DATA FORT, a joint project of IBS and Cable&Wireless focused on providing high-end system and infrastructure outsourcing services for large enterprise IT solutions, announces the results for the period since its launch in October 2001 and introduces a new service.

Currently 51 companies are subscribed to DATA FORT services, of which 9 outsource applications, and 39 use secure hosting services and outsource their infrastructure to DATA FORT. The customers include: Sonic Duo, Gedore Werkzeuge, Dell Systems, Parter.ru, Alexo advertisement factory, Matisse system, Softkey.ru, and many other companies and Internet projects. The most popular DATA FORT service is hosting and maintenance of integrated business systems, including outsourcing databases and other auxiliary applications.

For the period since October 2001 to May 2002 DATA FORT exceeded the planned overall sales targets, enhanced the services package, established close partnerships with leading software vendors, and significantly increased the performance of its Data Center. The projected quarterly sales growth in FY 2002 should reach 30%, and the project is expected to break even as early as in August 2002.

According to Sergey Merkulov, Vice-President, IBS: "We are confident that the project grows successfully, since its results exceed the planned targets materially. Many DATA FORT customers subscribe to additional services after evaluating the quality and effectiveness of services based on the results of their first projects.

To address the current market demands, DATA FORT has designed a unique enterprise IT outsourcing service offering based on the international expertise and its knowledge of specific Russian business practices. This new service — corporate IT outsourcing — is focused on providing customers with the maximum level of data security and 24x7 availability while keeping costs low in a long-term perspective. DATA FORT with its team of skilled technicians and service managers takes care of all aspects of system maintenance, upgrades, and administration. The services are provided based on DATA FORT's own data center.

Currently DATA FORT portfolio includes the following:

• Application Service Provision (ASP),
• Application Infrastructure Provision (AIP),
• Corporate IT Outsourcing.

The complete range of corporate IT outsourcing services offered by DATA FORT includes:

1. Data Storage/File Services: an integrated service, offering corporate customers both modern technology resources and professional expertise. This service covers outsourcing of servers, data warehouses, software and networks consolidating customer's data and providing high level of data integrity and security. The range of systems available for outsourcing at DATA FORT includes:

• data warehouses with direct Fiber Channel access,
• traditional storage services with Gigabit Ethernet access,
• enterprise messaging systems,
• databases and data banks,
• repositories,
• client-server applications,
• portal solutions and other systems.

2. Disaster Recovery Center (DRC): business continuity solution, protecting customers' business processes from natural or industrial disasters, human errors, critical hardware and software failures, or other contingencies. DATA FORT DRC services cover backup and restoration of customer's critical data, timely deployment of backup office and providing customers with the environment necessary to continue their critical business functions in case of disaster at customers’ premises.

DATA FORT DRC services cover backup and restoring of customer's critical data, timely deployment of backup office and providing the customer with the necessary environment to continue their business in case of disaster at customer's premises.

3. Custom solutions: customer-specific solutions extending DATA FORT service portfolio.

The major benefit of IT outsourcing services is cost saving that is achieved mostly by optimizing the budget of IT departments. Advanced technology used by service providers ensures data security and technology leadership for customers. The outsourcing partner takes care of all the tasks and expenses associated with building server rooms, purchasing and upgrading expensive hardware and software, administration and maintenance. As a result, customers can free up their resources to focus on their core businesses.

According to Dmitry Komissarov, Sales Director, DATA FORT: "The demand for corporate IT outsourcing services is already evident today and keeps growing. DATA FORT routinely receives customer requests requiring creative approaches and excellent skills in both designing and maintenance of enterprise IT systems. The new service is designed to simplify the running maintenance of customer's IT systems while satisfying the most rigorous demands of data security and availability."

DATA FORT expects corporate IT outsourcing to be 25% of the total amount of services provided. Currently 3 large corporate IT outsourcing projects are running in test mode.