SAVVIS' Network Reliability Declared 'Perfect' in Network World Magazine's Groundbreaking Study of ISP Backbone Performance

Business Wire, Dec 18, 2002

Business Editors

HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 18, 2002

SAVVIS Global IP Network Achieves 100% Uptime In Exhaustive

30-Day Test As Leading Providers Fall Short

SAVVIS Communications (NASDAQ: SVVS), a global managed IP services and managed hosting provider, today announced that its core network performance was declared "picture perfect," achieving a 100-percent uptime rating, in Network World Magazine's Battle of The ISP Backbones study, released this week. The results placed SAVVIS firmly ahead of leading providers such as Sprint, Qwest, Level 3 Communications, Verio, and WilTel Communications (formerly Williams Communications).

The study, in which the core network performance of leading ISPs was tested over an exhaustive, 30-day period, examined the networks of Cable & Wireless, Level 3, Qwest, SAVVIS, Sprint, Verio and WilTel. Several other providers were invited but declined to participate in the study.

To take part in the Network World competition, ISPs had to agree to install cNode traffic generator/analyzers directly on their backbone networks. In addition, ISPs also allowed Network World engineers to retrieve measurements from the cNodes, which providers installed in their backbone points of presence in New York, Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco. From there, the networks are monitored 24/7 for 30 days for reliability, throughput and overall quality.

What follows are quoted excerpts from the Network World study, which can be viewed in its entirety at: http://www.nwfusion.com/research/2002/1216isptest.html

-- "Uptime is the most important metric in assessing ISP backbone performance. After all, speedy throughput, low latency or special services won't make a bit of difference if the network isn't available."

-- "SAVVIS delivered picture-perfect availability. (It) had zero downtime, running trouble-free for the full month-long test... SAVVIS needn't have declared a maintenance window at all. (Its) network ran outage-free for the entire test period."

-- "The gold standard for uptime, which service providers set and advertise, is five nines, meaning the network is available 99.999% of the time. It's a tough standard to meet: Five nines amounts to just 5 minutes of downtime per year... SAVVIS surpass(ed) the five nines standard by achieving perfect 100% uptime during normal operations."

-- "The SAVVIS network also delivered virtually all the 676 million packets it carried. Loss amounts were so small that, after rounding, the results equate to 0.00% loss."

According to Network World, the project was a massive undertaking and took more than a year to complete. In a first for public network measurement, the seven participating ISPs placed one of their measurement devices in four locations across their U.S. backbone networks. It involved Network World setting up measurement devices at 29 test sites and letting them run for a month, nonstop, collectively generating an astounding 4.5 billion packets. In all, the study collected 156,050,656 discrete measurements and if a network hiccupped for even 10 microsec, Network World knew about it.

"The performance of the SAVVIS network is a direct result of its unique IP/ATM architecture, which was originally built to deliver real-time applications for Wall Street," said SAVVIS Chairman and CEO Robert McCormick. "With this important Network World study, enterprises assessing network quality now have a very clear picture of what they can expect from SAVVIS."

About SAVVIS

SAVVIS Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: SVVS) is a global managed service provider that delivers IP VPNs, both private and public, and managed hosting services to businesses. SAVVIS targets the financial services industry and other enterprises with demanding network and hosting requirements such as legal, media, retail, professional services, and healthcare. Known as The Network that Powers Wall Street,(SM) SAVVIS connects to more than 4,700 financial institutions worldwide and provides a portfolio of services via Financial Xchange(SM). Its customer base is 30% financial services, with 80% of its revenue derived from Managed IP VPNs.

SAVVIS' IP VPNs were named Product of the Year for 2001 by the editors of Network Magazine, surpassing well-known VPN providers such as AT&T, WorldCom, Sprint and Genuity. The company was ranked the eighth fastest-growing technology company in North America on the 2001 Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 500 and was awarded Frost & Sullivan's 2002 Market Engineering Award for Product Differentiation Innovation for its managed hosting services. SAVVIS was recently awarded Boardwatch's Service Provider Excellence Award for their virtualized approach to managed hosting.

For more information about SAVVIS' Intelligent IP Network(SM) and managed hosting solutions, visit: http://www.savvis.net.