Press Release – 2/2/06
Gliding Popularity Challenges New Zealand's Top Hosting Company
The international success of the New Zealand Community Trust Gliding Grand Prix was highlighted this week when leading
New Zealand web hosting company, iSERVE, had to temporarily reduce its level of service due to unexpected high demand
from overseas traffic.
iSERVE quickly rectified the problem by disabling the www.gp06.com web site and moving several video files to a US based
server restoring the web site within half an hour. This subsequently reinstated full service to its other New Zealand
customers who had lost international connectivity to their websites as a result of the site’s popularity.
"This is unprecedented for gliding," said Grand Prix director, Peter Newport. "Never before has the sport attracted so
much attention, proving the Grand Prix achieved it's main objective of raising awareness of gliding and providing these
world class pilots with the recognition they deserve. If we can keep the momentum going the future for gliding is
looking very bright indeed."
At its peak, the gp06.com web site was receiving over 30,000 hits an hour with visitors requesting 12,103,140KB of data
a day. Most popular downloads were video action of the final days' racing featuring the world's top pilots as the did
battle in the skies over Omarama for the prestigious Anaro Group Cup and a secured place in next year's World Sailplane
Grand Prix. The overall winner was New Zealand's Ben Flewett with Giorgio Galetto of Italy second and Poland's Sebastian
Kawa third.
iSERVE is New Zealand's top web hosting company and last year was ranked 10th fastest growing company in the
Deloitte/Unlimited Fast 50 Awards and was 87th on the Asia Pacific list.
ENDS