The cost of downtime...

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IBM White Papers

• Competing for the World Cup and Win

• Sprint E|Solutions E-Business Practice

• Sprint E|Solutions Enterprise Mobile Solutions

Why Planning Business Is Critical?

•   Gain speed to market very important  
•   Leverage technology efficiently from cost effectiveness point of view  
•   Reduce costs to business processes  
•   Improve reliability of system infrastructure and business applications  
•   Enhance appreciation of technical expertise required  
•   Minimize technology obsolescence  
•   Gain competitive advantages over competitors

   Outsourced E-Business: Do They Make Sense for Your Company?Call IBM 'On Demand' Expert (1-800-IBM-7080)

II. What Are The Demands In Business?

The Internet is expanding 1000% per year and the demand from businesses on reliable and scalable network services, secured server systems and rapid application development are tremendous. Significant public and commercial network infrastructure investment have been made in the recent past. Companies are in the best position now to take advantages of the available infrastructure to conduct their businesses and offer efficient business solution and services to their customers. The following diagram gives a simple pictorial illustration what the demand is.  

Naturally, E-Commerce is demanding a whole range of solutions. IBM is well prepared to offer a total solution to meet this demand. Following a brief introduction of IBM product family and services, we provide an outline of a buseness planning guide for decision makers like you. You will be able to assess your company situation and engage a productive discussion with IBM experts to develop your business strategy, plan and implementation.

III. IBM Product Family and Services relevant to Business

IBM offers a wide range of products and services. In addition, IBM has formulated a large group of development and business partners in order to bring innovative solutions to our clients. IBM invests xx billion dollars in R&D to develop hardware and software products. It is our business to be in the forefront of technologies and it is also our business to recognize any innovative product that nust be incorporated in our solutions to meet our customers' needs. To provide you a picture of what IBM offers we have organized our products, services and solutions in the four tables below. Each offering is linked to our web site for more detailed descriptions. A quick glance of these tables on hardware, software, services and solutions will give you an impression on IBM's strength. When you decide to engage IBM as your e-business partner or provider, this strength will be your strength. Table 1 Hardware Products Table 2 Software Products Table 3 Services Table 4 Solutions The bredth of products is necessary for meeting demands in E-business but it is the depth of our knowledge in solution development with our customers that sets IBM apart from others in offering total solution to meet our customer's complete satisfaction. E-business demand is not only broad ranged but also extremely dynamic. We engage a large family of development and business partners to meet the e-business demand, be it in new innovations, product enhancements or cross product or cross platform integrations.

Sprint E|Solutions Internet Backbone
Sprint builds from ground up with reliability as #1 Priority

•  Built with clear technological advantage: first to deploy 100% digital, fiber-optic, self-healing network
•  Unsurpassed survivability with ring-based SONET
•  Dedication to operational excellence
•  Dependable, worry-free service: backed by industry-leading service level agreements

Sprint E|Solutions Internet Transport 
Sprint enables your business to build and maintain relationships through information technology
• Comprehensive dedicated and dial  access options
•  Intranets for closed, internal networks
•  Extranets for extending network resources and tools to key partners and suppliers

Sprint Has A Proud Track Record for Delivering the Best and Latest in Communications and Web Solutions    

1984   Begin to build our transcontinental all-digital fiber-optic network  
1992   Begin to offer Internet service nationwide  
1994   Completes first SONET survivable ring  
1995   Begins building the first 100% digital PCS wireless network in the U.S.  
1998   Launches Web Hosting Service with 100% site-availability service level agreement  
1999   Begin to offer comprehensive managed Internet VPN solution  
1999   Begin to offer native multicasting  
2000   Launches complete suite of E-business solutions  
2000    Boosts speed and bandwidth of IP backbone to OC-48  
2001   Updates (link to web source)  

IV. IBM Business Planning Guide: Strategy, Plan and Implementation to Complete satisfaction

e-business on demand (trade Mark) is The Next Utility (Trade mark). Thirsty? Turn on the water tap. In the dark? Flick on the light switch. Looking for e-business solutions? e-business on demand makes them just about as easy as working with any other utility. It's data storage, Web hosting, e-procurement and more. A wide range of e-business services - managed, hosted, serviced, upgraded and delivered to your door without worrying over the details. With e-business on demand, end-to-end e-business can be as accessible, affordable, and as easy-to-use as water, gas, telephone or electricity. By giving up the burden of IT ownership, your company can vastly increase its access to computing power, expertise, and innovation. Subscribe to what you need today. Turn it up when you need more. For large companies, it's saving millions in up-front investments in hardware, software, integration, and hiring. For growing companies, it's the sophisticated network of a larger competitor at a fraction of the cost. With e-business on demand, we focus on your technology, you focus on your business. Together, we focus on your success.

Sprint E|Solutions Internet Centers are secure and environmentally controlled facilities.  These data centers offer un-matched features:

Reliable Network Connectivity:
•   Direct connections to the Sprint OC-48 Internet backbone
•   Wide range of LAN/WAN connectivity options

Extensive Security Measures:
•   24-hour staffing and management
•   Highly secured intrusion and access control 
•   Secure receiving of customer equipment  

Comprehensive Environmental Controls:
•   N+1 configuration for all critical components
•   Separate cooling zones
•    FM-200 fire suppression / VESDA detection systems 

By year 2002, Sprint shall have 18 such centers world wide.

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Sprint Internet Innovation

1992   – Begin to provide Internet services  
1995   – Begin offering international broadband Internet services  
1996   – Begin to offer separate intranet network specifically for business  
1997   – Offers gigabit router network for high performance  
1998   – Sprint launches Web Hosting service with 100% site availability service  level agreement  
1999   – Begin to offer native multicasting
          – Launch comprehensive managed internet VPN service 
          – Sprint launches E-Commerce Storefront^SM and EDI services  
2000   – Sprint offers suite of E-business solutions for E-commerce, intranet, extranet, and internet  
          –   Sprint announces industry-leading Internet SLA’s  
2001/2  Updates (link to web source)    

V.  Sprint Products and Services Relevant to Web Hosting and Collocation

Total Web Hosting Services

•   Customized hosting solutions  
•   Shared or dedicated server offerings  
•   Customer or Sprint E|Solutions-provided hardware and applications  
•   Access to Sprint E|Solutions’ gigabit switch Internet backbone sites  
•   Complete solutions  
•   Technical expertise  
•   Creative Web Design Program  

Web Hosting Service Packages

Standard  

•   Sprint E|Solutions-managed servers, shared or dedicated  
•   Sprint E|Solutions-provided applications (store front etc)  

Custom

•   Sprint E|Solutions-managed servers, shared or dedicated  
•   Customer and Sprint E|Solutions-provided applications  

Custom

•   Customer-provided and customer-managed servers and applications  

Collocation Options  

•   Sprint E|Solutions Node Site
          – Utilize Sprint’s highly secure network sites:  
             ·Sprintlink node sites  
             ·Sprint E|Solutions POPs  
             ·Sprint E|Solutions SCOs
          – Restricted access  
•   Sprint E|Solutions Internet Centers
       – State-of-the-art environment
       – Unrestricted customer access

Monitoring and Management

•   On-Site Network Operations Center
•   24 x 7 Internet Center monitoring and network management

On Site services  

•   Tape changes  
•   Reboots
•   Host administration tasks  
•   Unescorted access for authorized users  
•   Secure receiving   

Benefits of Collocation - Reliability and Security from A Understanding Vendor    

•   Sprint E|Solutions responsible for all components necessary to provide a reliable, secure and environmentally controlled facility •   Over 20 years of switch-site and data center management expertise  
•   Over 1.5M square feet of space managed today; aggressive Sprint E|Solutions Internet Center deployment under way  
•   Sprint E|Solutions Managed Web Hosting and Collocation Services ranked #1 by Network Computing E-Commerce’s Great 8   

Advantages of Collocation - Total Solution from A Trustworthy Vendor  

•   Direct connection to the Sprint OC-48 Internet backbone  
•   Unsurpassed reliability; industry-leading SLAs  
•   Physical space  
•   Transport  
•   Managed services  
•   Application infrastructure  
•   Professional services   

So, Why Sprint? 

•  Internet Innovator for over 10 years  
•   Best-of-breed vendors: Cisco, Nortel & Sun  
•   E-commerce security leader  
•   Industry-leading SLAs  
•   End-to-end IT professional solutions  
•   Responsive, knowledgeable account teams  
•   State-of-the-art Internet centers
•  Industry leading Mobil Commerce platform 
•   Patent-pending web-hosting architecture
•   Unsurpassed network reliability  
•   The Sprint OC-48 Internet backbone

VI. Simple Steps for Engaging Web Hosting

Sprint has trained experts to work with our customers to make the web hosting simple no matter how extensive a web site or how many web sites to be hosted.

The following hyper linked form will guide you through a simple set of steps to engage web hosting with Sprint. The click and call features provided here will permit you to speak to our experts whenever you have a question. The answer will be just a click away.

Insert Web Hosting Engagement Form

1. Contact a sales representative by using the Sprint E800 Directory and establish an account name (no Cost is incurred at this point) Write down the sales representative's name and phone number for future use.

2.  Fill out the following survey questions to expedite the process of determining what services are needed and what will be the cost (no commitment at this point)

-          Do you Have an existing web site to be hosted? Yes or No
-          Do you require web design work? Yes or No 
-          Do you require Internet storefront (sales transaction) for your web site? 
-          Do you have a time schedule to host your web site?  Immediately, one month, 
           3 months, 6 months, a year or longer?
-          Do you want to transfer domain names to be serviced by the Sprint domain
           name server (DNS)?
-          Do you understand the procedure of how to transfer domain names? 
-          Do you require no-service-interruption web site transfer?
-          Do you need to consider collocation at Sprint Internet centers?
-          Do you require a sales representative to call you and develop a web hosting plan? 
           (no commitment at this point)
-          Do you require a sales representative to call you and develop a collocation plan? 
           (no commitment at this point)

3.      Work out a statement of work with the sales representative to determine the specific service items, costs and deliverable schedules (Committing Sprint and customer to a contract)

4.      Ask your sales representative to establish the project team for your web hosting project. The team list and phone numbers should be accessible by you through the web and through this Mi-Card. with password protection

5.      Demand an implementation plan and schedule from your project team

6.      Monitor project till its completion. Use project team list in the Sprint E800 directory to communicate and assess progress 

VII. Simple Procedure for Engaging Collocation

Collocation involves having hardware, applications and services located at Sprint Node site or Internet centers. In the former case, the site is restricted in access whereas in the latter case, Customer has unrestricted access. The following hyper linked form will guide you through a simple procedure to engage collocation and complete implementation with Sprint. The click and call features provided here will permit you to speak to our experts whenever you have a question. The answer will be just a click away.

Insert Collocation Engagement Form 

1.      Contact a Sprint sales representative by using the Sprint E800 Directory and establish a customer account (no Cost is incurred at this point) Write down the sales representative's name and phone number for future use.

2.      Fill out the following survey questions to expedite the process of determining what services are needed and what will be the cost (no commitment at this point)
-   Do you require collocation service at the Internet Centers?
-   Do you require collocation service at Sprint highly secured Node Site?
-   Do you require collocation service at Sprint POP Sites?
-   Do You require collocation service at Sprint SOC Sites?
-   Do you require Sprint to provide you with hardware, servers, routers or switches?
-   Do you need to bring your own hardware to collocation site? What are the 
    equipment list? Equipment type, model, power specification and physical size.
-   Do you know your network and bandwidth requirement? Specify if yes.
-   Do you require a sales representative to call you and develop a collocation plan?
    (no commitment at this point)
-   Do you require a sales representative to call you and develop a web hosting plan?
    (no commitment at this point)  

3.     Work out a statement of work with the sales representative to determine the specific service items, costs and deliverable schedules (Committing Sprint and customer to a contract)

4.      Ask your sales representative to establish the project team for your collocation project. The team list and phone numbers should be accessible by you through the web and through this Mi-Card with password protection

5.      Demand an implementation plan and schedule from the project team

6.      Monitor the project till its completion. Use project team list in the Sprint E800 Directory to communicate and assess progress. 

VIII. Tips and Glossary Terms Relevant to Web Hosting and Collocation

The following tips may be useful when you consider engaging web hosting and collocation.

Tip 1: RESCUE  (Reliability, Security, Cost, Usability and Effectiveness)

When you consider web hosting and/or collocation, you must think in terms of RESCUE. Reliability is of the uttermost importance. Downtime and performance guarantee are typically the parameters to look for. The vendor you select must have a track record to prove it. Security is the next consideration, extremely important for collocation. You need to examine how much investment the ISP has made towards securing the facility and what is day-to-day security management like. The cost is the next order of consideration. You need to consider all costs, that is one-time cost (such as installation or set-up fee) versus recurrent cost (monthly or yearly payment). You need to consider the time duration for a particular cost (contract) commitment. Usability means how as a client you can use the facility. In web hosting, the ease of making changes on web content is important. In collocation, physical visit and remote access to do maintenance must be understood well. Availability of on-line (e-mail or chat) or real-time (call to reach a knowledgeable person) support generally means you will have good support. Effectiveness is the last but not the least consideration, you need to consider the effectiveness of web hosting or collocation for your particular business objectives. Consider whether a reputable ISP and its IP address means a lot to your business. Evaluate the functional extensibility of the web hosting and collocation to meet your business growth. Find out from current customers whether the ISP is effective in supporting their web sites and/or web applications.

Tip 2: Web Hosting Comparison

Some large ISPs provide a clear comparison table for the services and costs they provide for various packages of web hosting. Understand the standard packages first then ask about additional functions you may need or you need to have. Typically, bandwidth (bits/sec for retrieving web pages) and storage (Megabytes per web site) are specified. Some ISPs include email service with web hosting then you need to compare how many mail box account are provided and any storage are given to mail boxes separately. Investigate what tools are provided or supported for web page work (design, update, management and remote operation such as file transfer (FTP) and email access (Telnet)). If your web site involves transaction, you need to check out whether the ISP has a complete suite of tools and services for supporting your e-commerce activity. Store front, shopping cart, credit card authorization and payment and bank account linkage are items you should understand well. If you are starting a new web site, you should ask for web design service and cost, whether there is any standard package to get you started quickly and inexpensively. If you are moving your web sites to a new ISP, obviously you should list all the deficiencies you currently experience and address them with the new ISP.

Tip 3: Collocation Consideration

When you consider collocation, it usually means you have been in the web site and web application already. So you should have a bunch of reasons for selecting collocation. (List the problems and deficiencies you currently experience and tick them off when discuss with a collocation ISP). One tend to overlook the initial installation or one time implementation issues and consider more on the day-to-day operational issues. The latter is extremely important but the former can cost you a lot if it is overlooked. Determine your needs carefully for both installation and implementation phase and the operational phase.

What physical space you really need? What is the exact cabinet or cage size ISP can provide for what cost?

List the equipment you need to put in the collocation site when in operation versus when in implementation (some ISPs provide tools and equipment to aid the customers in implementation). Add to the equipment list the power requirements, any special power outlets, any unusual mounting device, any special cabling, any precaution in transport,  freight elevator (watch out for those ISPs who do not have elevators), and carting.

Examine the environmental spec and control the collocation provides such as temperature, humility, power regulation and standby power for electric outage. Technical and service supports are important and you need to understand the level the ISP provides and what do they cost, whether they are one time charge or on a monthly basis. Use RESCUE to develop a table listing all factors or parameters in one column and list the ISP names (at least two) on the row so you will have a comprehensive comparison between vendors on an apple to apple and orange to orange basis. 

A Glossary of relevant business and technical terms may be provided here for customers and Sprint staff's benefit. Examples may be:

Access Point  (Sprint's control of access to Internet centers or node sites)
Backbone (Major communication networks behind Internet and various networks)
Collocation (placing web server and other communication and application equipment at a shared secured location)
Cabinet (A physical container for housing collocation equipments)
Data Center (Internet centers for providing data and voice services)
DNS (Domain Name Server/Service)
Downtime (The time during which the web services or applications are non-functional due to network or equipment problems)
E|Solutions (Sprint's total solution unit for E-Commerce)
Enterprise Security Assessment (Sprint Program for assessing enterprise's network security)
Enterprise Network (private network of enterprises)
Extranet (Enterprise providing network connectivity to suppliers and vendors external to Intranet)
Fiber Network (Optical fiber network capable of high speed of optical communication)
FON (Wireline Telecommunication Operation and Phone Services)
Gigabit Switch (High speed switch, such as Cisco Catalyst Intelligent Switch )
Hosting Services (Services related to hosting web site)
Internet (Public network supporting Internet applications)
Intranet (Internet environment within an enterprise)
ION (Integrated Optical Network)
MESP (Managed Enterprise Security Program)
Managed Hosting (Sprint providing management of web site)
Managed Network Service Center (Sprint managed network support center)
Node Site (highly secured network nodes)
OC12, OC48 (Optical fiber network of 622Mbps, 2488Mbps respectively)
PCS (Wireless Personal Communication Services)
POP (Points of Presence)
SCO (Sprint Central Office)
SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork)
SOW (Statement of Work)
Sprintlink (Sprint Internet Network)
T1 (IP versus Voice T1, 1.54 Mb/s bandwidth line for digital packet transmission under Internet Protocol (IP) or Voice transmission, 64 kb/s per channel)
Traffic Assessment (Web browsing traffic on a web site)
VPN (Virtual Private Network, A product offered by telecommunication industry)
WAN (Wide Area Network)
Web Hosting (Providing web server and hosting web pages) 

XI. Sprint E800 Directory Supporting Web Hosting and Collocation 

The directory provided here allows customers and Sprint staff to click and call any names and/or phone numbers listed in the directory from any Internet connected PC or from a web page providing the directory service. It is very convenient and powerful communication tool for project management and team work.

Sprint E800 Directory

X. Acknowledgement