Tiscali Chooses Cisco Solutions to Strengthen Its Backbone Network and Renew Its Data Center

Italian Telecommunication Operator Chooses Cisco Technology to Consolidate Its IP Backbone and Support Cloud Computing Services

MILAN, ITALY – May 3, 2011 – Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) announced an agreement with Tiscali, one of the main telecommunication companies in Italy, which entails the supply of Cisco technology to strengthen its backbone and rationalize its data center. This agreement, which includes Cisco Gold Certified Partners, Sirti for networking devices and Maticmind for Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) blade systems, provides for the supply of three Cisco Carrier Routing Systems (CRS-1), the Cisco carrier-class routing platform, 16 Cisco UCS blade systems, and three Cisco Nexus 5000 systems for its Data Center upgrade.

Tiscali has established itself as one of the main independent telecommunication operators in the country, and today can offer its customers a wide range of services, from Internet access in narrowband and broadband mode, to more specific and technologically advanced products, such as voice services (landline and mobile), portal and multimedia services, to satisfy growing market requirements.

The project, which has remarkably expanded Tiscali’s national network capacity, started in June 2010 with a two-fold purpose: develop important innovations on its IP backbone, and cloud support services in order to differentiate itself in the market by offering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).

“We are enthusiastic about our partnership with Cisco. Its network technologies allow us to ensure consistent quality for the products we put on the market and to ensure consistent competence and know-how,” said Andrea Podda, Tiscali’s CTO. “These technologies are enabling the development of today’s and future projects, due to the local support of our network in Italy, which certainly is one of the most extensive and interconnected IP-based networks.”

“As a result of the implementation of Cisco’s solutions, Tiscali upgraded its data center, obtaining significant optimization of costs and quality,” added Salvatore Pulvirenti, Tiscali’s CIO. “Indeed, Cisco’s solution was implemented according to the agreed schedule and without any impact on customers and services, through the introduction of Cisco UCS systems and Nexus technology that allowed Tiscali to obtain remarkable savings in terms of space and energy consumption compared to traditional solutions.”

The benefits of the data center architecture are particularly visible with regard to the improved management of the infrastructural resources dedicated to IT and customers, infrastructural management sustainability, the availability of a more reliable and flexible environment and a greater operational efficiency, with savings of 30 percent in footprint and energy consumption compared to traditional solutions.

This progress was made possible by a plan that Tiscali adopted with Cisco technology in three basic phases of its data center upgrade: consolidation, virtualization and automation, represented by the adoption of Cisco’s unified computing technologies such as stateless computing, unified fabric, unified management and virtualization adapter.

The future is now

According to Cisco estimates, by 2015, we will see a 26-fold increase in data traffic on mobile networks (Cisco Visual Networking Index) while internet traffic will mainly be video-based. Video will represent more than 91 percent of global IP traffic in the next three years (Cisco Visual Networking Index). By adopting these solutions, Tiscali has not only enhanced the core of its activity, but is ready for what will certainly occur, with an open eye on its future expansion capacity.

The Cisco CRS can support throughput of 92 terabits per second, and is the premier carrier-class routing system designed to ensure maximum service scalability, offering the necessary investment protection to operators in order to manage the supply of multiple services and handle the forecasted traffic growth generated by video services on IP. The Cisco UCS also allows virtualization to be optimized, and supports general data center cost reduction and dynamic provisioning of resources with the goal of greater corporate flexibility. The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series also combines data center consolidation with investment protection allowing transparent migration to a unified fabric architecture, and fully satisfying corporate requirements for operational continuity, scalability and transfer flexibility.

“With the technological innovation acquired through the adoption of Cisco’s CRS-1 and UCS technologies, Tiscali is ready to tackle new market challenges, since it can offer innovative services on next generation IP networks and cloud computing services. Cisco’s commitment toward Service Providers is not only to offer state-of-the-art technologies, but also to follow them step by step on a path that will enhance the average experience of their customers, distributing quality and high performance, accelerating the delivery of wide scale services and generating new business opportunities,” concludes Giorgio Pignataro, sales director for Service Provider, Media & Broadcaster at Cisco Italy.

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About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information on Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco products in Europe are supplied by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.

About Tiscali

Tiscali S.p.A. (Italian Stock Exchange. Milan: TIS) is one of the main alternative telecommunication companies in Italy. Tiscali provides a wide range of services to its customers, private consumers and companies: dial-up and ADSL Internet access, voice, VoIP, media, value added services and other technologically advanced products.

As of 31st December 2010, Tiscali reported about 709,000 customers in Italy, 550,000 of which use ADSL. About 369,000 are dual play customers.

Tiscali’s web site in Italy is www.tiscali.it.

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