AT&T Launches "Synaptic" Cloud Computing Service

AT&T announced the global launch of its "Synaptic Hosting" -- a utility computing service with managed networking, security and storage for businesses. AT&T Synaptic Hosting uses the power of the AT&T network to manage applications, compute resources on servers and store data. It also provides designated account support all backed by a single end-to-end, service-level agreement that is unique within the industry. The network infrastructure supports large-scale computing and applications on demand via virtualized servers.


The AT&T Synaptic Hosting service combines technology acquired from USinternetworking (USi) with five "super IDCs" (Internet data centers) in the United States, Europe and Asia. AT&T has a total of 38 IDCs in its global IP network. The super IDCs will be located in Piscataway, N.J.; San Diego; Annapolis, Md.; Singapore and Amsterdam and will act as regional gateways to the AT&T network "cloud."





Over time, AT&T plans to add IDCs to the regional network infrastructure to deliver "enterprise-class" cloud capabilities to companies in the U.S. and abroad.


AT&T said Synaptic Hosting will also be extended to deliver similar benefits to other services in its portfolio, including unified communication, content distribution, dynamic backup and restore, on-demand retrieval of high-resolution images such as X-rays and CT scans and many other subscription-based software services.


The service is especially aimed at companies whose business needs are seasonal or unpredictable, or where end-user traffic spikes are a given. For example, the service allows online retailers gearing up for holiday sales, employers with annual open enrollment for employee benefits and game publishers running online games to manage their own applications -- or let AT&T manage them -- while paying only for the information technology (IT) capacity needed on a day-to-day basis.


AT&T also noted that the official Web site of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) is powered by AT&T Synaptic Hosting. Teamusa.org is the USOC's new feature-rich Web site that connects fans of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams with America's athletes on their journey to the Olympic Games. The site features stories on U.S. Olympians and Paralympians and Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, athlete blogs and social networking tools.http://www.att.com