Hosted Registrar Service Now Generally Available from Tucows

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August 13, 2002

Customers Enjoy Cost-Savings and Operating Efficiencies From Outsourced Registration Infrastructure

TORONTO, CANADA, August 13, 2002 – Tucows Inc. (OTCBB: TCOW), in direct response to the changing needs of its channel partners, today announced the general availability of its hosted registrar services platform, OpenHRS. OpenHRS is an outsourced technical infrastructure solution that allows ICANN-accredited registrars to process and manage domain registrations from a single platform without having to build their own back-office processing systems. OpenHRS customers are free to focus on their core business activities while Tucows maintains and operates their back-office registration infrastructure. The service incorporates processing infrastructure, connectivity to registries and ongoing support for top-level domains (TLDs) such as .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .name and .us.

OpenHRS provides registrars a robust outsourced registration solution that Tucows believes leads to lower total costs and increased end-customer satisfaction. OpenHRS features include: facility and bandwidth, system design, comprehensive management and administrative functionality, registry connectivity, monitoring, maintenance and troubleshooting, as well as hardware, software and application upgrades.

OpenHRS Addresses Customer Needs

“As a registrar’s or reseller’s business grows, they often begin to look for a reliable, cost-effective offering that allows them to register domains using their accreditation,” said David Woroch, vice president sales, Tucows Inc. “Many of these customers don’t want to incur the upfront expenses and frustrations of building and maintaining their own solutions. We believe that what they want is their own version of OpenSRS — the platform that Tucows uses to operate its’ wholesale registration business — and that Tucows’ OpenHRS provides that functionality and offers a stable platform upon which they can build their businesses.”

OpenHRS provides newly accredited and existing registrars with a cost-effective and readily available alternative to building their own systems. Further, registrars with existing in-house systems are able to quickly migrate to OpenHRS using proven processes. Tucows already has several resellers such as NamesDirect currently using the OpenHRS service.

“Operating as a registrar in this highly competitive market requires a huge investment in terms of time, talent and finances,” said Richard Lau, general manager, NamesDirect. “By outsourcing the backend of our registrar-to-registry operation to Tucows, NamesDirect is able to capitalize on Tucows’ extensive experience as a registrar, and is free to focus on servicing and supporting our customers.”

A Robust Solution

OpenHRS is fully redundant and scalable with all single-points-of-failure isolated and eliminated. With OpenHRS:

* Servers are housed in a carrier-grade data center that is designed to provide redundant connectivity to the Internet, power supplies, flexible bandwidth, and environmental controls as well as physical and procedural security.
* Registration transactions pass through a redundant load-balancer to redundant application servers designed to ensure optimal availability and end-user satisfaction.
* Data is housed on an enterprise-grade database server where it is also replicated on an identical standby database server. In the unlikely event that the primary database server encounters a system failure, the standby assumes the primary position.
* End-customers are provided access to advanced domain name management, customization, reporting and WHOIS functionality.
* Multiple proprietary domain management connections are tested and managed by Tucows, reducing internal management costs.
* Built-in, automated system alarms and support staff are available 24/7 to ensure the OpenHRS system is up and running. Preventative maintenance and routine systems testing proactively mitigate hardware, system and network failures. Functional specialists provide in-depth subject matter expertise for troubleshooting any component of the solution.
* All software, hardware, registry and competitive enhancements are incorporated in the monthly transaction fee.

“OpenHRS was in development for more than two years. We believe that our substantial investment into this service has produced a highly effective system that is unparalleled in the industry in terms of stability and capability,” commented Mr. Woroch. “Most importantly, it leverages Tucows’ expertise around all the various intricacies surrounding name management, the supporting administration and registrant management tools and puts the technology into the hands of those that need it the most.”

Reducing The Total Cost of Ownership

According to Company estimates, OpenHRS may reduce a registrar’s total cost of ownership by up to 50 percent. This is a result of mitigated downtime, shared economies of scale, removed upfront and on-going design, and development and testing costs.