Global Crossing has announced it is providing a fully managed Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN) capable of supporting data and voice services to Newsquest Media Group, the UK’s second largest regional newspaper publisher. Newsquest publishes more than 300 titles, including 17 daily paid-for newspapers, in the UK. Global Crossing’s IP VPN will be used for day-to-day business data traffic and newspaper production among 160 sites.
Under the five-year $20 million contract signed last September, Global Crossing is providing an IP VPN solution that will ease the implementation of converged IP services and deliver the class of service (CoS) necessary to support the introduction of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) within 12 months. Global Crossing also will consolidate 50 server locations into two data centres and provide new Internet access points for the data centres.
“We are pleased Newsquest Media Group has placed its confidence in Global Crossing’s ability to migrate its network to a converged platform at a pace that suits its business requirements,” said Anthony Christie, managing director for Global Crossing UK and Europe. “By awarding us this contract, Newsquest clearly has trust in our skill to migrate its legacy network with minimum operational disruption to mission-critical traffic.”
The first phase of the agreement includes managing the existing platform and migrating data traffic to a new IP VPN. Newsquest’s day-to-day traffic comprises large data files from applications, such as terminal services, file transfer protocol (FTP) and Internet browsing. A combination of access options, including ADSL, ISDN and Ethernet will improve cost efficiencies and load sharing across the network.
“We chose Global Crossing because we need a provider that could deliver a next-generation managed service without disrupting the time-critical nature of our newspaper operations,” said Graham Hodgson, IT director, Newsquest. “Global Crossing fully grasped our requirements at a national and regional operating level and came up with a robust solution to effectively manage a complex migration to an IP infrastructure with class-of-service capability. It was essential to choose a technology provider who could deal directly with IT issues affecting our 20 business regions.”
Global Crossing was also chosen because it was able to provide an IP platform that will accommodate future industry trends. The ability to converge data, voice and video onto a single IP-based platform will enable Newsquest to adapt to changing business environments as it grows.