GBIX On-site research/dd/investigation visit -- part 3: Products/Services
One can read press releases and SEC docs and some of this may repeat that info, but I'll add value here by summarizing the PRs to date, integrating other materials such as investor kit & direct mailing offerings, and relaying what I saw at GBIX's NYC place of operation.
The key thing is the network (geog. locations serviced, equipment connecting those pts, reliability, scaleability, capacity, etc) and then the services offered using that network.
I. GBIX's Network
A. SuperPOPs -- NYC, Santa Clara, London
B. EntryPOPs -- Chicago, D.C.
C. Network Access Points (NAPs) ? West-USA (NASA, Pacbell, PacificPAIX, MAE); Central-USA (Ameritech); East-USA (Sprint, NY Internet Xchng, MAE); London, UK (LINX); scheduled for Sept-Oct?99 are Stockholm(Netnod), Amsterdam(AMS-IX), Paris(SFINX), Frankfurt(DE-CIX), Geneva(CIXP), Milan(MIX), Vienna(VIX)
A few comments:
1) Sprint was one of the first with digital cell service
2) Europe is next growth market and geographically looks like it?s well covered with GBIX?s network. Look for announcements on completion of European network. Then look for deals.
3) It costs dollars to set up such facilities including hiring of staff, with contracts/revenues following
II. Connections between the various parts of the network (fibre-optic and satellite)
A. OC-3 (155 Mbps) -- between the SuperPOPs and EntryPOPs
B. DS-3 (45 Mbps) -- between EntryPOPs and NAPs; in Europe, E-1 (2 Mbps)
C. NetSatExpress -- ie. satellite
Some comments:
1) Powered with CSCO network equip in core and edge routers
2) OC-3 'ring' -- 6,500 miles ? from QWST -- fault tolerant -- very extensive ? provided local telcos (eg Bell Atlantic, Ameritech, BT, PacBell) & CLECs (eg MFS/ABTE/WCOM, Teleport)
3) Connections to Europe are undersea and satellite -- greater comfort, imo, that if something happens with either satellite or something undersea, that there is another route to channel traffic
4) 'Peering' -- notice the connection points (NAPs) are, primarily and virtually, all with non-household names (ie. GBIX does not call up your local ISP to do peering ? what does Exodus do?? Hmmm - not as good peering - witness the articles written on the backlash of EXDS? connections and mention of Exodus use of many ISPs). 1.8 Giga bps connectivity across major peering pts.
5) Look for increases in capacity eg. OC-3 moving to OC-12, etc as GBIX grows -- what and when did Exodus get their OC-3 equipment? Hmmm... seems this small co GBIX very forward looking in capacity and made the right move to begin with.
III. Services
A. Dedicated Access -- pay for bandwidth desired 56k, T-1 (or fractional T1), T-3 (or fractional T3), frame relay
B. Web-Hosting -- plug&play solution -- mesh cage, your own servers or buy from GBIX; customized solution -- full steel, patented 'rooms'; hosting can be Distributed/mirrored at other SuperPOP location; Platforms: NT & UNIX ; Servers: Compaq & SunMicrosystems
C. Co-location -- shared space for servers - like a 'server bank' -- security; bandwidth less expensive than with leased lines; management of servers passed to GBIX
1) NYC -- 160,000 sq ft with 24,000 sq ft specifically for this SuperPOP
2) CA -- 61,000 sq ft with 24,000 sq ft for SuperPOP
3) London, UK -- 34,000 sq ft with 14,000 sq ft for SuperPOP
D. Streaming Media
1) static (ie., playback of a taped show), live playback, on-demand
2) Platforms: MSFT's Media, RNWK, Liquid Audio, MPEG, QuickTime -- GBIX does the encoding -- other co's in this market (eg. Broadcast.com) contract out
3) Dan Rayburn (heads up this unit of GBIX) ? worked on NY Macintosh Music Festival cybercasts bacin in 1995; Intel took over the festival and Dan managed production
4) Has sets of gear to do live, on-site encoding (becoming industry standard), and has 2 processors in one gear box enabling dual encoding and moving towards 5 processors in a single 3U enclosure which is another leap forward in encoding
E. Web-site development -- e-comm applications; web-design and development
F. Videoconferencing
G. Remote Access and Physical Access for customer to their server(s)
H. Firewall building including virus scanning, applet screening, content filtering, web-site URL blocking
I. Virtual Private Networking (VPN) ? in partnership with CHKP
J. Training
1) keeps customer up-to-date with latest software on the market -- how many other co's offer this service??
2) MSFT, Macromedia, Quark, Ziff-Davis, Adobe, Alias-Wavefront/SGI certified
Some comments:
1) GBIX's building in NYC (across from police building) was a former bank building, has a climate controlled vault with 2 foot thick steel and concrete walls, a 5 tonne steel door, and is available for client use -- the only one in the world!
2) integrated solutions and breadth of services = several sources of revenue |
