Ireland asp hosting

A Ticket to Europe: BT's Ignite Content Hosting Launches ASP Enabler in the US

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 2, 2000

US software companies are being given a shot at the burgeoning European application service provider market as the content hosting arm of Ignite, BT's new international broadband Internet Protocol (IP) business, launches an advanced wholesale ASP product today.

ASP Enabler is a package of hardware, software and services that enables Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to distribute products online using BT Ignite Content Hosting's Internet data centers and robust network backbone.

Now US companies can boost their customer bases using BT Ignite's network of 20 European Internet data centers across nine European countries. Through BT's wholly-owned operations and joint venture partnerships, BT Ignite Content Hosting currently offers a European service across Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. Seven European data centers - in Amsterdam, Manchester, Glasgow, Milan, Dublin, Frankfurt and Hanover - have recently gone live, with further expansion planned.

BT Ignite Content Hosting brings pan-European implementation to US customers on a global to local level. This is achieved through the sheer geographical reach of its network and by the integration of its service provision between the European partners.

Keith Langridge, BT Ignite's vice president of Applications Hosting, said: "We're offering US companies, who are looking for a global partner as well as a US one, a ticket to Europe and the rest of the world. This is a critical time to enter the market. ASP in the US has grown hugely and now Europe is about to go the same way. But many US companies, hoping to capitalize in Europe, will find problems ensuring compatibility across the region - at a time when they need to move quickly.

"They need a single point of contact and a robust applications platform running on a genuinely pan-Continental network, which is exactly what we are delivering to them from today. Put simply, no one matches the size of our Internet data center roll-out, the technical expertise of our partners or the industrial strength of our broadband network capability."

ASP Enabler is a flexible end-to-end service available with a range of support options so customers only pay for what they need. It allows customers to rapidly deploy their software - without the in-house cost and risks. It also enables them to scale their business, test new products and get new products to market quickly.

Vernon Irvin, president of BT Ignite Content Hosting, said: "Customers are quite clear about what they want from their content host. They want reliability, security and speed. It's an exciting time in the content hosting sector. We've moved quickly, and we aim to take the marketplace by storm."

Now BT Ignite is developing a number of utility applications for wholesale customers to use or sell on to their customers. One of these, launched today, is Ignite Data Analyst, a scaleable software tool, which allows businesses to cross-analyze business data held on their systems.

ASP has quickly established itself in the US. It is set to do the same in Europe. According to Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, the European ASP market will grow from $180m in 1999 to $8.7 billion by 2004.

Notes to Editors

About BT Ignite

Ignite is BT's new international broadband IP business focused on corporate and wholesale markets in the UK and Continental Europe, and through AT&T and Concert, worldwide. It has one of the largest broadband networks in Europe and plans a series of significant investments over the next three years to expand its backbone network and web hosting and application service provider (ASP) capabilities. This investment also supports its strategy to provide city fiber rings, xDSL and wireless local loop broadband access across Europe. BT Ignite also includes BT's international solutions businesses, Syntegra and Syncordia. Alfred T. Mockett is chief executive of Ignite.

BT Ignite businesses include both wholly owned operations and joint venture partnerships: Inmarsat; Eutelsat; Intelsat; Impsat; New Skies; Esat / Ocean; Mahindra BT; Albacom; BT Telecomunicaciones; AT&T Holdings Canada; Sunrise; Telenordia; BT Belgium; Clear; Commerce One; VerticalNet; I.NET; Al Saudia; Vio; Bharti-BT.

About Ignite Data Analyst

Ignite Data Analyst is an ad-hoc analysis tool which provides a flexible way of interrogating existing ERP systems to aid management decision making. Uniquely, it can analyse and compare data across various databases. The software is available for a number of business disciplines Finance, HR, Manufacturing, Distribution. The product works by creating a data warehouse (a copy of the user's existing data) and then providing a flexible analysis tool to drill down into it. Ignite Data Analyst software was developed by DecisionPoint Applications (DPA) of Portland, Oregon. It continues to market the software on a retail basis. BT owns the ASP version exclusively. Customers will be charged a monthly rental fee based on the package they choose.