AT&T Web Hosting Solutions Firm, Extends New Data Center Facilities

London, United Kingdom - (The Hosting News) - November 2, 2007 - Web hosting and network solutions provider, AT and T Inc., has expanded its data centers in Europe, including a new facility in Amsterdam, as well as adding over one-third more space to its London facility.

Tom Regent AT and T's head of EMEA remarked, ''We continue to invest in growing our business to support customers and to meet the high demands of businesses large and small for managed hosting and application services. The expansions of AT and T's data centers in Europe and around the world are needed to support all the businesses that turn to AT and T for integrated hosting and network solutions allowing them to focus on running their business.''

The expansion is part of a worldwide initiative by AT and T to expand its hosting operations which will see the extension of three other centers around the world and the addition of two new AT and T facilities in New Jersey, U.S. and Toronto, Canada. The investment is hoped to help meet the growing global demand for application services, fully managed hosting, advanced monitoring, hosted storage, colocation and other services.

Globally, AT and T has added to its data center in Singapore, Mesa, Ariz., Irvine, Calif., and Ashburn, Va.; The Piscataway, N.J. data center, which officially opened this month, became the third AT and T data center serving customers in the metropolitan New York City market, joining centers in Manhattan and Secaucus, N.J. AT and T also announced it will offer hosting services at its new Toronto facility by the end of 2007.

Part of the company's year-long expansion of its global data center footprint and $750 million investment in its international infrastructure announced earlier in the year, these expansions and additions will bring the total number of AT and T global Internet data centers to 38 and will broaden its total global footprint of hosting space to exceed 2.1 million square feet.

AT and T data centers use the power of the AT and T global network to offer a rich portfolio of hosting solutions with unparalleled network performance and features. Among them are greater agility when making real-time changes to IT environments, more control to extend applications to the customer’s premise or to other data centers, and security capabilities such as denial of service prevention, hosted firewall, intrusion detection and anti-virus options all based in the network.

The first of the 2007 center expansions kicked off in January with additions to the Washington, D.C. facility in Ashburn. Since then, AT and T has added more space to its centers around the world and plans other expansions for 2008.

AT and T launched its data center growth project to meet the unprecedented demand for its managed hosting and application management services. The additional data center capacity will help AT and T accommodate growth from existing hosting and improve its ability to provide value-added services for current and new customers. AT and T offers capabilities designed to deliver greater efficiencies for hosting customers through the use of technologies such as server virtualization, application acceleration and patent-pending visual monitoring tools, all of which are integrated with AT and T’s network services. These and other services allow AT and T to deliver hosted solutions that range from monitoring and managing infrastructure components all the way through the full application lifecycle. In addition, AT and T provides remote monitoring and management of IT infrastructure located at customer sites.

AT and T has seen double-digit growth in its hosting business for three consecutive years. That growth also was the catalyst for the acquisition in 2006 of application service provider USi as a way to complement AT and T’s existing managed services capabilities and to pave the way for the company to drive more deeply into the applications management space with new offers for businesses of all sizes.

AT and T is among the top hosting services providers. The new and expanded data centers will further help AT and T position itself to remain a leading force in the global hosting services market, which the research firm IDC predicts will grow from $8.2 billion in 2006 to $16.3 billion in 20111.

Melanie Posey of the research firm IDC noted, ''The increased volume of Internet-based content, digital content and transactions, along with the continuing trend to data center consolidation, have given the hosting industry a rebirth of sorts in the last two years. This has fueled significant demand for the type of experience with performance optimization and technology solutions that most businesses don't possess. As a result, more companies are turning to hosting service providers to get the increased flexibility, service functionality and support to help them implement hosted platforms to scale their web site and application infrastructure, while keeping costs under control.''

According to the company, AT and T designs its data centers to exceed the most stringent industry standards that include multiple active power and cooling distribution paths, redundant components and fault-tolerant design to provide the highest reliability. Each rack or server cabinet, is provided with redundant circuits from several power distribution units backed up by batteries and diesel generators that ensures an uninterrupted operation. Chillers and water pumps maintain a consistent operating environment, and humidity levels and temperature thresholds are closely monitored by sensors. In addition to security cameras and closed circuit video, other security features include the use of biometric scanners to control access in and around the center. AT and T designs its data centers practices and controls with redundancy and reliability, which are audited under SAS 70 Type II.

For more information on AT and T’s Enterprise Hosting Services, visit http://www.att.com/hosting.

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