Cbeyond, a managed services provider to small businesses, today announced that the Georgia CIO Leadership Association (GCLA) named Cbeyond Chief Information Officer Joe Oesterling as its 2006 Corporate CIO of the Year. Oesterling received this distinguished accolade, which recognized his innovation in the development of Cbeyond’s IP-based Managed Services Platform, at an awards ceremony Oct. 25 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.

The Georgia CIO of the Year® Awards is an annual awards program honoring chief information officers or those in equivalent positions who have demonstrated outstanding technical leadership in Georgia. The awards are segmented into three categories: corporate, enterprise and global, and recognize individuals who have shown excellence in managing their company’s or organization’s enterprise-wide information systems. Oesterling was recognized in the corporate category for organizations with up to 1,000 IT users.

“The Georgia CIO of the Year Awards determines technology’s top leaders in Georgia and the Southeast through a selection process, which becomes more challenging with the increasing caliber of nominees each year,” said Bart Wood, former CIO of Southern Company and 2006 Chairman of the Georgia CIO Leadership Advisory Board. “Each year, the nominations received include overwhelmingly impressive accomplishments, and this year’s group stands as the most notable yet.”

The flexibility of Cbeyond’s IP-based Managed Services Platform enables the company to provide voice, mobile and broadband Internet services bundled with enhanced applications, such as voicemail, email, Web hosting, fax-to-email, data backup, file-sharing and VPN. In addition to the breadth of applications offered, Cbeyond customers have flexible packaging options, which allow them to share long distance, toll free, and mobile minutes.

To enhance each customer’s experience, Oesterling and his IT team developed an online account managed tool, CbeyondOnline™, which simplifies bill payment and enables customers to manage their services online. Cbeyond customers receive one simplified bill electronically for all of their services, which they can manage and pay online.

“Receiving this distinguished award is a tremendous honor,” said Joe Oesterling, chief information officer for Cbeyond. “The IT team at Cbeyond is comprised of some of the most creative and talented software professionals in the industry. With teamwork and collaboration, we have successfully leveraged our IP-based private network and Managed Services Platform to deliver innovative products, competitive pricing and industry-leading customer support to more than 23,000 small business customers.”

Other 2006 Georgia CIO of the Year award winners include Sue Powers, chief information officer and senior vice president of Worldspan, L.P., in the global category for over 2,500 IT users and multinational operations; and Mark P. Ryan, chief information officer and senior vice president of Matria Healthcare, in the enterprise category for over 1,000 users.

About the Georgia CIO Leadership Association

The Georgia CIO Leadership Association (GCLA) is comprised exclusively of chief information officers or individuals in equivalent positions at companies and organizations throughout the state. The GCLA is a nonprofit, noncommercial organization led by an Advisory Board of Georgia CIOs and is underwritten by contributions from five founding companies, including Deloitte, Intellinet, Internet Security Systems, Kilpatrick Stockton and Microsoft.

About Cbeyond

Cbeyond (NASDAQ: CBEY) is an Atlanta-based managed services provider that delivers integrated packages of voice, mobile and broadband services to small businesses in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston and Los Angeles. Cbeyond offers core communications services such as local and long-distance voice, mobile and broadband Internet access along with enhanced applications, including voicemail, email, Web hosting, fax-to-email, data backup, file-sharing, VPN and more. Cbeyond manages these services over a private, 100-percent Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) facilities-based network. For more information on Cbeyond, visit www.cbeyond.net.