AT&T To Provide Utility Computing Services To ESRI Powered by SUN Technology

November 10, 2005 - San Francisco – AT&T today announced that ESRI, the world leader in geographic information systems (GIS) technology, will deploy AT&T’s utility computing service to support the dynamic requirements of some of ESRI’s newest Web-based applications, such as the Hurricane Disaster Viewer.

AT&T’s Managed Utility Computing Pay-Per-Use offer makes computing resources and infrastructure management available to customers like ESRI when needed, helping customers match their IT investment with business demands. This service, which uses Sun Microsystems Inc. hardware, software and services for its high performance, compute-intensive requirements, is especially attractive to customers whose businesses experience unpredictable demands. 

The Hurricane Disaster Viewer (http://arcweb.esri.com/sc/hurricane_viewer), for example, enables the public, emergency responders, relief organizations, and others to locate an address or zoom to areas of interest, such as those declared “damaged” by FEMA. The application also provides post-disaster satellite imagery, population density, street maps, and much more information. 

“AT&T and Sun recognized our need to deploy highly reliable commercial Web services, including proprietary customer and partner data and applications; and to monitor and measure the usage of systems and performance in support of these deployments,” said Mike Tait, Director of Internet Solutions at ESRI. “AT&T's managed utility computing capability enables us to confidently and efficiently outsource these systems for our customers and quickly scale to meet growing demands.”

Newly launched ESRI Web services and applications using GIS technology provide government agencies, commercial businesses, and the public access to rich geographic content, such as satellite imagery, business demographics, and real-time weather and traffic conditions, as well as geographic capabilities, such as mapping, spatial searching, and optimized routing. 

AT&T will host ESRI’s Sun-based infrastructure, which includes the full range of Sun Fire servers and the Solaris operating system for these new applications, at AT&T’s Mesa, Ariz., and Ashburn, Va., Internet Data Centers (IDCs). AT&T operates 26 IDCs worldwide, and has announced plans to expand to 28.

“AT&T is focused on providing our customers, like ESRI, value-added managed hosting services, such as the ability to pay as they go and to scale their IT resources as their businesses grow,” said Mike Jenner, vice president of AT&T Hosting and Application Management Services. “It’s capabilities like this – offered with industry leaders like Sun – that help us enable our customers to easily and affordably manage their applications and better serve their end-users.”

Additionally, the Geodata.gov site (http://www.geodata.gov) – another application hosted by ESRI – was recently re-launched using AT&T’s utility computing service. Geodata.gov is part of the Geospatial One-Stop E-Gov initiative providing access to geospatial data and information. The site enables sharing of geographic data and resources to enhance government efficiency and improve citizen services.

“Sun’s infrastructure technology and network computing expertise provide the foundation for AT&T’s managed utility computing service,” said Aisling MacRunnels, Senior Director, Utility Computing, Sun Microsystems. “Working together, Sun and AT&T are making it possible for companies such as ESRI to realize the power of utility computing.”

About AT&T
For more than 125 years, AT&T (NYSE "T") has been known for unparalleled quality and reliability in communications. Backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, the company is a global leader in local, long distance, Internet and transaction-based voice and data services.

About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide, including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 5,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.

ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, GIS by ESRI, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.

About Sun Microsystems
A singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world's most important markets. Sun's philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.