[MUNICH, Germany] Cable & Wireless
Group Thursday opened the doors to its latest data and web hosting
facilities in Munich, Germany.
The center has more than 3,000 square meters of space with 1,200 square
meters dedicated to Web hosting services. It’s connected to the Cable &
Wireless global IP backbone to deliver integrated
Internet, data and voice services for businesses worldwide.
The opening of the Munich data center provides Cable & Wireless with
another link in its planned chain of network facilities that expand its
global Web hosting capacity.
Speaking at the opening ceremony in Munich Don Reed, Cable & Wireless
Global Services chief executive officer said the German facility is another
key step in the delivery of its global data center plan.
“As companies around the world do more and more business over the Internet,
our resources and expertise globally can support their e-commerce
activities, Reed said. “The global web hosting market is predicted to grow
from a current figure of US $3 billion to US $23 billion by 2002. Our
web-hosting products and services provide solutions to meet the demand.”
The new Munich facility has state-of-the-art systems in place to provide
redundant, secure environments. It touts a current bandwidth capability of
1.2 gigabits per second, about 20,000 times faster than ISDN connections.
In addition to the Swindon data center in the U.K and the Reston, Virginia
Web hosting facilities established last year, Cable & Wireless intends to
complete the Santa Clara, California data center next month and expand
services in Tokyo and Osaka early next year.
When Cable & Wireless opens up data centers in Japan, it will be officially
half way through its global expansion plan.
Forrester Research, Inc. indicates
that Europe faces a massive storage jam that is holding back the regions
development into a leading e-market.
Forrester analysts contend that Europe’s e-business
leaders must climb a storage mountain to grow data capacity at up to 300
percent per year. They should re-architect the internal infrastructure and
progressively outsource not just raw storage but whole business processes.
Through a series of acquisitions, Cable & Wireless has also opened up Web
hosting facilities in Madrid, Milan, Rome, Paris, Geneva, Zurich,
Stockholm, and Moscow.
Cable & Wireless is investing 2.2 billion pounds (US $3.5 billion US) in
its global IP network buildout. In November last year the company announced
it was building an IP network of 84 international nodes by 2001 in its
drive to construct one of the most advanced OC-192 capable global IP
network in the industry.
In Europe, it is investing 900 million pounds (US $1.5 billion) to extend
the coverage of the core 9.6 gigabit per second IP network by connecting
200 cities across the continent.
If Forrester’s forecast for data storage needs in the region are accurate,
Cable & Wireless will be capable of leading the charge for e-business Web
hosting developments in the region.
