Global Internetworking targets enterprises

Global Internetworking, to date a wholesale services provider capitalizing on a database of potential interconnections, is moving into the enterprise services space and today announced its first U.S customer.

Airbus North America, the U.S. subsidiary of the European-based commercial airplane maker, will use Global Internetworking to design, deploy and manage a high-capacity fiber ring that will link its North America headquarters and operations in the Washington, D.C., area with both a U.S. and global high-capacity data transport network.

By developing a comprehensive database of interconnections available at any point of presence in the U.S., Global Internetworking has been able to succeed as a facilities-neutral provider of network extensions and interconnections to Internet service providers, cable companies and competitive carriers. The company can move quickly to design networks based on the best of what is available at every stage.

"We are doing well in wholesale space, but we are an ambitious company," said Andrew Goldsmith, vice president of marketing and strategic planning for Global Internetworking. "This change coincides with what we think is the beginning of the new company. We can leverage our intellectual capital into the mid- to large-sized enterprise space. We think with the way the market is evolving, with traditional telecom carriers merging with each other and the ground shifting underneath the feet of these customers, that they are looking for new approaches."

Global's new Managed Network Service will provide fully integrated wide area networks for enterprises to support data transport, Ethernet, voice over IP and other services.

"We are unbiased, we are not tied to a legacy network," said co-founder and CEO Mike Keenan. That enables Global to put together a network that is the most cost-effective and efficient for the business, he said.

Global also stresses business continuity--the ability to handle changes and upgrades with no downtime, Goldsmith said. In the case of Airbus, Global is upgrading the capacity between its data centers and moving the traffic onto an OC-48 self-healing ring that will run Ethernet over SONET and Gigabit Ethernet services.