BT boosts app and WAN performance

BT hopes to help companies boost productivity and maximise return on investment

BT has announced the launch of two new services for companies looking to better manage their IT environments, while its Openreach wholesale division has announced backhaul price cuts for communications providers.

BT said that its new application and WAN optimisation services could help enterprise customers improve app performance, boost productivity and maximise return on investment.

"As enterprises look to be more efficient with fewer resources and finances, a managed service environment relieves them of the challenges surrounding the management of multiple vendors," said Jean-Noel Moneton, vice president of network services at BT.

"The services we announce today are the latest additions to our Applications Assured Infrastructure portfolio, which is a set of repeatable managed services that audit, monitor and optimise the performance of applications throughout their life cycle."

BT said that the WAN optimisation service can improve application performance by up to 100 times in some cases, although on average it would speed up applications used between datacentres, remote offices and mobile workers by five to 50 times. The tool is also designed to help IT directors get a better understanding of their service levels, ensuring optimum performance.

The app performance service is based on technology from Compuware, while the WAN optimisation service is based on Riverbed's technology.

Jerry Kennelly, chief executive at Riverbed, said, "BT Global Services' fully managed WAN optimisation service brings its customers a valuable opportunity to further consolidate IT infrastructure, and help them create a more efficient workforce and IT environment."

Elsewhere, in order to help service providers deliver a better and more economical service to their customers, BT Openreach has announced major price cuts across its range of access and backhaul products, which the firm said would increase the capabilities of the Ethernet "middle mile".

The price cuts are available now, and offer reductions of up to 62 per cent, and 31 per cent for rental contracts.

"For our key broadband suppliers this means the opportunity to buy super-fast gigabit capacity at drastically reduced prices, and the chance to enhance their own network capacity with minimal incremental investment," said BT Openreach chief executive Steve Robertson.

"In addition, communication providers will soon be able to purchase 10 times the capacity they buy today at more or less the same price, allowing business customers to improve their connectivity at a fraction of the cost, and providing a boost for UK competitiveness in an uncertain economic climate. We feel confident that these price reductions represent great news for communications providers."

Openreach's BES 1Gb product connection has been reduced by up to 62 per cent, while WES/WEES 100Mb local access has been reduced to the same price as a 10Mb connection.

Rob Bamforth of analyst firm Quocirca said although the price cuts would be welcomed by smaller ISPs for giving the middle mile a boost, they do not go far enough.

“The Riverbed proposition is about accelerating specific WANs run over large scale and public networks, and will improve backbone network efficiency. But it is not directly about wringing more out of the core, so it doesn't do enough to allow for cost cutting,” he said. “This may be especially true if a lot of the backbone capacity is moving consumer data around, like YouTube and BBC iPlayer. It may be part of other efficiencies being undertaken, such as 21CN, and perhaps that's why BT are able to reduce prices, or it could be that increased usage combined with pressure from ISPs and the buying community is pushing down and commoditising further on the backbone.”