January 22, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Web hosting provider 1&1 Internet (http://www.1and1.com) today announced that it has completed a comprehensive extension of its wide area network (WAN). An overall bandwidth of more than 120 Gigabit/second is now available for 1&1's top-of-the-line data centers in Europe and the United States. For the first time, 1&1 is connected directly to a large Internet Exchange point outside of Europe at Equinix in Chicago. The development means that the external connectivity of the world's largest web host has tripled over the past twelve months.
Andreas Gauger, chairman of the board, 1&1 Internet Inc., said, “With the upgrade of our Internet bandwidth, our millions of web hosting customers in Europe and the U.S. can be sure that their content will reach Internet users worldwide even faster and more reliably. As a result of multimedia applications like video streaming, the demand for bandwidth has grown enormously over the last few years.” The data volume transmitted from 1&1's data centers has in fact nearly doubled over the past year from 3,500 Terabytes (3.5 million Gigabytes) in January 2007, to 6,500 Terabytes in December 2007.
“The continuous upgrade of 1&1’s data network shows that despite pessimistic forecasts from some, the boundaries of Internet growth have not yet been reached,” adds Gauger.
In November, U.S. research company, Nemertes, warned in a well known study that Internet infrastructure might no longer supply the growing demands of private and business users over the next 3 to 5 years. With its latest network upgrades and further measures planned for 2008, 1&1 feels well prepared for continuously growing demand.
Over the next year, 1&1 will focus on extending its U.S. network. In Chicago, at Equinix, 1&1 is for the first time connected to a large Internet Exchange point outside of Europe. In March, 1&1 will more than double the external connectivity of its Lenexa, Kansas data center. With more than 600,000 customers, 1&1 is presently the fifth-largest web host in the U.S. market.
Besides the upgrade of its wide area network, 1&1 has also made changes to its underlying technology. Instead of SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy), now Ethernet technology - well-known from corporate and home networks - is being utilized. “Ethernet can be handled more easily, and by switching to powerful routers from U.S. based manufacturer Foundry Networks, we can even save money,” comments Andreas Gauger. 1&1 benefits from an additional cost saving potential through the network extension, as data streams can be distributed optimally through new peerings and routing alternatives.
