AT&T Builds Voice/Data Network For American Financial Group
October 5, 2001 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- AT&T (att.com) announced that it has been awarded a
multi-year contract by American Financial Group, Inc. (amfnl.com) to design, build and manage an integrated voice and data network, supporting its locations nationwide. AFG, which is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, provides insurance products and services through the members of its Great American Insurance Group.
This single, enterprise network will serve as a high-performance information
delivery platform for AFG. The network will allow AFG to deliver secure,
enterprise-wide applications and services and enable its businesses to
maintain a leading position in the insurance industry.
"From ensuring high internal and external network security to providing high
performance, availability and scalability, the AT&T managed services and
hosting solution will support existing and future mission-critical business
applications," said Rob Agar, divisional senior vice president and CTO, AFG.
"AT&T's solution set and cutting-edge capabilities meet our business goals
so we can concentrate on growing our core businesses."
AT&T will provide a broad range of AFG's networking infrastructure and
services, including transport, remote access, Internet, extranet, Web
hosting and security - all running on AT&T's Private IP-VPN service and all
located in one of AT&T's redundant Internet Data Centers . AT&T recently
announced this capability to integrate and host a company's private IP-VPN
service in one of AT&T's IDCs.
AT&T will manage routers at all locations across AFG's enterprise network.
In addition, AFG is one of the first customers to use AT&T Managed Router
Service to connect to AT&T's Private IP-VPN service, a capability that was
announced last month.
Agar said, "We required a service provider who could deliver a
comprehensive, end-to-end networking solution utilizing a service-based
model. AFG is not a networking company, and this arrangement allows us to
work with a qualified provider on a monthly operating basis."
Because of the breadth and complexity of the managed services involved, AT&T
is providing AFG with a custom designed, enterprise-wide technical support
center. The facility will give AFG a single point of contact for maintenance
reporting, tracking and the resolution of problems for all AT&T managed
services.
AT&T is working with two members of its award-winning Alliance Program, the
company's indirect channel program, to support this complex network
management project. The companies are Data Processing Sciences Corp. of
Cincinnati, and Diversified Systems Resources of Bartlesville, Okla.
