ATLANTA, Ga., Jan. 28 – EarthLink, Inc., a leading IT and communications provider, today announced that The College Network, a pioneer in the online education industry, has selected EarthLink as its IT services provider. EarthLink is deploying a customized Cloud Hosting and Dedicated Server solution for The College Network's highly-scalable, replicated database that runs its core business applications including its customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning applications, file and utility servers, content delivery system and customer registration system.

Since 1992, The College Network has provided educational programs entirely through distance learning and now offers online associate, bachelors and masters degrees and professional certificates from leading universities. A small IT team supports The College Network's growing technology infrastructure, serving 200 employees and an additional 150 independent contractors nationwide. Like many companies its size, their IT team struggled to cover every need and spent more time troubleshooting hardware than solving business problems.

Before virtualizing with EarthLink, the team managed approximately 115 physical servers all connected to Storage Area Networks (SANs). Ryan Sallee , Chief Information Officer for The College Network, evaluated several providers and selected EarthLink due to the company's solid understanding of his business challenges. EarthLink designed a customized solution with Cloud Hosting and Dedicated Servers that went beyond a typical disaster recovery plan and built out a business continuity structure with multi-path connectivity between The College Network's headquarters and EarthLink's data center.

"With the EarthLink solution, we have significantly upgraded our infrastructure and availability of mission-critical systems, which makes people more efficient, processes easier, data availability higher and customer satisfaction better, said Ryan Sallee , CIO for The College Network. "This implementation was a huge win for our company, as you can't put a price on the systems availability. That's the value of an IT services provider, and with EarthLink—I sleep better at night."

The company's core business applications now reside in a clustered configuration at EarthLink. With the registration system mirrored, The College Network ensures reliable availability and fast performance when customers sign on, and a significant reduction in capital expenses by avoiding an SAN upgrade estimated to cost several hundred thousand dollars. Moving forward, The College Network has reallocated its valuable IT manpower on activities that bring greater value while EarthLink takes care of supporting its systems.

"A big part of EarthLink's role in virtualization is taking the burden of infrastructure management off of the client's plate so they can focus on higher-value contributions to their bottom line," said Michael D. Toplisek , EarthLink Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "In addition to increased reliability and performance, The College Network's IT team will have the bandwidth to more proactively address business challenges and provide solutions."

About EarthLink

EarthLink, Inc. is a leading IT services and communications provider to more than 150,000 businesses and one million consumers nationwide. EarthLink empowers customers with managed services including cloud computing, managed and private cloud, and virtualization services such as managed hosting and cloud workspace. EarthLink also offers a robust portfolio of IT security, application hosting, colocation and IT support services. The company operates an extensive network spanning 28,800 route fiber miles with 90 metro fiber rings and 4 secure data centers providing ubiquitous nationwide data and voice IP service coverage across more than 90 percent of the country. Founded in 1994, EarthLink's award-winning reputation for outstanding service and product innovation is supported by an experienced team of professionals focused on best-in-class customer care.

About The College Network

Since 1992 The College Network and its partner universities have provided accessible educational programs for individuals seeking degrees or professional certificates, entirely through distance learning. Programs are available from leading universities for associate's, bachelor's, master's degrees and professional certificates. Areas of study include a variety of disciplines such as healthcare, nursing, business, criminal justice, fire science, human resources, project management, marketing, lean six sigma, legal studies and more. The College Network also works with organizations like the National League for Nursing (NLN) to provide exam preparation materials to help nurses earn their PN and RN licensures.

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Source: Earthlink