OpenReach signs COOP agreement with SAIC.

OpenReach, Inc. a provider of networking and security overlay services, recently announced the OpenReach Business Protection Program, the industry's first practical solution for enterprises affected by the current telecom industry crisis. The OpenReach Business Protection Program provides enterprises an immediate contingency to protect their networks against sudden shutdowns, service outages and performance degradations caused by carrier bankruptcies, and a practical, phased plan to protect their business longer term by eliminating their dependency on single-carrier implementations.

In addition, OpenReach also announced that it has signed a cooperative agreement with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a worldwide leader in IT and telecommunications solutions, to provide professional services to enterprises that need assistance in quickly implementing network contingency plans. SAIC can assist OpenReach customers in risk assessment, contingency planning, and service implementation.

OpenReach is sponsoring a free Web seminar on Wednesday, August 21, 2002, featuring leading META Group analyst David Willis, who will share best practices on how businesses can protect themselves from the current turbulence in the telecom market. To register, visit http://www.openreach.com/protect.

The telecommunications market is in a state of turmoil. Since January 2001, at least fourteen telecom providers have filed for bankruptcy, including Global Crossing, PSINet, KPNQwest, and most recently WorldCom. This and the long-standing practice of purchasing the bulk of data communications services from a single carrier have left many enterprises vulnerable to network downtime caused by service outages, unresponsive customer support, and bandwidth constraints, putting business operations at risk. Lost productivity, reduced revenue and decreased market share due to network downtime already cost U.S. companies an average of $32.7 million per year, according to Infonetics Research.

To date, the only alternatives available to enterprise network managers have been to either switch carriers (requiring costly network cutovers that take months or years to complete), or to simply wait to see what happens. Although enterprises frequently diversify connections to large corporate centers, 98% of all networked business locations are smaller sites connected via T1 facilities or less, according to International Data Corporation (IDC), with 51% being connected via 56K circuits. For these locations, there is little or no contingency plan in place.

The OpenReach Business Protection Program offers companies a new alternative based on carrier-diversification that can be implemented immediately--with minimal cost, time, and resources--to first safeguard their network and then enhance their business. The program employs a practical, three-phased approach that lets companies move at their own pace and that is cost-effective for corporate headquarters, remote sites, and branch offices as well as for multinational and regional businesses. Companies can choose to implement one or all phases, based on the specific needs of their businesses.

"The OpenReach Business Protection Program provides the first practical alternative to carrier switching that can cost-effectively diversify connectivity all the way down to the smallest branch office," said Jeff Phillips, director at TeleChoice. "It gives IT managers an answer to the tough question being asked by every CIO that uses WorldCom services, which is: `What's our plan?' OpenReach offers both a short term solution to solve the immediate concern over service outages, and a long-term path that really eliminates a company's reliance on a single telecom provider."

Phase 1--Mitigate the Risk

The first phase immediately ends the business dependency on any one carrier by transforming virtually any Internet connection into a secure backup circuit for primary business connections. The OpenReach service deploys quickly and easily to affected sites, providing a backup network through the Internet. When outages or performance degradation occur, OpenReach instantly redirects traffic over secured Internet paths.

Phase 2--Optimize the Network

The second phase transforms the passive backup circuit into an active overflow circuit for network optimization. Enterprises optimize their primary and backup connections by segmenting traffic across both networks to increase available capacity, improve application performance, and enhance overall network reliability. Companies can replace generic Internet connections with high-quality IP services and can reduce primary network costs by reducing the CIRs and port speeds of the legacy circuits.

Phase 3--Profit from Agility

In the third phase, enterprises multi-source carrier services to take advantage of the best cost, coverage, availability, and reliability. Carrier independence empowers companies to set up connections when and where they need them based on the changing needs of their business, rather than on the constraints of a single carrier network. OpenReach acts an insulation layer between the underlying physical carrier infrastructure and the logical business network, enabling companies to easily change service providers if needed without requiring network reconfiguration or experience any business disruption.

"When our carrier, Global Crossing, announced bankruptcy earlier this year, I wasn't worried that it would impact our business because we use OpenReach Services to connect our R&D labs together," observed Stephen Whiteley, director of IT, ArQule, Inc. "OpenReach gives me the flexibility to use the best IP services available--and even change carriers quickly if I need to--ensuring that our scientists always have the high-performance, reliable connectivity that they require to develop advanced medicines."

Best-Practices for Network Contingency and Competitive Advantage

To help customers move quickly to protect their networks, OpenReach has signed a cooperative agreement with SAIC to provide a full suite of best-practice network consulting, design and management services from risk assessment to contingency planning to system implementation. SAIC's next generation network (NGN) integrated solutions cover carrier selection, service procurement, network deployment, vendor oversight, and operational management, and can be customized based on an enterprise's needs.

"Enterprises are concerned about how to protect themselves, but they're worried they might make the wrong choice," said Bob Young, SAIC senior vice president and manager of the Global Telecommunications Group. "Together, SAIC and OpenReach can assist in making those tough decisions. SAIC helps companies not just install a quick fix, but also can implement a business solution to protect them going forward regardless of which service provider or access technology they use."

OpenReach Business Protection Program is available immediately. Pricing begins at $65 per site per month.

"Single-carrier dependency is analogous to having your entire 401K in a single investment," said Deb Mielke, principal, Treillage Network Strategies, Inc. "This is not the time to be complacent; enterprise network managers need to take aggressive action to diversify their carrier services and protect their businesses. What OpenReach and SAIC have put together is more than a treatment: it's a cure."