May 20, 2004

MCI (mci.com) announced on Wednesday that it is enhancing 17 of its "Standard" data centers in the US, a move designed to offer its customers a more robust environment for application hosting.

Currently, MCI's "Standard" and "Premium" data centers offer colocation services and its "Smart" data center facilities offer managed hosting. MCI said that with the enhancements, customers will have access to a tiered set of data center capabilities, providing optimal flexibility.

MCI is enhancing Standard data center locations where MCI Internet hubs are located. The 17 cities are Phoenix, San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, DC, Jacksonville, Tampa, Detroit, St. Louis, Las Vegas, New York City, Raleigh, Cleveland, Portland, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City and Utah.

The facilities include direct access to MCI's global IP network through its Ethernet service as well as connections to MCI's frame, ATM, private line and voice services. Customers will have access to on-site technical support, IP bandwidth options and managed services including IP VPN and firewall services.

"MCI is committed to meeting the growing demand of customers that want to outsource a broad range of data center needs for a variety of reasons," says Nancy Gofus, senior vice president of product management at MCI.

"Businesses need a secure offsite facility to locate and manage their equipment to enhance business continuity and disaster recovery planning. Also, it gives them peace- of-mind to know their servers are housed in robust, rigorously-engineered facilities with management and monitoring capabilities."

MCI recently emerged from bankruptcy protection, two years after it filed for bankruptcy amid the largest accounting scandal in history.

Source: The WHIR