Distinguished by data centers

Digital Broadcast Network, a Chesterfield, Mo.-based company that has applied for competitive local exchange carrier and interexchange carrier licenses in 18 states, will focus its network-and marketing strategy-around five U.S. data centers.

The company plans to pull together the network, data centers and network operation centers for its customers, said Rich Skoba, senior vice president of data management at DBN.

The data centers allow DBN to provide its customers with data management solutions, Skoba said. "Out of those data centers, we are offering [customers] specialized services: disaster recovery, off-site backup of their data, a thin client model with specific application hosting for those clients," he said. "It's the next generation of outsourcing. We can truly be accountable for their data from anywhere on the network."

The company is building an asynchronous transfer mode network, which is currently operational in Missouri, to support converged voice, video and data traffic. Earlier this year, DBN signed a $60 million contract to lease fiber capacity from Qwest Communications.

DBN plans to build points of presence (POPs) in seven other cities by mid-September and will continue adding POPs until the company reaches its goal of 28 U.S. cities, said Jim Roberts, senior vice president of marketing.

This year, DBN is primarily offering data management services and Internet, extranet, and virtual private network connectivity solutions. Voice over IP will roll out next year.

Data General is supplying AViiON servers and CLARiiON storage systems for DBN's data centers-one each in Dallas, New York and San Francisco and two in St. Louis.

The communications group within Data General is working with other service providers in the convergence mode, said Rosemary Aquila, marketing manager at Data General.

"We think this is definitely the wave of the future," she said. "There is great potential for growth, and [DBN] is one of the first ones to be doing this type of backbone network."