SAN JOSE, Calif. -- October 18, 1999 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. and IBM today announced that they will work together to address the needs of the growing number of Application Service Providers (ASPs). The announcement marks IBM's commitment to support the Cisco Hosted Applications Initiative and to work closely with Cisco in enabling ASPs to build and test high quality hosted applications offerings. The two companies' commitment and expertise in this market will allow ASPs to optimize quality of service (QoS) and virtual private network (VPN) service deployment and service level agreement (SLA) delivery end-to-end.
The Cisco Hosted Applications Initiative launched in April 1999, provides businesses of all sizes with access to powerful applications that were previously beyond their reach. The initiative creates an emerging ecosystem of software application vendors, hardware vendors, application service providers, internet service providers, co-location providers, system integrators, and technology partners to deliver a variety of hosted business applications.
"IBM and Cisco each have leading-edge technologies and skills for building robust, large scale system infrastructures," said Robert Dana, vice president of technology for application services, Interliant, a leading ASP and Web hosting company. "Together, they offer ASPs a great foundation for getting quality, high performing applications to market more quickly."
Wide-scale application hosting across the Internet demands an intelligent, end-to-end platform and network infrastructure to satisfy customer expectations for integration, reliability, security, and performance. As the leader in standards-based computing, IBM will provide the Cisco Hosted Applications lab with development platforms and highly skilled personnel from the San Mateo Solution Partnership Center to assist Cisco and ASPs in implementing, testing and fine-tuning networked e-business applications. The IBM San Mateo Solution Partnership Center provides software application developers with a multi-server platform environment to develop hostable and scalable applications. This will allow ASPs to offer customers value-added hosted applications solutions and services that have been thoroughly tested for ASP infrastructure environments by both IBM and Cisco.
"Application Service Providers and others looking to expand their current offerings into proven, value-added hosted services will benefit from the combined resources of Cisco and IBM," said Jim Corgel, general manager, IBM Global Internet Service Provider Industry Unit. "ASPs can concentrate on growing their business knowing that the solutions they provide their customers are thoroughly tested and backed by industry leaders."
As the global leader in e-business, IBM contributes its expertise in developing business applications and unmatched experience in open, standards-based application development. Cisco, the data networking industry leader, brings expertise in Internet networking technology and solutions. The combined resources of both companies will provide unparalleled support for ASPs looking to partner with industry leaders.
"With this announcement IBM and Cisco are assisting ASPs to offer robust and reliable applications through the hosted model," said Eugene Lee, vice president of marketing for Cisco Systems' Small/Medium line of business.
About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM offers the widest range of solutions to allow ISPs customers to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/solutions/isp
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is theworldwide leader in networking for the Internet.Cisco, Cisco Systems and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and certain other countries. IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.