Madge Networks N.V. launches global service provider business

Madge Networks N.V. a global network solutions provider, today launched its new global service provider business, offering managed network services to more than 30 countries around the world. The services range from mission-critical voice networking and managed private data networking to premium service Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and complex web hosting.

Madge`s managed network services are aimed at enterprises who operate mission-critical networks, and who seek a managed service which meets existing needs while giving a flexible migration path towards Internet Protocol (IP) networking. The IP-specific services give these organizations the immediate ability to evaluate and implement Virtual Private Networks and to establish highly-secure, state-of-the-art Internet and Intranet web sites.

John Wheeler, senior vice president and chief executive officer of Managed Network Services at Madge Networks said: "Our managed services portfolio has been developed with global business customers in mind, providing a blend of IP and non-IP based technologies. This purpose-built offering ensures that we can immediately react to the communications needs of organizations evolving their infrastructures to meet the benefits of a single network strategy. The significant investment in our managed services infrastructure, combined with our in-depth experience of mission-critical networking, means that we are well placed as a global network services provider to make a real difference for our customers."

Madge`s managed services incorporate the most comprehensive Service Level Agreements in the industry today to ensure consistent, high performance for the mission-critical network needs of organizations operating in sectors such as financial services, transport and retail. The services are backed up by Madge`s global network (Madge net), which now extends to over 30 countries with more than 70 points of presence, and can support enterprises` national or multi-national networking needs.

To ensure that customers obtain the best possible managed services in the industry, Madge has invested over $US 60 million in its managed network services business to date, and has plans to continue building it further. Services are run over Madge`s private network, which incorporates both the Gains network acquired by Madge in February and an ATM-based network backbone. In addition, Madge`s services are operated by dedicated experts in mission critical service provisioning, with experience gained at firms such as ANS, AT&T, BT, Compaq, Compuserve, MCI and Worldcom.

Madge has constructed a state of the art Network Management center in Wokingham, UK to support the managed network services. This center is equipped with multi-lingual staff and technology to effectively and proactively manage the end-to-end network solutions of Madge`s customers. Madge has also established data centers in two separate locations, to support non-stop Internet and Intranet operations even under emergency conditions. These data centers house complex web hosting servers, e-commerce servers and application hosting servers to offer 24x7 presence, resilience and the uptime mandated by today`s business critical web services. US and Pacific Rim data centers will be opened later this year.

Robert Madge, chairman and CEO of Madge Networks said: "As always, we at Madge are offering solutions to our customers of the highest-possible quality, suitable for running mission-critical applications and for supporting the most strategically-important operations of our customers` businesses. Our new managed network services in addition to our product solutions provide a flexible and fast way for our customers to upgrade their Internet activities to play a central role in their business operations. The world is changing very fast as a result of the evolution of Internet and other networking technologies, and we aim for our customers to be the beneficiaries of this change."

Madge Managed Network Services Madge services include:

Complex Web Hosting - a highly efficient, cost effective solution that allows organizations to exploit the latest Web technologies for business benefit, while reducing infrastructure and management costs.

Managed Security - a comprehensive range of services that can be fully tailored to secure data against unauthorized access and to ensure that staff can only access authorized resources.

Remote Corporate Access - fully managed, high speed dial up access to corporate network resources and the Internet.

Virtual Private Networks - range of highly efficient, enterprise networks that support a wide variety of business processes, including information access, application sharing, communications and collaborative working.

Voice Services - includes fully managed, end-to-end permanent person-to-person international private voice circuits, with choice of tailored bandwidths and 24-hour support.

Circuit management services - managed private data networks.