By Ángeles Rodríguez
Translation: Tomás Fernández Martínez
A telephone rings in the office of Xtudio Networks, in the town of A Rúa. It is a call from Southern Spain. Making his way amidst several computers, Julio Brasa answers and promptly solves the problem. Shortly after, a new call comes in—this time from abroad—and the scene repeats itself. Thanks to telecommunications networks and technological progress, this tech company from Valdeorras is able to carry out its activity throughout Spain and the world.
Xtudio Networks is barely two years old, but its developers, brothers Julio and Daniel Brasa from O Barco, possess extensive Internet expertise. For this reason, and despite the short time lapse, the firm has more than 10,778 registered clients from 65 countries and hosts over 3,000 domains. “Depending on the sector we aim for, we could say that Xtudio Networks is structured in different divisions, namely ‘premium content’, ‘estudio gráfico.com’ and ‘sered.net’,” explains Julio Brasa.
Their main activities consist on “web hosting, domain sales, supplying dedicated and virtual servers or any other website-creation service or program, as well as web and search engine positioning, e-commerce, etc. What we’re not used to doing is computer maintenance, that is, we don’t usually go to offices and check their devices,” clarifies Daniel Brasa.
In order to provide these services, they have more than 40 servers at their disposal, located in data centers of Barcelona and Madrid, adding up to more than 600GB of RAM, 8,000 GB of storage capacity and 20 GB/s of bandwidth. “We wish the servers were located in Valdeorras, but that’s impossible as of now due to our current network infrastructures. Our competitors are in Uruguay, Argentina, France, Germany, England, etc., so it’s rather difficult to equate with London from a town like A Rúa. That’s why our servers are in Barcelona and now, to increase the options for our clients, we are also opening a new infrastructure in Madrid,” state Xtudio Networks managers.
They admit that being based on Madrid or Barcelona instead of in A Rúa would be more beneficial, “since we would be in contact with providers and also due to the technological developments there. Furthermore, you are sometimes looked down on for being here. Some people think that you know less or that your resources are scarcer and you have to prove twice as much than if you were in Madrid.” In spite of this, they are determined to stay local, since “we’re from Valdeorras and here’s where we live.”
The clients’ profile (both companies and individuals) is very diverse. “We provide services to online stores, photography trade unions and professional associations, or even to high-schools, dentist offices or newspapers from Madrid. Most of them are small and medium companies from very different sectors,” they explain. Out of their close to 11,000 clients, 3,803 are located in Spain and the rest are in different parts of the world (from the United States through Japan to South Africa). Nevertheless, some of them stand out due to their importance, such as Latin American countries like Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Peru or Uruguay. “We cover a wide range of markets,” they say.
For this local firm, a highly-attentive customer support is essential. “This is what tells us apart from other companies. When a user phones, we already know who they are, what they do, which needs they have, and thus we can provide solutions to their requests by ourselves. They are not a mere number in a list. We provide personalized assistance, unlike other companies in which, when a problem arises, one must telephone a switchboard operator who forwards the call to another number, and then they must wait until the request is handled by someone who has no knowledge of the matter whatsoever,” claims Julio Brasa.
Another key element of their service is training and ongoing updating. “In the field of technology, you must recycle yourself constantly: new programs come to light daily and the market evolves very rapidly,” they underline.
Xtudio Networks is currently employing three people and has freelance co-workers from all over the world. “We look forward to, if viable and possible, employ more people from this region. It was actually a real achievement to recruit Víctor Alves, who comes from A Rúa and was working outside.” According to them, the East of Ourense lacks centers “where young people are trained on the usage of new technologies. It’s very positive to have vocational training centers offering various courses, but it would also be interesting if there were centers devoted to technologies. This would contribute to the emergence of more firms like ours. We sometimes feel as though we lack professionals in our sector.”
Besides, they want Valdeorras to have a wider online presence and to enliven the town on the Internet. “We would love to contribute by, for example, providing local SMEs with e-commerce. We’d also like to get to know more local professionals of the tech sector to see how we can help.”
Xtudio Networks
Telf.+34 988 684354
admin@xtudionet.com
www.sered.net
www.xtudionet.com+
