Major UK manufacturer renews $6m contract with AT&T

The US networks operator will provide managed hosting and a VPN

Morgan Crucible, a leading UK-based manufacturing company, has renewed its contract with US-based network operator AT&T, Computing can reveal.

The $6m (£3.76m) three-year contract will see AT&T continue to provide managed hosting and network-based virtual private network (VPN) services.

The VPN provides Morgan Crucible with a single network and platform to deliver voice, data, video and applications. It is able to use a single infrastructure to connect branch offices, headquarters, remote users and third parties such as suppliers and customers.

Morgan Crucible said the services provided by AT&T enable the deployment of applications across more than 80 sites in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Canada, Latin America and the US, while maintaining seamless communications across the entire company.

"As a global company, protecting our business-critical infrastructure is one of our top priorities," said Kevin Dangerfield, chief financial officer for Morgan Crucible.

"AT&T has been committed to delivering a solution that is not only highly-reliable but also enhances productivity and streamlines our operations across the globe."

By outsourcing its online infrastructure, the company claims it has been able to extend the reach of its IT team and as a result deliver additional value to the business.

Further to this, Morgan Crucible is employing an application traffic analyser service. It is hoped that by doing this it will be able to better monitor the network performance and avoid any system irregularities across its global sites.

This is well-trodden territory for AT&T, which as an international network operator uses a traffic analyser on a far greater scale at its Global Network Operations Centre in New Jersey. One of the analyser's key tasks is to pick up any network nodes that are experiencing anomalies or unusual amounts of increased traffic.

"A global integrated communications network is essential for an industry leader like Morgan Crucible," said Dave Langhorn, AT&T sales centre vice-president for the UK.

"Our services and solutions can support and improve their competitive advantage and deliver consistent global architecture to allow them to communicate efficiently and cost-effectively".