AT&T Signs Up Budget, Darden and Mercedes-Benz for Web Hosting

📅 October 18, 2001 - AT&T announced that it has signed Web hosting deals with Budget, Darden Restaurants, the world's largest casual dining company, and Mercedes-Benz USA, bolstering AT&T's reputation as the Web hosting provider of choice for businesses.

"Businesses recognize AT&T has the scope of services required to meet theircomplex hosting needs -- from applications management and monitoring toseamless integration of their back office and front-end Web-basedoperations-enabling them to connect with their customers, partners andvendors anytime, anywhere," said Robin Young, senior vice president --Managed Services in AT&T Business.
Darden Restaurants is using AT&T's Web hosting services to centralize andintegrate the applications used by its employees, business partners, andcustomers, as well as its more than 1,100 restaurant locations worldwide.
"We needed a trusted managed hosting partner who's in this for the longhaul," said Linda Dimopoulos, Senior Vice President and Chief InformationOfficer for Darden Restaurants. "AT&T was able to ensure seamless work-flowprocesses across our intranet, extranet and Internet applications that serveour Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze and Smokey Bones BBQ Sports Barrestaurant brands, as well as our Restaurant Support Center."
AT&T's continuum of managed Web hosting services is designed to support arange of hosted infrastructure needs from managing the network to managingthe performance of business applications. AT&T's full suite of managedhosting services includes performance management, applications management,database management, hardware and operating system management, intelligentcontent distribution service, high availability data and computing services,storage services, managed security and firewall services, and load balancingacross multiple data center locations.
All AT&T Managed Hosting Services are backed by industry-leading performanceguarantees. Customers can choose from standard or custom SLAs that coverbusiness transaction availability and response times, server and applicationavailability, network availability and resolution management.
The AT&T Managed Services Portal provides managed hosting customers withpersonalized, secure access to detailed information about their AT&T-hostedinfrastructure and applications. The portal gives customers access tocomprehensive real-time performance reports with integrated Service LevelAgreement (SLA) data, collaboration tools, and electronic customer servicetools, including trouble tickets and electronic billing.
At the heart of AT&T Web hosting is network integration. AT&T tiesbusinesses' existing data networks, such as frame relay, private IP VPN, ATMand private line, directly into AT&T Internet Data Centers, securely linkingcustomers' critical back-office operations, such as supply chain managementand order fulfillment, to their Web-based applications.
Located in 14 major metro areas on three continents, AT&T's 18 IDCs providebusinesses more than 1.8 million square feet of Web hosting space. Thecenters directly link to AT&T's high-performing OC48/192 IP backbone andoffer customers reliable, best-in-class management, monitoring and securityservices, as well as scaleable bandwidth to seamlessly deliver applicationsto end-users.
Network access is redundant with path-diverse entrances and exits.Additional network connectivity options to AT&T Internet Data Centersinclude frame relay, private line, local-switched and circuit-switchedservices. All are provisioned and managed end-to-end by AT&T.
All AT&T IDCs are equipped with redundant Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)systems, backup generators and state-of-the art security, alarm, cooling andfire detection and suppression systems. As a powerful component of AT&T'sofferings, IDCs weighed heavily in Web Hosting Mazagine's naming of AT&T asits "Best Solutions Hosting Provider" within its "Best Host Awards."
The magazine named AT&T as the best solutions provider based on evidence offinancial stability, positive and well-managed growth, its competitive rangeof services and industry reputation. According to the magazine, thesecharacteristics continue generate the strong roster of corporate clientelethat AT&T continues to sign up, as Budget, Darden and Mercedes-Benzevidence.