Winstar Adds Internet Data Centers in New York City, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Brussels
January 6, 2000 06:04 AM
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 2000--
Bundled Application and Web Hosting Offerings Launched
Microsoft Office Online Delivered to Customers from Washington, DC Data Center
WINSTAR COMMUNICATIONS, INC. WCII today announced plans to add Internet data centers in New York City, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Brussels, Belgium as part of its Application Service Provider (ASP) and Web hosting initiative. Winstar also announced the launch of bundled application services, as well as development and hosting services for customers with Web, e-commerce and multimedia streaming business needs.
The centers in Minneapolis and Brussels are fully operational and will join existing Winstar facilitized operations in Washington, DC, Boston and Seattle. Together, these five Internet data centers now total more than 100,000 facilitized square feet. Winstar will eventually have a network of Internet data facilities throughout the world, which will be sized and constructed based on customer demand.
Winstar's New York data center will occupy approximately 75,000 square feet, with an option for an additional 25,000 square feet, while the facility in San Francisco will consist of more than 40,000 square feet. The data centers are easily accessible from their respective central business districts. To provide customers with increased speed and reliability, each data center will be equipped with Winstar's Wireless FiberSM technology, as well as have fiber access from multiple carriers. Winstar equipped its Washington, DC center with fixed wireless technology - the first such implementation in a data center setting.
As part of its nationwide data center deployment effort and ASP initiative, Winstar will also build advanced facilities in each of its central offices and install servers equipped with Microsoft Office Online by mid-year 2000. Winstar already has installed Microsoft Office Online in its Washington, DC data center and has a number of customers using the service as part of its recently announced pilot program. Winstar and Microsoft recently announced a commercial relationship to develop, deliver and market broadband applications, and for Microsoft to license its applications to Winstar on an ASP basis.
"The addition of data centers in New York, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Brussels represents another step in our strategy to become a leader in the Web and applications hosting space," said Jack Chidester, president and COO of Winstar General Business. "We have created an unparalleled position in the marketplace: an end-to-end local broadband network, distributed data center architecture, key software partnerships with companies such as Microsoft, a skilled face-to-face sales force, an award-winning marketing organization, a large customer base of small and medium-sized companies; Office.com, which recently was ranked the number-one Online Business Center by Cahners In-Stat Group; and a broad range of services, from voice and data communications to Web and e-commerce hosting and development."
Bundled ASP and Web Hosting Services
According to a leading research firm, the Web hosting/ASP market will reach approximately $6 billion in 2000 and more than $14 billion in 2003. The driving factor for this growth is the increased number of businesses - of all sizes - using the Internet as a strategic business tool.
With a national Tier 1 Internet backbone and approximately 6,000 Web hosting customers, Winstar is emerging as one of the nation's leading providers of hosting and ASP services. Winstar has successfully designed, developed, maintained and/or hosted Internet-based business solutions for such innovative companies and organizations as Blaupunkt, Bosch Appliances, Equitable, Tate & Lyle North America Sugars, Inc. (owners of the Domino(R) Sugar brand), Nautica Enterprises, Inc., Klik.comTM, Kool and the Gang, IBM, Sally Hansen Cosmetics, Quickmusic.com, Swiss American Securities, The Musicbase.com, America's Employers Incorporated and WorldTraveler.com.
Winstar's integrated development and hosting services maximize customers' return on investment by:
-- Creating a single cohesive team consisting of account managers,
hosting sales engineers,, application developers, creative
designers and online marketing consultants to develop and deliver
consistent products and services;
-- Offering greater network speed and reliability via Winstar's
state-of-the-art data hosting centers - the strategic regional
distribution of these facilities brings customers within closer
proximity to their sites and Web-enabled applications;
-- Providing a single source for seamless Internet business
solutions resulting in convenience, compressed time to market and
costs savings for customers.
In 2000, Winstar will continue to expand its ASP operations beyond the offering of Microsoft Office Online to provide an even more complete suite of application services for businesses. These will include other Microsoft applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server, as well as financial, human resource, corporate purchasing and customer relationship management applications from a variety of software partners. Such applications will be made available directly by Winstar as well as on Winstar's Office.com, the number one online business center.
"By building a network of Internet data centers, Winstar can host and deliver software from regional servers, providing on-net customers with the same speeds and performance that they have come to expect from software installed on their desktop hard-drives or office LANs," said Roger Pilc, Winstar vice president and general manager of Internet and Hosting Services. "Small and medium-sized companies especially benefit, since renting software on a monthly basis allows them to spread the cost of the software over time, reduce information technology (IT) personnel needs and other related expenses, and receive automatic upgrades as soon as they become available. For Winstar, this results in increased demand for bandwidth and drives higher-revenue traffic onto our broadband network."
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