New Look and Feel to LightEdge.com
Change is a part of life. Over the past 2 1/2 years, LightEdge has evolved significantly. We are now more solutions-based, more focused and offer a more comprehensive set of services. We have led the market with the concepts of Converged Access, Business Continuity and Scale-on Demand IT Services.

To capture the spirit of the company as we stand today, we have redesigned our website. It has been constructed with your needs in mind: clean pages, simple navigation and purposeful information. The site structure now follows our succinct tagline: Voice. Data. IT. Converged, which will enable you to more easily find the information that you are looking for.

What has been changed:

• Pages can be accessed more easily through dropdown menus in the top navigation bar.
• Select products and product categories can be accessed quickly by clicking the link or the category graphic from the Home page.
• Our Products and Services have been consolidated into three categories rather than four. The categories match the tagline that was adopted early this year Voice, Data and IT.
• A Solutions area has been created. This area will serve as a knowledge base for industry information and white papers related to the services that we offer.
• A Login link is available on every page. This allows visitors to immediately access the login for MyLightEdge, Partner Portal and Conferencing.
• A Current Promotions page has been created under Products and Services. Visitors can easily check to see the details of the promotion for our featured products and services.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and feedback on the new design by sending me an e-mail to the link below.

Scott Riedel
Product Marketing Manager

Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year - Finalist
Jim Masterson, Chairman and CEO of LightEdge Solutions, has been selected as a finalist for the 2006 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. LightEdge is one of only 16 companies in the region to advance to the finals. Selection for the regional Entrepreneur of the Year will be held in June. Should Jim win the award for the Central Midwest Region, he will be eligible to compete at the national event held in Palm Springs on November 16-19.

Over the past 20 years, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® award has developed the reputation as the most prestigious honor for entrepreneurs. Previous Entrepreneur Of The Year winners include individuals who have built some of business's most recognizable names: Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Pierre Omidyar of eBay, Inc., Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, Inc., Howard Schultz of Starbucks Corp., Catherine L. Hughes and Alfred Liggins of Radio One, and Jim McCann of 1-800-Flowers.com.

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VoIP Platform Upgrade
LightEdge Solutions recently upgraded our VoIP platform to increase and improve the functionality for our VoIP customers. Converged Access Trunk customers will utilize the new platform, but will not perceive any overall changes to their service. Hosted PBX clients will immediately see several new options, and will receive others as they are tested on the platform and made available.

Overview of changes to Hosted PBX Functionality:

• User List (Admin only) – Screen change
• Call Center (Admin only) – Additional distribution policy
• Music on hold (User) – Ability to activate/deactivate music on hold
• Alternate Number (User) – Enhancement to allow up to 10 alternates rather than just 2.
• Feature Access Code Chaining (User) – Ability to include star and speed dial codes with features like Call Forwarding and Simultaneous Ring.
• Diversion Inhibitor (User) – Inhibits redirecting services on another phone when using Simultaneous Ring or other features.
• Selective Services (User) – Ability to further refine selection parameters for Call Forwarding, Sequential Ring and other features.
• Voice Mail (User) – Several enhancements to voice mail including increased message length and greater number of distribution lists.
• Push to talk (User) – Station to station intercom.
• Many other features that will be made available over the coming months as they are tested by our development team.

If you have questions regarding the changes, please contact phone-support@lightedge.com or 877.771.3343.

Current LightEdge Promotions

Hosted PBX VoIP Productivity Bundle
The VoIP bundle is a full phone replacement for small businesses. The package includes up to T1 Internet Access, 5 hosted PBX seats, 5 Polycom phones, one auto attendant, fax line and Cisco router. Each seat includes 500 minutes of outbound domestic long distance calling.
Click here for more

Converged Access Trunk Bundle
Prepare for the future by eliminating your telcom lines and converging your voice system with your data/Internet connection. Converged access does not require new phones or retraining for your staff. Infinite scalability is provided by creating a hybrid system with Hosted PBX seats. Once your voice and network systems are converged, you can gradually migrate to a fully hosted system.
Click here for more

Hosted Microsoft Exchange - One Month Free
Get all of the benefits of Microsoft Exchange without the infrastructure, maintenance and cost of a premises-based solution. Hosted Exchange through LightEdge is so much more than just e-mail - it allows remote e-mail accessibility through the web, schedule collaboration for better productivity, spam and virus filtering and active directory integration - all in a completely managed environment.
Click here for more

Managed Backup and Recovery - One Month Free
Your business clearly suffers when you have periods of data downtime. LightEdge Solutions' Managed Backup and Recovery allows you to backup your critical data to an offsite data center at multiple times during business hours for quick and easy recovery.
Click here for more

What's all the fuss about Managed Backup and Recovery?

When you get right down to it, a backup plan is a lot like insurance. You usually set it and forget until one fateful day when you need to use it. Once you realize that the plan is inadequate for your needs, it's too late.

LightEdge has recognized a definite need in the market for a cost-effective, offsite managed backup and recovery service to act as part of a company's comprehensive Business Continuity plan. We're asking businesses to re-evaluate their backup strategy and ensure that it is still effective considering the company's life-cycle, the importance of the data and the predicted future growth.

Managed Backup and Recovery is a growing trend for several important reasons:

• Most SMBs can't afford enterprise grade storage like NAS or SAN
• Administrative resources could be better spent on tasks other than daily backup.
• All businesses have critically important, time-sensitive data.
• Many businesses have regulatory compliance issues that can not be dealt with using an on-premises backup.
• Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery practices recommend offsite backup in a secure location.
• Tape backups have been unreliable or slow to recover.

Advantages of LightEdge Managed Backup and Recovery

• Managed service - little administration is required
• High reliability - disk-based backup
• Transparent, non-disruptive backup - allows incremental backup several times per day for more granular recovery points
• Minimal upfront expense
• Supports centralized policy administration and multiple platforms
• Reduced risk by backing up offsite in an enterprise-grade data center
• Rapid data restoration

For more information on Managed Backup and Recovery, contact your Territory Account Manager directly register for a lunch and learn session, or send an information request.

Lunch and Learn Sessions
The Lunch and Learn format is simply an informal gathering to share information on a topic. There is no sales pressure and no expectations. Our goal is simply to promote better understanding of Voice-over-IP telephony and other topics in our markets.

May Lunch and Learn Topic:

Strategies to Minimize Risk
Business Continuity through Managed Backup and Recovery

This session will discuss Backup and Recovery from the perspective of Business Continuity. Our speaker will go into depth on why on-premises tape backups are no longer adequate for the critical operational data being stored today. He will introduce the idea of offsite, incremental, disk-based backup using a technology which takes block-level snapshots of the data. This block-level backup provides multiple recovery points for faster recovery times and minimal disruption to business continuity.

Sign up for the Managed Backup and Recovery Session

For more information on Lunch and Learn topics, locations and dates, refer to the LightEdge Events Page or contact your Territory Account Manager.

Events

EdgeBCC - Business Continuity Center

The Edge BCC (Business Continuity Center) is a unique opportunity for both existing LightEdge clients and businesses located throughout the United States, providing business continuity and risk management capabilities from a facility housed in the Midwest.

From the Edge BCC, LightEdge will offer:

• Disaster Recovery Workspace
  • 300 seats of office workspace, available 24x7x365
  • Conference rooms
  • Desktop PC's
  • VoIP phones for Hosted PBX
  • Network connectivity
• Business Continuity Services
  • Hosted Applications
  • Managed Backup and Recovery
  • Hosted PBX VoIP

Status as of April 30th:

• Steel canopy - Completed
• Interior floor - Completed
• Caulking of pre-cast wall joints - Completed
• Roof waterproofing - In progress
• Masonry walls inside building - In progress

Pre-order Disaster Recovery Seats
Seats in the Edge BCC Disaster Center may be used by businesses in the event that their business location is unable to remain operational, due to fire, natural disaster or other threat to the safety of employees. The disaster center will be furnished with 300 cubicle stations complete with desktop computers and VoIP phones.

LightEdge is now taking orders for the Disaster Recovery Seats. If you are interested in learning more about the EdgeBCC or would like to schedule a walk-through, please contact your Territory Account Manager or call 1.877.471.EDGE (3343).

My LightEdge Support News

Quality Assurance Initiatives
LightEdge Solutions is in the process of implementing a Quality Assurance [QA] program to guide our internal processes and better serve our clients. Initially, the QA Program will focus on the implementation process and ongoing support of products and services.  Ultimately, the QA program will review our entire scope of business processes to suggest areas that can be improved or streamlined for better and more expedient service.

Quality Assurance Reviews will be performed randomly for completed installations and resolved support issues. We will try to keep these reviews as brief as possible to respect your time, but want to gain as much perspective on your implementation as possible. Your perception is our reality - please work with our QA staff to provide detailed and constructive feedback. By listening to what you have to say, LightEdge will be able to take corrective action where necessary and further refine our strengths.

There will be more exciting news about the Quality Assurance Program as development progresses!   

An Overview of the Technology behind LightEdge Solutions

Geographical Coverage
LightEdge owns and operates local network access points (LNAP) in private, non-CO space in 7 major metropolitan areas. These include: Des Moines, IA (DSM); Cedar Rapids, IA (CDR); Davenport, IA (DAV); Moline, IL (MLI); Omaha, NE (OMA); Kansas City, MO (KCY); Minneapolis, MN (MSP); Phoenix, AZ (PHX)

In addition, LightEdge owns collocated space in 36 Central Offices in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Illinois within the cities of Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Davenport, Dubuque, Omaha, Minneapolis, Moline, Rock Island, and Peoria.

Network Architecture
LightEdge built its access network from the ground up, utilizing industry-leading equipment to create a best-of-breed network for the delivery of managed network services to the business customer. The company leases last mile capacity from a variety of providers delivering SONET T1s, frame-relay T1s, private DSL, DS3, OC-n, and Metro Gigabit Ethernet. LightEdge terminates services from these providers to its carrier facilities in each market. 

Each LightEdge market or local network access point (LNAP) is equipped with a Cisco 7xxx Series router and multiple Cisco 5300 series Voice Gateways for switching or routing all types of broadband data or voice traffic.  The Cisco Voice Gateway provides VoIP access to the PSTN via digital voice trunks. The Cisco router provides IP termination for customers on the CBX 500s as well as a full array of IP QoS features.  In addition, the Cisco routers are used to provide private IP VPNs via MPLS for the WAN IP product. This architecture allows data and voice to be privately routed or switched to any part of the network. This also allows national and local Frame, Private Line, or DSL providers to interconnect with LightEdge in any LNAP which in turn allows the company to blend all types of local access into a single private solution for each business customer.

One of the greatest strengths of hybrid access architecture is the Carrier Class datacenters in MSP, MLI, and DSM in which our Access Backbone ties into our hosting environment. Utilizing the virtual routing and QoS capabilities of the Cisco Powered Network, LightEdge can integrate hosted 802.1q VLAN segments with private WANs. This allows the centralized hosting of key business applications such as CRM, Exchange, Terminal Services, and many others. This architecture also allows Lightedge to introduce centralized managed services such as Internet, security, intrusion detection, RAS, and IP PBX. The bulk of the network intelligence and value added overlay services exist solely in these three, redundant LNAPs.

For Business Internet services, LightEdge utilizes a Cisco Powered Network for backbone IP routing and MPLS. These high-performance routing platforms provide Tier 1 BGP peering to the public Internet backbone and customers as needed. Lightedge is multi-homed to multiple providers (UUNet, AT&T, XO, Cogent, KCY-NAP) in multiple markets (MSP, DSM, DAV, and KCY) and also provides all Internet customers with the benefits of InterNAP’s Flow Control Platform, formerly Sockeye which is an automated, real-time traffic analyzer and BGP optimizer. 

Nate Olson-Daniel
Director of Engineering