Savvis Upgrades Network With Cisco Gear

Savvis Communications will invest $33 million on Cisco routers for a new IP network to connect its 25 data centers, replacing two older networks running Nortel and Juniper Savvis' routers. Company officials told Network World they picked Cisco because its network architecture will enable Savvis to expand further into virtualization and utility computing.

"Wherever we have a data center, we want a fully managed network .. . with the ability to deliver VPN service, IP transit services and the application-deployment footprint," Savvis CTO Bryan Doerr said.

The new network will support IPv6 - the long-anticipated upgrade to IPv4, the Internet's main communications protocol - and Savvis plans to begin IPv6 testing next year, withproducts to follow in 2008. There have recently been reports that Savvis is trying to shop its content distribution network, but no sale has been announced.