Just like what said by the famous American poet Langston Hughes “Let the rain kiss you….. Let the rain sing you a lullaby…” The whole atmosphere at Exabytes’ office today resembles what MR Hughes said about rainy days. “Let the rain beat upon your head… feel the rain like a lullaby…”

It is a Wednesday’ morning, it is first day of September 2010 in Penang, and many of us have to work today after a long break during the weekend + Merdeka Day celebration, so instead of relishing MR Hughes’ ambience of a rainy day, many Exabees have come to work, with umbrellas.

Not only do them remind us of MR Hughes’ famous rainy day quote, all these umbrellas actually look like a few mushrooms growing on the ground, some of these umbrella do have their WEBSITES’ URLs printed on the surface, aren’t they?

How would it be if all umbrellas in the world have their brands’ websites printed on them? Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing for people to get to know about them?

Well, well, well ……

How about a cup of Nescafe.com.my after the crazy rainy day traffic in this hectic Wednesday’s morning?

If we could treat all our customers to a cup of Nescafe in our office today, we would!

Cheers~!

Insight @ Exabytes! rainy day

If you ever see a lady in her twenties pushing a shopping trolley full of Milo and Nescafe, making her way to pay at the cashier of Sunshine Supermarket in Bayan Baru, Penang, don’t be surprised! Well, she is no owner of a large kopitiam or a ‘Milo hoarder’ who tries to hoard Milo in Malaysia. Instead, chances are high that she is our Office Manager – Ms KY Chan.

Extremely dedicated and always willing to take on extra tasks which are not within her job scope, KY Chan aka Qi Yong (a familiar name in our office) is the main person in our this week’s feature – Exabytes’ Administration Department.

Although Qi Yong is the only person in the department, her job includes assisting Finance Department in making various banking transactions, preparing payments for our vendors, processing payroll, handling big and small matters related to human resource, keeping important documents in the filing system, taking care of the office’s amenities, changing light bulbs……. (I’m going to stop here as it’s simply too long to mention all)

Read more…

Insight @ Exabytes!

It’s the Annual Exabytes Sports Tournament! This August on 7th, we gathered all the staff especially the sports enthusiasts from Exabytes at this beautiful beach called Ruang Beach, to showcase our ‘athletic’ bodies and skills, enhance the spirit of our sportsmanship, and most importantly, foster the relationships and teamwork among Exabees . Simply put, we were there to have a lot of fun!

While each of us attended the event in the most jovial and excited mood, our 2010 Annual Sports Day didn’t start and appear convincing at all. It was a rainy morning and dark clouds were seen all over the sky. But just as we thought that the event was going to flop, the rain stopped and it turned out to be a pretty fine day!

Seeing this, a lot of us hurriedly unpacked all the stuff we had in our bags, and set up everything which was needed on this ‘half’ fine day! Besides the food for BBQ, the most important thing was the gigantic rope which we would use in our TUG-OF-WAR!!

TUG-OF-WAR!!

With more than 30 participants including the organizers, we were all too excited to play the 3 dirty and exciting games we used to play in high school – three-legged race, tug-of-war and volleyball. And when the clocked struck 3.30pm, it was all rock and roll….!

Our sport day kicked off with one of the favorites in most primary and high schools – Three-Legged Race, as planned by the OC.

Tying up together – I will not proceed without you

Yazid, Kuan and TS Ooi in a team

Team B Vs team C

Many of us started off by being a bit slow, but after some warming up and familiarization, we were so surprised to see that some of the ‘Three Musketeers’ tied together could even sprint! Man! They must have recalled the way to win Three-Legged Race back on their primary school sports days.

To the dismay of teams A, C and D, team B upset the rest and emerged as the winner of this game!!

In the journey to reclaim their pride, tug-of-war was played not too long after the three-legged race. This time, Gaveen of team B had no intention to give it up that easily anymore! Swearing to himself that he must win for his team in this game, he pulled, pulled and pulled like no tomorrow!!! Check out the face he made when he pulled!

Gaveen the 'mighty puller'

But sadly, Gaveen didn’t make it…..   Team A which consisted of our self-claimed hunky guy Roger Lew and our CEO MR Chan among the rest proved themselves to be the most powerful persons!

After that, it’s all fun and breezy. Volleyball by the beach, this time however, our spirit was not as strong as it used to. Distracted by the beautiful view of the sea and the fact that BBQ time was approaching, our concentration started to wander. But still, all of us put on a tough fight but eventually, we had to hand over the champion title to team D.

Beach Volleyball

After all the sweats and exciting moments, it’s time for us to chow down on some delicious looking honey-coated chicken wings and sausages – the long waited BBQ session!

BBQ Dinner 1

BBQ Dinner 2

Savoring our favorite food by the beach while chatting with good friends cum colleagues, I guess there is no other better way to wrap up our 2010 Annual Sports Day. But wait! What about the ultimate winner? We already had the winners for three-legged race, tug-of-war and volleyball, but what about the overall winner of this sports day?

After some point calculation and performance assessment by the OC, we are proud to announce our ultimate winner of this sports day – AND IT GOES TO…….. Team A!!!

The Ultimate Champion of our Sports Day – Team A

And the first runner-up is….. Team D

The First Runner-up – Team D

And the second runner-up is….. Team B

The Second Runner-up – Team B

Congratulations to all the winning teams!!

Lastly, we would also like to extend our gratitude to the Organizing Committee – David Ch’ng (advisor), EK Lim, KC Yeap and JY Teh for the sweats and all the hard work! Thank you very much and all we want to say is that we really had a wonderful time!

Ops. I guess I have miss out to share some picture of the location of our Sports Tournament. Yoh, look down and you will see them.

Penang Water Sport Recreation Centre 1

Penang Water Sport Recreation Centre 2

Insight @ Exabytes! Penang Water Sport Recreation Centre, Sports Tournament

Well, how many of you out there are crazy about video games? I’m sure tons of you are!

As in Exabytes, there are many video game or Wii fanatics too. In order to feed the gaming appetite of these fanatics in the company, Wii Competition is held as a yearly internal event for our staff.

Exabytes Wii Competition 2010 was held from 26 May 2010 – 15 Jun 2010 in Exabytes Penang office Fun Room. We are sorry for this update which is little later through blog.

Read a little more about Exabytes Wii Competition 2009 here.

As so many of us are already familiar ‘practising Wii’ after office hours. No doubt, this year’s competition is a special one because in previous years our staff were competing in groups but for this year, it’s all one-to-one actions. Participants are allowed to choose only one game they play best from the following:

1. Table Tennis Game
2. Basket Ball Game
3  Swordsplay Game
4. Cycling Game
5. Archery Game

And…….. Here we start!!

First Match - PY Ooi Vs Roger Lew: Since it’s the first match, might as well take some time to warm up!

COO Andy Vs Luis Ku. Andy: I’ll beat you with grace! Luis Ku: I sting like a bee!

Table Tennis by the beach

Some emotional moments!

And after numerous exciting rounds and fierce competition, the WINNERS are out. Our CEO Chan Kee Siak will present the prizes to our winners.

Table Tennis Game Winner – HP Beng

Basketball Game Winner – CY Tan

Swordplay Game Winner – Michael Ch’ng

Cycling Game Winner – KC Yeap

Archery Game Winner – KS Lim

You guys are officially recognized as the Wii Fanatics and sport enthusiasts of Exabytes!

Congratulations KS Lim,HP Beng, CY Tan, KC Yeap and Michael Ch’ng

And of course after numerous exhausting rounds of competition, it will be against the company culture to not have a ‘Makan-Makan’ feast as a celebration and some ‘sweat replenishment’ moments.

The closing party was held on 15 June, 12-1pm and all participants were treated to a great variety of savory food including pizzas, potato salad, bihun, fried rice, and many more.

Last but not least, a thousand thanks to our Organizing Committee for making this event so much fun and a successful one! Let’s give a big round of applause to them, from your left in the first row is our OC Advisor Adeline Tan, followed by ST Ooi at her right. In the second row starting from your left are Arren Tan, Hooi Meng and Kevin.

So long, Exabytes’ Wii Competition 2010! And we definitely look forward to the next year’s Wii Competition with greater anticipation!

Insight @ Exabytes! Wii

Another strong propeller of Exabytes, which is of this week’s feature, is our team of Business Development Department – Malaysia Division. Just like their colleagues in the International Division, they too spend a huge portion of their time sitting in the meeting room, brainstorming for ideas and coming out with our market-savvy and value-competitive hosting packages which have benefited many Exabytes’ clients. However, their jobs focus on only the sales and marketing for our customers from Malaysia.

Consisting of 5 very motivated and upbeat individuals, the ‘Active 5′ in this division are probably the most talkative and communicative persons in the whole company, for their jobs are to interact with customers regarding the company’s products and the customers’ hosting needs, both using their mouths and their ‘penmanship’ (using email).

The ‘Active 5’ in our Business Development Department – Malaysia Division

Read more…

Insight @ Exabytes!

Have you ever called in to talk to the staff of Exabytes regarding your hosting needs? Ever called in to enquire about our latest promotions and negotiate for a better deal? If you have, who exactly were these people who talked to you on the phone/via email and guided you through the process of finding the most suitable hosting package?

Introducing the powerful, energetic and behind the scene force which drives Exabytes forward, our Business Development Department! With the total number of 34,000+ active clients and 100,000+ domains hosted with Exabytes and growing every day, all these dedicated people you have been interacting with on the phone/via email is the driving force which propels Exabytes forward!

Our Business Development Department consists of 8 important and dedicated people, in which 3 of them are in the International Division, and the remaining 5 in the Malaysia Division. Just like any business development personnel in the world, 8 of them spend a huge portion of their time sitting in the meeting room, brainstorming for ideas and coming out with our market-savvy and value-competitive hosting packages which have benefited many Exabytes’ clients. It’s also their passion to carry out regular sales promotions to reward our existing and prospective customers.

This week, we are going to feature the International Division, which is made up of 3 very important persons who handle the business development activities of exabytes.com, exabytes.sg, wpwebhost.com and iloveblog.com.

Read more…

Insight @ Exabytes!

CEO of Exabytes, Chan Kee Siak or more warmly known as ‘Ah Chan’ by his fellow colleagues and friends, has recently appeared in one of the most renowned local newspapers, Malaysia SME to talk about his dreams and how he started off as a 19-year-old enterprising lad from Penang and a college dropout from Tunku Abdul Rahman College.

With the current Exabytes serving more than 32,000 clients from both Malaysia and overseas and generating RM8.5 million revenue yearly, Chan has more to tell than all these commendable numbers.

It all started off back then when he was just a helper at his father’s Koay Teow T’ng stall in Penang. When he was young, he didn’t have the slightest idea that he would be a businessman one day. “During my younger days, I never thought of being a businessman or having my own business. It just came rather naturally with each step I took along the way. Maybe because from young I had helped out at the stall, I was exposed to handling money and communicating with customers.” Chan was quoted as saying.

His first year at college was not a ‘honeymoon year’ as deemed by many. Instead of enjoying his first college year, Chan sold and repaired computers while dabbling in website design. He soon realized the difficulty in finding reliable and specialized web hosting service providers in Malaysia.

At merely 19, he knew that he had to seize the opportunity before someone else saw it. Chan’s very first office was his bedroom, but it didn’t take long for him to turn his bedroom operation business to the largest hosting provider in Malaysia before went on to receive MSC status in 2005.

Recalling his tough old days, Chan couldn’t help but remembering all the uncertainties and dilemmas he felt back in college. “At first I skipped lectures and later on, I skipped tutorials. In the end, I even had to skip exams due to the overwhelming response from my clients.”

The decision he had to make was clear: either quit the business or quit his studies. He decided to quit his studies after one year. “I decided to give myself one year to fully concentrate on the business. I managed to convince my parents that if the business failed, I would go back to college.”

Today, with average business growth of over 20% annually, Exabytes has 55 staff members in Penang and KL offices and servers located in both Denver, Colorado USA and Cybercity in Malaysia.

Chan’s next challenge is to lead the company to become a globally managed one with more consideration for better working procedures and proper financial management.

For now, Exabytes is not looking at other forms of IT businesses as they intend to focus primarily on web hosting. However, while the team are kept busy updating themselves with the latest tools and technology pertaining to web hosting, they are exploring various applications that could add value to their customer hosting plans, including Online HR Management Systems for SMEs who want a cost effective way to handle their payroll and basic HR operations, as well as the recently developed Online Marathon Management System for the Penang Bridge Marathon.

To the soft-spoken yet highly ambitious Chan, his dream is to make EXABYTES a multinational IT conglomerate one day.

You could download the PDF format of the interview here.

Insight @ Exabytes!

8th April 2010, 7pm. The breeze was cold and the sun had set, 43 Exabees (Exabtyes’ emplyees aka the big family of Exabytes) with empty stomach, some insisting on wearing their very loose pants, were heading to the palace of food, Spice Market Cafe in Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa, Batu Ferringhi.

Sorry if all these sound a bit exaggerating, but we certainly were excited to satisfy our palate and hunger with more than a hundred varieties of foods served at the International Buffet of Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa.

In fact, besides being a food escapade for many of us, this buffet dining among Exabees is a celebration of the completion of server migration from TMNet Data Center and AIMS Data Center in Cyberjaya to AIMS Data Center KL. Moreover, it is also to reward the great effort put in by all staff members especially the technical staff who had to endure many sleepless nights in KL.

Indeed, this round of server migration was relatively a long process which stretched over 4 months (started December 2009 and completed in March 2010). The server migration process wouldn’t have been a success if it had not been for the good team work of Exabees who worked hand-in-hand to provide support directly or indirectly to our valued customers before and after the migration period.

Not forgetting the immense patience our clients have shown us, we at Exabytes would like to extend our gratitude for your kind understanding and cooperation. Our apologies if the migration has caused any inconvenience to you.

Besides, we would also like to say thank you to all data center staff (TMNet DC Cyberjaya, AIMS DC Cyberjaya) who assisted us in ensuring a smooth process of migration throughout this period of time.

Yet, there is another reason to celebrate! As March 2010 marked the closing of our financial year 2009, with all the continuous support from our loyal customers, we had again exceeded the revenue target set for this month.

In all sincerity, we want to thank our clients again for continuously renewing their hosting services with us and keep recommending new clients to Exabytes. We couldn’t have maintained as the No.1 Hosting Provider in Malaysia without you!

While devouring the best food in such a great variety, we didn’t forget to take a few snapshots of us at the restaurant to make our KL support team who were still working at that hour jeolous.

Delicious Looking Chocolate Fountain

Fish Roe in Sweet Tofu Skin Sushi

Lamb Shoulder Cooked with Chili and Spices

‘Surrounding’ the Chocolate Fountain

Favourite Couple of the Night – CEO Mr Chan and the missus

Lastly – ‘Orang Asli’ eating style Exabee – EK Lim

Sorry our KL team, for not waiting for you guys, but we simply couldn’t help it!

We know that you were working hard in KL, giving support to our valued clients. Don’t worry ya, next weekend is your turn to celebrate, while making us envious here in Penang.

Stay tuned for more interesting celebration pictures from KL!

Insight @ Exabytes! Exabytes Makan-Makan Day, Rasa Sayang Buffet

A year ago, the entire world came as one over the Earth Hour campaign, giving their pledge to uphold the universe and save the world from extinction.

­This year, let’s all join hands again and give Mother Nature the serenity that it deserves by participating in the Earth Hour campaign on March 27th, 2010, from 8:30 to 9:30 pm by turning off your lights for one whole hour. It does not take much to participate. All you need to do is turn off all your lights for just one hour during the time as mentioned above and you will make a difference.

In that spirit, we have taken our stand to support this campaign once again and will be working in the dark for one whole hour as how we did last year!

Everybody needs to do their part towards the climate change that is happening on Earth. We at Exabytes are pledging to make a difference. Are you?

Community Events, Insight @ Exabytes!

Remember our previous entry on our new member of the family – the King of Aqua (and his fishy friends)?

Yes, it’s only been a month since we first brought our beloved King of Aqua into his new home, but already we’ve made sure he is accompanied by beautiful friendly little fishes in his new home.

And just so he is happy being with our one big happy family, we also made sure to beautify his new home by decorating them with coral, rocks and seaweeds!

It is important for us to decorate his new home as beautiful as we can, because after a long hard day at work, we do take the time off by chilling at the corner, and relaxing our eyes by looking at the peacefully swimming fishes and beautifully decorated aqaurium.

Is amazing how our tiredness disappear just by looking at the peaceful scene in front of us!

So. Looking for a way to put your mind at ease? Come on over and give our King of Aqua a visit. He will sure to brighten up your day!

Insight @ Exabytes!