Exodus hosting Merrill Online.
wstonline.com
excerpt:
<While Merrill is handling most of the technology development in house, chosen to outsource the server farm for MLOL and Merrill?s insitutional group to Exodus/AT&T. Exodus, the vendor that supports Yahoo?s Web site, will not only host, but also maintain all of MLOL?s servers in order to free up space in its offices on West Street in New York?s financial district, which currently house MLOL as well as TGA.
"The West Street site has all those legacy systems running there which will continue to expand. The Web farm is just one piece," Gilligan explains. "We?ve got the support desk there, all the mainframes, all the TGA middle-tier. West Street is now cramped, and when we outsource this, they will finally be able to sweep a cat around."
Along with saved space, using Exodus?s expertise will allow both divisions to release their respective products more quickly because they already have a large technology infrastructure in place. "Basically, we have decided to partner with other organizations who bring technology to the table that will accelerate our development and increase our probability of success," McKinley explains. "This allows us to be much more aggressive."
Other firms considered for the job were GTE/BBN and IBM. Gilligan did say that, "Exodus are experts in broadband technology. They have a huge fiberoptic network. They have piering relationships with other ISPs, and it's important that you are hosted in other locations that have access to major providers for our clients."
Simply put, Merrill is not a telecommunications company while Exodus is. "By doing it ourselves for the last four years, we learned that there are others out there who can do this better, who have the resources for it."> |
