HERNDON, VA - February 26, 2008 - XO Communications, a leading provider of 21st century communications for businesses and communications service providers today announced a three-year agreement with Cisco® to accelerate the development and delivery of next generation Cisco Powered IP communications services for businesses and large enterprises through collaboration on services and solutions as well as joint marketing and sales initiatives.
The two companies will combine leading-edge networking technologies from Cisco with XO's nationwide transport and IP networking capabilities to focus on the growing demand for IP convergence and networking services. In addition, the agreement will help XO Communications accelerate the development of new services under the XO IPfolio and strengthens the company's go-to-market capabilities as it expands its presence in the enterprise market.
NEW Cisco Powered Service Designations
XO Communications has also received the Cisco Powered service designation for several services, including MPLS IP-VPN, Metro Ethernet, Security, Web Hosting and Dedicated Internet Access. These designations demonstrate to businesses and large enterprises that XO Communications has committed to investing in the resources, systems, and procedures to deploy, manage, and support high-quality managed IP and networking services.
"XO and Cisco share a vision for the proliferation of managed services to enable business customers to focus on their core competencies rather than their IT infrastructure," said Jeff Spagnola, vice president service provider marketing at Cisco. "XO is a leader in the market in building out its service portfolio, which will allow its current and future customers to increase productivity while reducing the capex and opex associated with internal deployment of these resources."
Expanding XO's IP Services Portfolio
XO Communications has already developed and brought to market several converged and IP networking services based on the Cisco IP Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture, including XO Metro Ethernet, XO IP Flex, XO SIP, XO VPN and XO MPLS IP-VPN. Together, XO Communications and Cisco intend to collaborate on the development of new Cisco Powered Managed Services and solutions bundles that incorporate new application-aware MPLS IP-VPN, managed security and next generation Unified Communications services in order to offer enterprises enhanced features and functionality for their mission-critical networks.
"With this agreement, XO Communications is taking a leadership position in delivering new and advanced IP solutions that allow enterprises to converge voice and data networks for increased network performance and employee productivity," said Tom Cady, president of XO Business Services. "By working closely with Cisco, we are better positioned to utilize Cisco's technology leadership and distribution channels to deliver new IP solutions to the enterprise market quickly."
Next-Generation Network and Increased Capacity Provides Platform for New IP Services
XO Communications will deliver these new services over its advanced, nationwide IP network. XO Communications recently announced a significant expansion in the capacity of its nationwide IP network based on the Cisco IP NGN architecture. The deployment of the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System will more than double current capacity and sets the stage for a four-fold increase, while helping XO Communications meet the growing demand for high-speed Internet access services and support its expansion into the high-capacity IP transit services market.
Sales Collaboration
Businesses will also benefit from collaboration between XO and Cisco sales forces. The managed services, some of which are available now and others which are scheduled to be deployed in 2008 and 2009, are designed to help customers maximize returns on existing network investments by enabling consolidation and upgrade of multi-service IP networks. These services ultimately will be made available through direct and indirect sales channels.
