2Way Infrastructure For the Internet: The Key to Transacting eBusiness
Digital Island, a Cable & Wireless company

When is the Internet going to reach the point where companies transact enough true business instead of just distributing marketing information?

Enterprises that operate on a large global scale, such as Microsoft, Sony, Sega, Cisco, ABN Amro and Compaq, have already learned to make that transition. Why haven't other companies been able to do so?

The key for successful businesses is to recognize that, while brochures and literature are a "one-way" experience - amounting to simple distribution - business transactions are much more complicated and require private infrastructure that goes well beyond the public Internet to provide "two-way" interactions and respond quickly to fulfill customised requests.

The Internet 1.0

The first generation of Web Services focused on improving the speed of websites by distributing static or free content to users, essentially delivering content "one-way".

The public Internet offers basic connectivity to global audiences at a relatively cheap price, as a "best effort" network. It works best for basic applications like e-mail, and displaying corporate information. Since this type of information is "free" and generally available, the primary requirement is for a somewhat reliable and secure experience that is fast enough to limit customer complaints.

Moving from marketing to selling, fulfilling and supporting customers online causes the value of the content and the relationship to shift from free content for prospects, to very valuable content delivered to customers. This transition places increased strain on the underlying applications, computing systems, network resources and support personnel. As a result, companies increasingly need a more secure, reliable infrastructure for e-business.

The Internet 2.0

Perhaps surprisingly, it is the largest companies with the most resources who understand best that they need help. They often use outside service providers to scale beyond the public Internet. For example, when Microsoft introduced Windows 2000, it had to support more than 200 million upgrades all within a matter of weeks. To effectively do business over the Internet, these upgrades had to be downloadable in localized versions from web sites around the world.

Rather than set up its own hosting centers in every city, Microsoft turned to Digital Island, a Cable & Wireless company, to distribute its upgrades through Cable & Wireless' Digital Island content delivery network that has thousands of servers located in cities around the world. The results included more transactions due to a 66 percent peak improvement.

Microsoft is not alone. Cisco conducts more than $4 billion per year in Internet transactions over the Digital Island network, performing more than 130,000 downloads per day while saving an estimated $200 million per year.

And by working with Digital Island, ABN AMRO saved 25% on the costs of hosting, networking and supporting its operations by using web services to ensure a highly secure and scalable environment for its treasury, fixed income and structured finance e-commerce applications. ABN AMRO conducts more than $100 million per day in transactions, and anticipates transaction value of up to $1 billion per day within a year.

Transacting Profitable e-Business

More than 40% of the largest global companies in financial services, media and entertainment and technology use Digital Island's 2Way Web Services to help them to transact business using the Internet and increase the profitability of their online operations. Digital Island is the first provider to guarantee fast, secure and global delivery of all types of content - from http and cached content, to streaming audio and video, authenticated and interactive content-to mission-critical transactions.

Companies want to complete more transactions with customers; thereby deepening the relationship and increasing brand loyalty. After all, at the end of the day, it is really the transactions that matter.

Digital Island Burleigh House 357 The Strand London WC2R 0HS tel: +44 (0)20 7759 8200 email: intl-info@digisle.net www.digitalisland.net