January 8, 2002 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Digex (UK) Ltd. (digex.co.uk), a managed hosting provider, today announced that Microsoft Corporation’s eBusiness Acceleration Center, a technology competence center in Nice, France, has chosen Digex UK to host its infrastructure.
Founded in 1999, the eBusiness Acceleration Center (eBACenter), wasestablished by Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Compaq Computer Corporation as acollaborative project to accelerate the evolution of business on theInternet. It has since become known for helping companies increase theire-business capabilities by offering a unified approach to overcomingtechnical challenges.
During the early stages of development, the companies recognized that inorder to work towards providing customer solutions quickly and efficiently,they needed to be able to interact seamlessly by sharing data andapplications. The challenge facing the three companies was that they couldnot, due to existing corporate security policies and firewalls, access oneanother’s IT systems. In order for this to happen, a “virtual collaborationworkspace” was developed and Digex was appointed to host the entireeBACenter infrastructure.
“In choosing a hosting service provider, we were looking for one who couldprovide the same high level of standards around security and flexibilitythat our customers demand from us every day. Customers require identitybased, secure and consistently reliable access to services that are capableof dealing with varying configuration systems. Digex has demonstrated to usover the past six months that they can deliver this service, as well as ahigh standard of technical support.” Said Giuseppe Mascarella, MicrosoftGroup manager and CTO for the eBACenter solution.
Commenting on the deal, Thomas Davidsson, senior VP, Digex Europe said, “Forevery company doing business on the Web, there are numerous factors that gointo the decision of whether to host internally or outsource to a hostingprovider. A managed hosting provider should be a virtual extension of acompany’s IT department, providing real-time information for e-businessplanning and decision making in a format that is accessible and flexible.”
