New network ties Savvis acquisitions together

A year after announcing its upgrade plans, Savvis is coming to market with a new network offering based on integration of its data centers into a global network serving about 20% of Internet routes. The new Application Transport Services offering uses the Savvis Application Transport Network, built on Cisco Systems’ gear, to deliver managed services to large enterprises globally.

The Savvis ATN is an MPLS network built on Cisco’s CRS-1 Carrier Routing System at the core and Cisco XR 12000 Series Routers as multiservice edge platforms. The Cisco technology enables Savvis to deliver high-speed metro Ethernet access, along with end-to-end quality of service and performance-monitoring and management.

The new network integrates what were disparate parts of Savvis from various acquisitions, said Jim Poole, vice president of carrier sales and alternate channels. Those parts included a 17,000-mile fiber network from Cable & Wireless America, the Savvis IP/VPN business, and the Exodus hosting and collocation business. “This announcement that we have made is around a set of infrastructure that ties all of that together,” he said. “It uses the three basic components of the infrastructure – the hosted elements of data centers linked to metro networks in nine major metro areas, all integrated using metro fiber into our long-haul networks. It all sits on one platform” providing maximum visibility of end-to-end service performance, he said.

Tying together its network will enable Savvis to extend the reach of the virtual services it provides, including IP/VPNs as well as to offer new capabilities on a secure, highly reliable network, Poole said.

“One of big hurdles to delivering managed services isn’t just doing it cheaper but also doing it better,” he said. “And we have to prove it to them. The only way to do that is to have that level of control and visibility end-to-end.”

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