Icon, EarthLink partner with NSI: Alliances provide backup connectivity and marketing options

Network Solutions Inc., a leading registrar of Internet addresses, announced two strategic carrier alliances last week. The company chose Icon CMT to provide backup connectivity for its domain name registration services, and it signed EarthLink to its alliance program.

With service contracts to provide connectivity spread among eight Internet service providers, Icon's role at NSI will be to provide backup connectivity at its Palo Alto interexchange in the event that service is lost at its primary database in Herndon, Va. NSI chose Icon in part because each of the eight companies has connectivity through Palo Alto.

Further agreements with Icon will depend on where NSI locates its servers. "We like to spread our connectivity through a number of providers for redundancy purposes," said Dave Holtzman, NSI's senior vice president of engineering.

"NSI has one of the most heavily trafficked sites on the Internet, and we're happy it chose us for its last line of defense," said Eric Berry, Icon's business development manager.

In the second announcement, NSI added EarthLink to its Alliance Program. EarthLink joins MindSpring and ValueWeb, the other program participants. "We want to limit the membership to about a half dozen companies," said Doug Wolford, NSI's senior vice president of marketing.

The alliance program lets NSI and its members cross-market their services. EarthLink will offer NSI's domain name registration services. NSI will add a Web link to EarthLink's Internet access services and Web hosting program. Alliance program membership is based on previous participation in NSI's Premier Domain Registration Services Program, the number of domain names registered monthly and a willingness to do reciprocal marketing.