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Like many other network operators, Qwest Communications Inc. is thinking big these days when it comes to Web hosting and data services.
Big, as in a network of a dozen sprawling data centers all linked directly to the broadband carrier's nationwide fiber optic backbone, with plans to quadruple that head count in the coming years. Big, as in a shotgun-blast strategy offering not only the connection but also a full menu of consulting, design and management services.
And most significantly, big, as in a deliberate aim for big businesses, which have in the past opted for in-house data and Web operations. It is that strategy Qwest leadership is hoping will separate the carrier from the other data big boys.
The company's newest data center in the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch, Colo., literally builds on this strategy. With a 100,000-server capacity and state-of-the-art security-access panels require not only a palm print but also a pulse-it is evidence Qwest is upping its ante in the Web hosting and data market.
"We believe the industry research," says Rick Weston, Qwest senior vice president of Internet solutions. "For complex web hosting today, there are about 30,000-plus complex Web-hosted sites. There are about 3.6 million total Web sites, and about 7,500 new Web pages are added every day. So it is growing very dramatically, and the penetration of complex Web hosting inside America today is incredibly low. There's only 35,000 or 34,000 complex hosted Web sites today, and about 6.3 million businesses that we think fit in this marketplace. There's a long way to go."
The cybercenters give data clients a direct tap to Qwest's OC-48 backbone, which is to be upgraded to OC-192 in a year. They also get peering with 48 other private networks, including Deutsche Telekom and UUNet. A nationwide operations center located in downtown Denver rides herd on the 12 existing cybercenters, with 24 to open by the end of 2001. Eventually, Qwest will have 48 centers nationwide.
Data customers include financial services, content delivery companies and a slew of dot-com enterprises.
But while other data center players have aimed for medium- to small-sized businesses that don't want the burden of managing their Web operations, Qwest is taking a wider shot. It also is targeting the large companies with the promise of highly secure Internet access directly to a main backbone, plus customized Web design and strategy. While the data centers may give secure access to Qwest's fat backbone pipe, it is really the consulting and Web management services the company is counting on to bring in the bigger clients.
"Clearly, larger customers are where we have focused," says Watson. "They are pretty demanding, and we by and large do customer work as opposed to something off the shelf."
That custom work is shouldered by a core of 500 Qwest employees, who work with clients on strategy, Web design and management. Qwest offers companies help in devising a plan of Web attack, with site design, e-commerce and billing services and site maintenance offered a la carte or as part of a package depending on the company.
Supporting that operation could be a human relations headache, but Weston says so far the company has not overly strained to fill the ranks. Business in Web consulting and management is expected to rise 35 percent this year, and Qwest plans to increase it's staffing by as much as twice that rate, Weston says.
Qwest has pretty much filled space in its 11 other data centers and expects to hit capacity at the Highlands Ranch facility within a year.
"We are not concerned there is overbuilding in the industry. We see insatiable demand," Weston says. "We've forecasted what has been announced that's going to be built versus what we think realistically gets built...and what the demand is, and those curves don't touch. That goes out into 2004. So we can see more demand than there is supply coming out on the marketplace, which is good news for us."
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