AT&T Monday announced it is entering into a three-year marketing agreement with SAP America under which AT&T will serve as a primary SAP hosting partner, providing independent hosting services for business customers headquartered in North America.
According to a statement released by communications holding company, SAP America's sales and marketing team will begin referring those companies whose annual revenues exceed USD 200 million to AT&T for hosting services. By combining AT&T's global Internet Protocol (IP) network and hosting and applications services capabilities with SAP's global expertise in enterprise software, businesses will receive simplified, full-service solutions that will allow them to deliver critical applications to their end users.
"SAP is pleased to welcome AT&T as a new strategic SAP hosting partner," said Greg Tomb, president and CEO, SAP North America.
"AT&T's reputation for high-quality enterprise services complements SAP's commitment to deliver sustainable and cost-effective solutions to our customers."
This announcement is, according to AT&T, the latest milestone in its overall efforts to provide world-class applications-management services and support to companies. It builds upon the expertise gained when AT&T acquired application service provider USinternetworking (USi) in October 2006.
IDC reported that in 2007, the global application-management services market totalled more than USD 25 billion, and it is expected to grow.
"SAP and AT&T will enable enterprise customers to virtualize their enterprise applications within a network so that they can be accessed anytime, anywhere their business needs them," said Ron Spears, group president, AT&T Global Business Services.
"Applying the intelligence of today's networks to applications makes it possible for businesses to operate more successfully at a greater scale and velocity.
"We're delighted to be working with SAP — a world-class company in its own right in helping companies to achieve this goal," Spears said.
Today, AT&T serves its hosting and application services customers through its 38 Internet Data Centers located in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. To support its business for SAP solutions, AT&T has created, within its Global Business Services (GBS) unit, an SAP services practice that includes experts in dedicated sales, technical and applications-specific management.
As a certified SAP hosting partner, AT&T will offer a full portfolio of hosting services for SAP applications, including infrastructure, implementation, operation and ongoing support. In addition, AT&T will also be a provider of development hosting site services for testing, monitoring, training and development. |
