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Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Lowell Gray buys Shore.Net back, relaunches in Lynn
By Mass High Tech staff
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Shore.Net, at one time the largest regional Internet service provider in New England, is back.
The Lynn-based ISP has been re-acquired from its parent, Primus Telecommunications Inc., by a company run by Shore.Net’s founder and CEO, Lowell Gray.
According to Ivan Santucci, director of marketing for Shore.Net, Gray owned the property that held the Primus data facility. "When it came time to renew the lease, they asked Lowell if he was interested in buying (the company itself) back," Santucci said.
While Shore.Net has quietly been contacting its customers about the transition and will continue its regional ISP business, the company’s main focus will be on hosting services, specifically colocation, application hosting and cloud computing services, Santucci said.
The company plans to offer cloud computing services to local startups that are developing applications in the cloud and will function as a kind of incubator.
"That is definitely a key element," Gray said. "We do have space available. We could have a great incubator up here in Lynn."
While Shore.Net won’t necessarily be directly involved in backing any of the companies incubating in its physical and virtual space, Gray didn’t rule it out, and noted Shore.Net’s long standing relationship with the city of Lynn and the Economic Development & Industrial Corp. of Lynn, a quasi-public agency that offers micro-loans for businesses.
"Although I haven’t talked with them lately, they have done a lot in the past and I have worked with them before," Gray said.
But letting other people use Shore.Net’s servers and structure to develop software-as-a-service products is not Gray’s only goal. He plans to hire developers and engineers to expand on the technology that made Shore.Net a major acquisition target for Primus in the first place.
"I bought back all the intellectual property when I bought the company back, and we have a very rich billing system that we can offer our customers, not just for them but to use for their customers as well," Gray said. He plans to develop that technology and more like it that came with the re-acquisition and offer it as a managed service.
Shore.Net was founded in 1993 and in 1998 it moved its Network Operations Center to the former New England Telephone and Telegraph building in downtown Lynn after extensive renovations. Primus acquired Shore.Net in April 2000. Gray founded Pea Island Computing Corp. in 2000, following a stint as general manager of the McLean, Va.-based Primus operations in Lynn called Primus Managed Hosting. That facility will continue to be Shore.Net’s headquarters.
"The NOC is still there just the way it was," Gray said. "I have a lot of work to do to build really compelling offerings for people," he said. "To get started, we have very good infrastructure. We’re actually offering rack space at the best price on the market anywhere, because it is all bought and paid for. Selling rack space is the one thing I have to offer."
Growing the hosting and colocation customers will help Gray grow the rest of the business.
"That’s going to fund the development of a real world-class engineering team," he said.
The company employs "under 10 people" at the moment, but Gray points out he has “quadrupled” the staff since acquiring Shore.Net in March.
Gray isn’t touting some unattainable growth goals, however, particularly in light of the economy today. "You have to manage your growth and head count carefully," he said. "Shore.Net is entering a very different environment than in the ’90s.
"1999 compared to 2009 is a completely different world."
Article last updated May 8, 2009.
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