Web host LeaseWeb is set to restructure its global hosting network, with the acquisition of two Cisco CRS-1s.

The acquisition is designed to make LeaseWeb's network infrastructure more hierarchical and scaleable and enables a bandwidth capacity increase to 1900 Gigabits per second (1.9 Terabits). The two CRS-1s (non-stop machines) will have a vital role in the new hosting network. In the near future, they will play a central part in connecting all data centers in LeaseWeb's network to the outside world. LeaseWeb opted for two machines because this offers the ultimate uptime guarantee. It allows LeaseWeb to safeguard its service level agreements with customers to an even greater degree.

"To date the volume of our data traffic has doubled or done better than that every year. If you calculate what this means for the future. Right now we have 80 Gigabits per second. It will be 160 a year from now. The required capacity will be 320 Gbps the year after that, and we will be close to 1.3 Terabits in a couple of years. We were unable to guarantee the growth potential with the current network structure., With the acquisition of the new Cisco CRS-1 platform, however, we can now realize that growth capacity. Moreover, the CRS-1s are ready for 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet from a technical perspective. So we will be able to use those standards as soon as they are available on the market," said Con Zwinkels, the Managing Director of LeaseWeb.

LeaseWeb customers currently use 80 Gigabits per second in bandwidth. The acquisition of two Cisco CRS-1s enables LeaseWeb to expand its hosting network to a capacity of 1900 Gbps (1.9 Terabits). The total investment for two of these Cisco machines is nearly 2.4 million US Dollars.

The CRS-1s are geographically separated in different data centers. The existing sixteen Catalyst 6500 switches will have to relinquish their central role and only transport the Internet traffic of customers internal to the hosting network. It makes LeaseWeb’s network more hierarchical with fewer cross-connections, which yields great benefits in terms of network management.

Coks Stoffer, the CEO of Cisco Netherlands remarked, ''I am happy that LeaseWeb, an internationally successful hosting provider, has opted for Cisco's CRS-1. The demand for bandwidth is growing very quickly at LeaseWeb. The CRS-1 and the associated new network design for LeaseWeb will enable them to accommodate the predicted growth of their Internet traffic. As a result, LeaseWeb customers can be sure that the growth potential, in terms of bandwidth, will be huge in years to come.''

LeaseWeb is able to scale its bandwidth quickly and efficiently via telecom carriers and Internet exchanges. Its philosophy is to always maintain twice as much capacity as the customers are consuming. At present, the available capacity for customers is 160 Gbps.