Verizon Business Launches New Web Application Services

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Verizon Business announced today that it has launched an innovative suite of services that help companies enhance the performance of the applications on their Web sites, making them easier to access and use.

The new offerings, Application Acceleration Services, provide large-business and government customers with accelerated delivery of a broad range of enterprise and e-commerce software applications, such as e-mail and online shopping carts. As a result, the managed offerings can help businesses enhance worker productivity and increase customer satisfaction through a more satisfying Web experience.

The services can also accommodate additional application traffic without increasing bandwidth or data center resources. In addition, they offer plug-and-play simplicity, require no changes to the customer's application or infrastructure, and are backed by service-level guarantees.

"As more companies move their business operations to the Web, Verizon Business is helping them transform their business processes through higher-value IT services," said Nancy Gofus, vice president of product management for Verizon Business. "With our Application Acceleration Services, we are further enabling companies to realize the cost and business efficiencies of serving content over the Web by helping them to easily achieve LAN-like performance of their Internet applications."

According to Forrester research, the No. 1 issue in managing corporate IT infrastructure is "consistent end-to-end application and service performance guarantees."*

Verizon Business' new services are ideal for a host of Internet protocol (IP) applications, including customer service and support portals, supply chain, consumer and business-to-business commerce, as well as personalized marketing and customer loyalty sites. The services are immediately available to U.S. based multinational companies serving end-users in North America, South America, Australia/Asia, China and Europe.

The Application Acceleration Suite

Businesses can select from a suite of services, including Application Acceleration for manageability, Application Continuity for control over a multi-data center environment, and Application Acceleration Portal for measurement and control of the performance of applications. At the heart of the service is Application Acceleration, which is a stand-alone offering; the Application Continuity and Acceleration Portal offerings are add-on services.

Application Acceleration allows businesses to better manage the delivery of dynamic Web applications. Providing an attractive total cost of ownership for customers, this service enables Verizon Business customers to outsource the management of their applications to help ensure consistent end-to-end application and service performance.

Application Continuity helps ensure business continuity and the effective use of a customer's infrastructure. Designed for organizations with multiple data centers, this option provides redundancy for applications, automatically ensuring continuous performance and consistent delivery of service in the event of server failure or overload. Customers assign rules for performance and availability to enable the automatic shift of traffic between a customer's data centers based on business policies and priorities.

The Application Acceleration Portal enables businesses to manage, measure, plan and troubleshoot critical applications and business processes deployed on the Internet. As a result, businesses can easily identify performance problems, helping to avoid expensive productivity and customer losses.

Netli Powers the Application Acceleration Suite

Verizon Business has teamed with Netli^®, one of the fastest-growing global service providers for accelerating applications and content over the Internet, to deliver its Application Acceleration Services. The Netli Application Acceleration Engine is embedded into Verizon Business' global IP network. This enables Verizon Business to take advantage of Netli's global intelligent network and specialized protocols -- designed to help amplify the strengths of the Internet and reduce its weaknesses -- to transform the global Internet into a high-performance platform for critical-business applications.

Application Acceleration Services join Verizon Business' extensive portfolio of IT solutions, including Data Center Colocation, Data Center Outsourcing, Remote Backup and Restore, Hosted Messaging, IT Service Desk, IP Application Hosting and Remote IP Application Management.

Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), is a leading provider of advanced communications and information technology (IT) solutions to large business and government customers worldwide. Combining unsurpassed global network reach with advanced technology and professional service capabilities, Verizon Business delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world. For more information, visit www.verizonbusiness.com.

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*Source: Top Five Challenges For Enterprise IT Infrastructure Managers - And How To Resolve Them, Forrester Research, Inc., March 2005.