SAVVIS communications is competitive in business network services, because the company succeeds in accounts where it can bundle its collection of hosting, software-as-a-service and managed security services with its network to build end-to-end managed services.
The carrier is a specialist that targets clients with its bundles of IT and network services, and it generally does not aim to compete for enterprise contracts that focus exclusively on networks.
SAVVIS communications provides integrated hosting, network, security, digital content, and professional services to businesses, government agencies and financial markets. The company has 28 data centers in the U.S., Europe, and Asia; a managed IP network with over 22,000 global endpoints; and an OC-192 Internet backbone with more than 17,000 miles of fiber. SAVVIS has approximately 5,000 customers that use its hosting, network, professional, and application services including data, media, e-commerce and high-speed transaction systems. The carrier sells both transport (at DS1 to SONET speeds) and IP-based network services (IP-VPN and dedicated Internet access) in the U.S. and abroad; it also offers Ethernet virtual private line in some markets via access provider XO Communications. SAVVIS looks for customers that would qualify to purchase a wider array of its managed services; its sales approach typically begins with outsourcing a single IT service for a business customer, and then aims to edge in further with the customer using a message of cost savings via outsourcing IT functions to the service provider.
First the first nine months of 2008, SAVVIS derived about $221 million – about 35% of its $634.6 million year-to-date revenues – from network services. The segment’s revenue has been shrinking roughly 6% year over year due to sliding wholesale revenues, although the company is stabilizing this revenue erosion through growth in other business segments. SAVVIS’ other lines of business (colocation and managed hosting) are growing at double-digit rates annually.
SAVVIS’ infrastructure is powered by its “Application Transport Network,” an IP/MPLS network using Cisco CRS-1 and Cisco XR 12000 series routers connecting the Internet and its data centers and applications with customers’ business locations. The network supports SAVVIS “Application Transport Services,” which are value-added services such as managed security and load balancing.
The SAVVIS communications global IP network has 127 PoPs in 45 countries that power its core services: Intelligent IP (IP VPNs optionally bundled with Internet access) and public IP/dedicated Internet access. SAVVIS also offers point-to-point metro Ethernet virtual private line in some markets via access provider XO Communications, as well as DS1 (1.5 Mbps) to SONET OC-48 (2.5 Gbps) transport services in the U.S., Europe, and Asia via its domestic OC-192 (10 Gbps) backbone and third-party international partnerships. SAVVIS also includes its Hosting Area Network, providing Internet access and value-added services to hosting customers, as part of its network services focus.