Web Hosting Services 2008 Leaders Quadrant from Gartner, Includes AT&T

San Antonio, Texas - (The Hosting News) - April 25, 2008 - Web hosting provider, Internet services and ISP company, AT and T Inc., has reported positioning from industry analyst firm, Gartner Inc., in its 2008 Leaders Quadrant for Web Hosting Services.

Gartner's ''Magic Quadrant for North American Web Hosting, 2008,'' authored by L. Leong, T. Chamberlin, includes .AT and T Inc.'s Hosting and Application Services. This new positioning for AT and T comes on the heels of a Gartner ''Magic Quadrant Report for U.S. Network Service Providers, 2008,'' which also placed AT and T in the Leaders Quadrant.

With 38 Internet data centers (IDCs) connected to its global Internet Protocol (IP) network, AT and T is the industry's largest network provider of hosting services. In its North American Web Hosting Magic Quadrant Report, Gartner evaluates AT and T's vision and ability to execute in categories that analyzed in part current and future market direction, innovation and customer needs.

AT and T's leadership in hosting services is being driven by an ongoing strategy to extend its global network reach and capacity, globalize its portfolio of business services and embed the latest utility-computing and other managed hosting technologies so that companies can deliver real-time applications to their employees, customers, suppliers and partners. A portion of AT and T's recently announced $1 billion investment in its global network will be used to increase its data center hosting capacity by 180,000 square feet through mid-2009. Expansion targets in 2008 will include Singapore, Amsterdam, Boston and Dallas.

Steven Caniano, Vice President, AT and T Hosting and Application Services noted, ''We think AT and T's position in the Leaders Quadrant in this latest Gartner Web Hosting Magic Quadrant report reflects our commitment and ability to serve our customers worldwide with the most advanced managed services offerings, applications support and Internet data center facilities available today. To maintain our position in the Leaders Quadrant, we will continue to focus on serving our customers to meet their business needs and on enhancing our infrastructure and portfolio of offerings.''

Earlier this year, AT and T reinforced its leadership position in the managed hosting space by striking an agreement with SAP America Inc. Under this contract, AT and T will serve as a primary SAP hosting partner, providing independent hosting services for business customers with headquarters in North America. By combining AT and T's global IP network and hosting and applications services capabilities with SAP's global expertise in enterprise software, businesses will receive simplified full-service solutions that will allow them to deliver critical applications to their end-users.

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2008 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

AT and T Hosting and Application Services provides a variety of hosted infrastructure, managed services and managed applications capabilities that support the IT operations of customers ranging from small and midsize businesses up to the largest global corporations. Customer applications enabled by AT and T include corporate Web sites, e-commerce, digital content delivery, multiplayer online gaming, collaborative intranets and extranets, data backup and recovery, and enterprise resource planning (ERP), among other services.

AT and T Inc. is one of the world's largest telecommunications holding companies and is the largest in the United States. Operating globally under the AT and T brand, AT and T companies are recognized as the leading worldwide providers of IP-based communications services to business and as leading U.S. providers of high speed Internet, local and long distance voice, and directory publishing and advertising services.

For more information on AT and T hosting services, please visit: www.business.att.com/hosting.