Continent 8 Technologies has extended its pan-European network into Italy to meet demand from gaming companies for connectivity in the country, and to address additional diversity and resilience for Eastern Europe.

CTO John Stone commented: “The new Milan point of presence (PoP), which will be live in Q2 2012, provides Continent 8’s customers with resilient, high quality private data, video, voice and internet services. In addition, this PoP location through partners such as Level 3 and Tinet will result in additional resilience for gaming companies located in Continent 8’s Malta hosting facility addressing Central and Eastern Europe in terms of high speed internet services along with direct connectivity to London as part of the Continent 8 Private MPLS backbone.

“With the fragmentation of i-gaming licensing throughout Europe, it makes great sense to take this additional PoP as it will act as a strategic gateway for Continent 8 clients looking to target diverse European markets. The Milan PoP demonstrates Continent 8’s commitment to its strategy of providing its gaming customers with a European and global backbone with comprehensive coverage,” added Stone.

Continent 8’s Milan PoP is fully integrated into Continent 8’s pan-European network, providing gaming companies with key managed services such as IP connectivity, private VPN services, managed hosting solutions, managed services and DDoS protection solutions.

Continent 8 won the award for Technology Supplier of the Year for the second year running at Monday’s International Gaming Awards held at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London. Speaking to iNTERGAMINGi at ICE on Tuesday, Continent 8 CEO Michael Tobin said: “We are pleasantly surprised to win the award considering the quality of our competition. It is a testimony to our team and technocal expertise.”