BANGALORE, INDIA: Cable&Wireless, global telecommunications service provider, announces the launch of its managed APM services-designed to give businesses the best possible performance from their IT network – a portfolio of services including Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS).

APM is a proposition made up of visibility, optimisation, acceleration and application management modules.

A recent trial of the solution took place with one of the world's largest utility companies, resulting in an impressive 60 percent cost saving. The company found it was spending large amounts of money on high bandwidth upgrades. To remedy this, it deployed Cable&Wireless' acceleration services, resulting in significant savings. 

Under the Cisco Managed Service Channel Partner (MSCP) programme, Cable&Wireless has recently been certified as a global channel partner, accredited with Cisco Powered Managed Services for WAAS. This provides the benchmark of managed service excellence for enterprises to help ensure that WAAS services are consistently monitored, maintained and supported proactively on a worldwide basis.

Businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of making the most of their IT infrastructures as leading analyst house, Gartner, reports: "Many enterprises experience performance issues with one or more applications. Often, enterprises lack skills to establish comprehensive solutions, and instead choose to deploy stand-alone "spot" solutions.

However, many providers now offer comprehensive services for application networking and application performance management.

By utilising APM, enterprises can centrally manage application services to reduce the need for software, servers, storage, backup and IT resources at remote locations. Benefits of the service include; savings on operating and capital costs, streamlined data protection processes and reduced administration. Customers can also harness the Cisco powered WAAS service to offer faster response times to all users no matter where they are located and thereby improving business productivity.  

Ross Fowler, vice president, Service Provider - European Markets, Cisco, commented: "The global launch of application performance management based on Cisco's industry-leading solutions for Wide Area Application Services, complements Cable&Wireless' existing portfolio of managed services. This is an excellent opportunity for Cable&Wireless and Cisco to focus on an expanding global market which is increasingly looking to managed services to play a critical and integral part of their business." 

Jim Marsh, chief executive officer, Cable&Wireless, said: "Customer service is our number one priority and, with our global alliance extension with Cisco, our APM solution helps our enterprise customers to ensure their IT systems work as efficiently and economically as possible. The APM services market is taking off globally - as businesses drive their networks harder, and look for greater returns on existing network investments. Cisco is the largest networking company – with a significant worldwide base and ideally placed to help us meet the growing needs of our global customers."