INTERNET
Worldport SuperCentre opens in Dublin
06-10-2000
by Joe Lynam
Worldport Communications officially opened its flagship Internet data centre (IDC), Worldport Supercentre, in Dublin on Friday.
The centre covers 125,000 sq ft and will host all of the global Internet service provider's European activities in the fields of co-location, network management and hosting services.
"In the past four months, we have designed, built and opened the USD50 million SuperCentre with a USD20 million completely integrated operational and business support system," said Worldport chief executive officer Michael Heisley at the opening ceremony.
"We also completed a network contract with Global Crossing to provide transatlantic and pan-European access to 35 European cities, established private peering arrangements with global backbone providers and introduced a new brand identity," said Heisley.
Worldport was one of six companies allotted broadband connectivity last July by the Department of Public Enterprise when the Irish Government agreed the transatlantic cable contract with Global Crossing. The Dublin SuperCentre will utilise some of the 12 STM-1 capacity acquired from the Department. Each STM-1 carries 155Mbits of data per second transfer speeds.
More than 80 employees have already commenced working in the new Dublin facility. Worldport also announced recently the acquisition of Swedish-based professional services company VIS-Able, which added an extra 61 employees to the group, located in eight offices throughout Sweden, the US and the UK. This acquisition provided Worldport with a valuable presence in continental Europe.
"Until now, the European market has been served by a significant number of small companies lacking the necessary scale, resources and expertise. With Worldport, companies now have access to a true, customer-focused, pan-European full service provider," said James L. Martin, the company's chief technology officer.
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