savvisdirect Expands with Launch of AppGrid Private Cloud

MONROE, La., Feb. 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE:CTL, news, filings), the third largest telecommunications company in the United States and a leader in global cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for enterprises, today launched AppGrid^SM, a private cloud service available through the savvisdirect online channel that helps businesses better manage the application lifecycle from conception to production.

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AppGrid offers instantly scalable private cloud services, available on a month-to-month, utility basis with no long-term commitment or contract. Equipped for high-performance workloads, AppGrid is based on the CA AppLogic™ cloud platform from CA Technologies.

The introduction of AppGrid builds on CenturyLink’s ongoing strategy to bring simplified cloud services to a broader segment of business customers by combining the strengths of CenturyLink’s network infrastructure with Savvis’ expertise in cloud.

“With most cloud-based software development efforts, developers must keep track of multiple scripting languages, hardware configurations, and application versions as they hop from one platform to the next throughout the application lifecycle,” said Mike Goodenough, global director of cloud field engineering for savvisdirect. “AppGrid changes the game by simplifying the application development and continuous integration processes into a single, private cloud appliance ecosystem that’s delivered on dedicated hardware, fully accessible via public IP and secured through VPNs.”

The AppGrid graphical application design editor allows businesses to quickly design, build, test and launch production environments leveraging web servers, databases and networking appliances using a dedicated private cloud environment. Private cloud environments currently can be deployed through CenturyLink data centers in North America.

Product features include:

• A rapid deployment model that allows customers to go from sign-up to live in less than two business days;
• A choice between three preconfigured grids to power compute needs;
• A graphical dashboard interface to manage and track CPU, RAM, storage space, role-based account management and reporting tools;
• A scalable infrastructure for instant access to additional capacity and preconfigured resources such as firewalls, load balancers, switches and databases;
• Xen-based open source hypervisor for universal compatibility with Linux and with Microsoft server software and bring your own license models;
• Service-level agreement and 24/7 customer support;
• Access to savvisdirect’s FastForward Onboarding^SM; and
• Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program for Windows 2008 R2 64-bit operating system operated via the CA AppLogic automation system for consistent operation and support.

New York merchant banking firm The Liati Group switched from an in-house server solution to savvisdirect AppGrid as a beta customer after Hurricane Sandy hit the U.S. East Coast in 2012 and the company faced a five-week power outage.

“Access to our business information and applications is critical to our business every single day,” said Bobby Mensah, chief technology officer at The Liati Group. “AppGrid saved us because we were able to get back up and operational within just 48 hours. The AppGrid deployment was simple and helped us avoid not only downtime, but the resulting loss of revenues and reputation.”

“Because business success increasingly depends on the agile and effective use of IT, customers need IT resourcing strategies that are adaptive, cost-efficient and highly resilient,” said Adam Famularo, senior vice president, CA AppLogic business unit at CA Technologies. “The savvisdirect AppGrid service delivers on these new imperatives – and its use of the CA AppLogic cloud platform ensures it will fulfill customer requirements for automation, ease of use and security.”

CenturyLink announced the U.S. launch of savvisdirect in December 2012, offering businesses of all sizes a set of frictionless, cost-effective cloud solutions. Plans call for expanding savvisdirect into Europe and Asia during the next year.

For more information on AppGrid, visit www.savvisdirect.com/private-cloud.

About CenturyLink CenturyLink is the third largest telecommunications company in the United States and is recognized as a leader in the network services market by technology industry analyst firms. The company is a global leader in cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for enterprise customers. CenturyLink provides data, voice and managed services in local, national and select international markets through its high-quality advanced fiber optic network and multiple data centers for businesses and consumers. The company also offers advanced entertainment services under the CenturyLink™ Prism™ TV and DIRECTV brands. Headquartered in Monroe, La., CenturyLink is an S&P 500 company and is included among the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations.

For more information, visit www.centurylink.com.

SOURCE CenturyLink, Inc.