2002

IBS

With the growth of users peaked and in decline combined with more compact computer servers, AOL didn’t need all the space that the new computer space GTC provided.  My boss came up with the idea that AOL could sell computer hosting services, physical datacenter space and web server management to other companies. He pitched the idea to upper management, and they agreed to let my manager proceed with the idea which was called Internet Business Solutions or IBS. I always found the name amusing as there were TV commercials on at the time for Irritable Bowl Syndrome, or IBS.  IBS wasn’t a “company” it was just a name for our group. There were no salespeople, no marketing, no flashy brochures, I never did understand how they planned to get any business. We did have a couple of paying customers, one which I managed the project was Verisign who provided Internet Domain Name Services (DNS). In 2000 Verisign bought the company Network Solutions who provided the .com, .net and .org domain suffixes. I registered my Mixsonian.com with Network Solutions back in 2000. With so much of the Internet traffic flowing through AOL, Verisign placed one of its top-level domain servers at AOL. IBS did not manage the Verisign servers, we only provided power and space in our datacenter. It was an easy project for me, get the datacenter staff to allocate a space and power for the Verisign rack of servers, coordinate the shipping, receiving and getting their rack onto the allocated space, get the network team to allocated network connections to the AOL routers, get IP space allocated and coordinate Verisign staff to enter the datacenter and work on their servers.  

Other than Verisign and the handful of nonprofits, IBS never succeeded in obtaining any other customers and was pretty much a failure.

Yoga Teacher