the POP for much besides basic optronics and simply muxing gear, so many carriers have connected their fiber to POPs built in 2323 Bryan St.  The building is full of carriers who use the building to light their fiber and sell capacity.  There are few colocation facilities in the building, but most of them are very full or very expensive.  As a result many of the ISPs connected their networks from 2323 Bryan St. to 1950 Stemmons (more commonly known as the INFOMART) a 1.4 million square foot building with huge floor plates.  Most of the internet routers in Dallas are in one or more facilities located in the INFOMART.

The net-net is that these three locations form a triangle of connectivity.  If any one of them is distrupted Dallas’ various connections to the internet would likely go down.  Staying away from anyone of these locations may seem like a good idea, since in many ways they are great ‘targets’.  Ironically, the most likely scenario is that with all of the construction going on in Dallas (notice all of the cranes?) it is more likely that the local loops (the connections that run between buildings in our streets) will be cut accidently.  If the INFOMART is destroyed I imagine almost every internet connection in Dallas would be distrupted.  If the local loop between the INFOMART and your building is cut you are the only one who will be down.  I suspect you are 99% more likely of the later than the former and of course the former means you are down anyway…

My advice?  For colocation pick one of the main buildings: 2323 Bryan or INFOMART.

Update: AT&T has this to say about this morning’s problems: “There was a routing issue affecting some wireless data use in the Northeast region. AT&T technicians determined the cause and restored service at 11:56 a.m. EDT. Voice calling, text messaging and BlackBerry email were unaffected.”

reprinted from DSL Reports.