AT&T Named a Preferred SAP Hosting Provider

by Michael Lordi

Three-Year Agreement Reinforces Company's Position as Leading Application Services Provider

AT&T Inc. today announced it is joining forces with SAP America Inc. in a three-year marketing agreement under which AT&T will serve as a primary SAP(R) hosting partner, providing independent hosting services for business customers headquartered in North America.

Effective today, SAP America's sales and marketing team will begin referring those companies whose annual revenues exceed $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."

Today's announcement is the latest milestone in AT&T's 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. In 2007, the global application-management services market totaled more than $25 billion, and it is expected to grow, according to IDC.

"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.