Dedicated web hosting provider, SoftLayer, has executed a 5-year, $40 million contract, with Internet solutions management company, Internap, to expand SoftLayer's on-demand hosting platform.

The two companies will work together to enable businesses to operate "serverless IT departments," through real-time technology, network-within-the-network services, and automated installation, monitoring, and management tools.

Under the terms of the contract, Internap will deliver data center colocation, route-optimized IP networking, and content delivery network (CDN) services. These Internap services are hoped to expand SoftLayer's on-demand hosting infrastructure to the Eastern United States and be seamlessly integrated with SoftLayer's data centers in Dallas and Seattle.

"Internap and SoftLayer are bringing to the market a new, tightly coupled managed hosting model that is delivering enterprise-class, large-scale computing by the slice. With Internap we've been able to get to market faster and deliver higher quality solutions that our customers value and are core to their business operations. The combination of Internap's world-class IP networking, data center colocation, and content delivery network (CDN) along with SoftLayer's innovative product development, flexible deployment, and automation tools, creates and delivers the most advanced on-demand hosting services available today," said Lance Crosby, Chief Executive Officer at SoftLayer.