TORONTO, July 23 /CNW/ - Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc., the largest alternative communications carrier in Canada, announced today that it has expanded its power house of managed services expertise and hired four IT experts to join its managed services team. Roland Mueller has been named Director of Managed Services, Frank Post and Kirk Pritchard have joined as Regional Managers specializing in server infrastructure and network and security services, respectively, and Joshua Cook has been brought on as Server Infrastructure Architect. These employees join an already-skilled team of network, security and server administrators. The existing team has more than 100 years of combined managed network and managed systems administration experience and currently helps more than 1000 customers manage their mission critical infrastructure.

"This is a very exciting time for Primus as we experience this period of tremendous growth and change," said AJ Byers, EVP Operations. "These four professionals will be invaluable assets to the Primus team and to our mission to provide the highest quality service to all of our Data Centre, Hosting and Managed Services clients.

Roland Mueller, a veteran IT professional with more than 25 years of experience, joins Primus as Director of Managed Services. He has a breadth of experience in various aspects of the IT industry, including service management, systems management, managed services, data centre, outsourcing and operations and business development. Throughout his career, he has established data centres for Fortune 500 companies and managed their IT support organization teams internationally.

Prior to joining Primus, Mr. Mueller was the Director of Data Centre Technology and Operations at Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, where he provided consulting services such as IT planning, design and management. Before his tenure at Accenture, Mr. Mueller worked for Siemens Business Services, an international provider of information technology solutions and services. He began by leading the Canadian Siemens Managed Services Application Hosting Data Centre operations and helpdesk, and later worked as the Director of their managed services, data centre outsourcing and application hosting departments. He was also responsible for all of Siemens Business Services operations and technology, providing both strategic and tactical leadership and direction for the company's data centre, architecture and infrastructure including the North American SAP Hosting Competency Centre in Mississauga.

Mr. Mueller holds a Business Operations Management Diploma and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Germany.

Frank Post joins Primus' Managed Services team as the Toronto Regional Manager. Mr. Post is a seasoned manager and he brings with him a wealth of technical innovation and experience and a proven track record of providing exceptional client service. He has more than 18 years of experience in the IT industry and more than 10 years of experience in various management roles overseeing all aspects of IT.

Over the course of his career, he has developed expertise in server and storage infrastructure architecture, including areas such as rapid server and business solutions implementation, consolidation, virtualization and centralization.

Mr. Post has certifications in various levels of Microsoft Certified System Engineer and Netware certificates and a Computer Systems Technology, with Honours Diploma from Mohawk College in Hamilton.

Kirk Pritchard, who worked for Primus earlier in his career as Manager, Managed Network Services, has rejoined the managed services team as Ottawa Regional Manager and Network Security Architect. During his previous term at Primus, Mr. Pritchard instituted the original managed network services team and managed the Vancouver Data Centre.

He has more than 10 years of experience in many different aspects of the IT industry ranging from support, customer service, network administration, security administration, project management, and solution design to various levels of management. In the Canadian market, Mr. Pritchard has been a leader in providing managed services solutions to banks, hospitals, government organizations and enterprise level North American organizations.

Joshua Cook, who previously worked for Primus as a Managed Services Administration Supervisor, rejoins Primus' Managed Services team as a Server Infrastructure Architect. His previous experience includes working as a systems administrator for SySAIO Inc. which provided support for Zoom Airlines and her sister companies' multi-continent WAN and active directory setup. Mr. Cook was also responsible for the design and maintenance of a real time transaction processing hardware environment. He has a range of experience with many issues related to server infrastructure including FC SANs and redundant storage and the configurations for MSSQL servers in a clustered, performance sensitive environment. Mr. Cook holds a MCP 2.0 -- Certified Professional designation.

Primus Canada has been an expert managed services provider since 1999. With the addition of this new combination of talent to an already skilled team, Primus is focused on and committed to delivering value to businesses that require managed services. From very basic to increasingly complex, from Managed Security to Business Continuity to Managed Server Administration, the Primus suite of managed services and its team of experts provide low risk, low cost of entry solutions to ensure a business' success.

About Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc.

Primus Business Services, a division of Primus Telecommunications Canada, is a leading national full service communications provider offering voice, data, hosting, IP connectivity, disaster recovery and business continuity solutions to over 40,000 Canadian Companies. With 7 world-class, state-of-the-art Data Centres across Canada, Primus Business Services keeps companies' websites, servers, and mission critical applications connected and secure 100% of the time. For more information on Primus Business Services' products and services, please visit www.primuspbs.ca. Take a virtual tour of our Data Centre at www.primustel.ca/en/business/media/IDCVideo.

Hannah Arnold or Shannon Vander Hook
Linden Alschuler & Kaplan, Inc. Public Relations
212-575-4545