Verizon Business Expands IT Consulting Services Aimed at Application Management, Storage

To meet the growing demand from enterprises for help maximizing IT environments, Verizon Business is expanding its already robust portfolio of global professional consulting services.

The company announced Wednesday (May 6) seven additional IT consulting services that address the need for global enterprises to optimize the performance of applications operating on their networks and to securely store the growing volume of corporate data. The new professional application-assessment and storage services -- available in the United States, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region -- will be delivered by specially trained and experienced consultants.

Global managed and professional services -- a key part of Verizon Business' strategic services offerings -- represent a significant growth area for the company. It expects to experience continued expansion in this area throughout 2009. Verizon Business' strategic services -- which also include fast-growing IP (Internet protocol), Ethernet and security solutions -- drove revenue of $1.5 billion in the first quarter 2009, up 7.5 percent from the first quarter 2008.

"IT performance is taking on new meaning in today's challenging business environment," said Kerry Bailey, senior vice president -- global services, Verizon Business. "Rather than just hoping their IT environment will perform optimally, companies need to be proactive in managing their applications and ensuring critical company data is stored appropriately for safekeeping and retrieval. Through our expanded portfolio we are helping companies do all this securely and without missing a beat."

Amy DeCarlo, principal analyst - managed IT services, Current Analysis, said: "Enterprises are looking for flexible options when making decisions about enhancing their IT and network environments. The fact that Verizon Business is vendor- and technology-neutral gives customers more alternatives to choose from to ensure they have access to solutions tailored to fit their particular needs."

Helping Enterprises Address LAN and WAN Performance Challenges

Through the company's new standardized suite of Network Application Assessment professional services, customers can easily address periodic local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) performance issues that can slow down the delivery of applications to corporate users. This suite also can help companies plan for long-term growth needs.

These new application-assessment services, which offer customers the ability to reactively or proactively review the health of their applications and networks and identify potential areas for remediation, are:

• Critical Business Problem Resolution: For organizations needing to immediately address critical business issues, Verizon Business can help them to investigate and identify root cause of network issues and facilitate troubleshooting as well as provide recommendations on how to resolve WAN and LAN issues contributing to the degradation of application delivery. Areas of focus include analysis on multiple aspects of the network, including how applications are utilized and end-to-end performance between end users and applications.
• Application Infrastructure Analysis: Provides a proactive analysis of the customer's existing network, application infrastructure and architecture with a focus on application performance, including the network's ability to support new applications such as VoIP and SAP. Results of this analysis can be used by the customer for current or future IT planning, as well as IT budget planning; documentation of existing network infrastructure; business continuity planning; capacity analysis, including peak season performance analysis and end-of-life network and application infrastructure redundancy and/or scalability.
• Network Health Assessment: For organizations proactive in their approach, Verizon Business experts can provide a Network Health Assessment service that examines a customer's existing network infrastructure and architecture. Results can be used for current or future IT planning, as well as IT budget planning; network re-architecture; end-of-life network hardware analysis; network improvements, including WAN acceleration options; or identification or analysis of any latency issues. Service is ideal for organizations wishing to establish a reference design to address known areas of concern; identify traffic flow; baseline the current network performance by device and by link, as well as document and review critical business process that include applications.

Storage Considerations Key Among Enterprises

More and more enterprises need ways to manage and store data in an increasingly information-driven world. Verizon Business industry experts can help organizations assess existing storage configurations as well as design and build new storage solutions that help them meet their IT requirements and data storage regulations. The four new consulting services are:

• Storage Assessment: Assess current storage solutions and recommend improvements based on the customer's technical and business requirements.
• Database Assessment and Design: Examine existing database solution and recommend improvements based on the customer's IT and business environment.
• Database Backup/Replication Assessment: Assess current data backup and/or data replication strategies and recommend improvements for either data retention or backup policies.
• Storage Integration: Implement a new storage solution and migrate data for storage area network (SAN)-based applications.

With these capabilities in addition to extensive managed service offerings, Verizon Business is able to offer and support the entire lifecycle of data and storage solutions as part of an overall infrastructure management engagement. Enterprises can turn to Verizon Business to find the right solution to meet their specific needs -- whether it's moving to virtualization; or the need to augment a company's data replication strategy or improve its database configuration; or address whether an organization wants to transition from a distributed data configuration to a SAN architecture.

All Verizon Business storage consulting and management services are delivered by professionals certified and trained in storage technologies, including EMC-certified engineers, who can implement and develop infrastructure and tools for management.

Delivering Solutions Through Key Practice Areas

Verizon Business excels in delivering solutions across key practice areas that address a wide range of business and technology issues for today's extended enterprise, which includes employees, customers, partners and suppliers.

The professional services team is able to provide guidance and recommendations for accelerating the transition to new technologies, applications and delivery methods, as well as address data storage and security compliance requirements.

Verizon Business delivers a standardized set of more than 50 professional-service capabilities in four key practice areas: Security Solutions, IT Solutions, Network Engineering and Integration Services, and Communications Solutions.

The company provides a complementary set of managed network, managed hosting and managed security offerings, and manages and maintains more than 4,000 customer networks and more than 270,000 communications devices around the globe. Its global infrastructure, including one of the most expansive and the most connected global IP networks in the world, provides a unique foundation from which to serve multinational customers.

For more information, visit www.verizonbusiness.com/solutions/professional.

About Verizon Business

Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), is a global leader in communications and IT solutions. We combine professional expertise with the world's most connected IP network to deliver award-winning communications, IT, information security and network solutions. We securely connect today's extended enterprises of widespread and mobile customers, partners, suppliers and employees - enabling them to increase productivity and efficiency and help preserve the environment. Many of the world's largest businesses and governments - including 96 percent of the Fortune 1000 and thousands of government agencies and educational institutions - rely on our professional and managed services and network technologies to accelerate their business. Find out more at www.verizonbusiness.com.

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