Gig Ethernet Reaches Across WAN

In a bid to woo enterprises with bandwidth-intensive Internet access demands, Exodus Communications Inc. has rolled out a new data service based on Gigabit Ethernet.

Gig E, now available in California and to be rolled out nationwide in February, lets Exodus transmit data 10 times faster than the 100-Mbps service it previously offered, said Scott Emo, Exodus's director of product marketing.

Gig E is based on BigIron 8000 switches from Foundry Networks Inc. The switches, installed at Exodus's Internet data centers, funnel Gig E traffic directly from customers' servers collocated at the centers onto Exodus's backbone.

Mark Ryan, chief technical officer at Weather.com, said he plans to tap Gig E to help support ever-increasing traffic demands.

"Visits to our site can double or triple in a heartbeat, depending upon the weather," he said. "And a supplier of, say, outerwear that's advertising in a cold-weather region would also be hit heavy, so this service will help us get a better handle on that traffic as well," Ryan said. He expects to begin using Gig E later this quarter.

Emo said Gig E will replace Exodus's former approach to handling customers' traffic spikes--in which disparate 100-Mbps pipes would be stitched together to handle overflows. Gig E, capable of moving up to 96 million packets per second, will let Exodus eliminate that approach, Emo said.

"For a large traffic site, this service is compelling," said Giga Information Group analyst Joel Yaffe. "You get the throughput, and you don't have to deal with the headaches associated with administering your own Gigabit Ethernet hardware and software."

Gig E is priced with a setup fee of $5,000, plus a monthly recurring charge based on how often high-bandwidth content is distributed.

GlobalCenter, the Web-hosting arm of Global Crossing Ltd., also offers a Gigabit Ethernet service. While not a specific service, the carrier has been providing 1,000-Mbps throughput to customers since last October, a spokesman said.