• February 10, 2010
• Articles
• Joy Milkowski

AboveNet has just raised the stakes on low latency network performance by offering service level agreements backed by their rigorous Agility Guarantee.

With the explosive growth of bandwidth-gobbling, latency-sensitive applications such as video and VoIP, end-users are negatively impacted if their network cannot keep pace.  Additionally, industries such as financial institutions (employing algorithmic trading), global currency exchanges, live gaming environments and media outlets require ultralow-latency.  Medical professionals need ultra-reliable and very fast connectivity to meet their needs for streaming bandwidth while banking institutions need it for file transfer and storage purposes.

While data transfers and network connectivity have improved dramatically over the last several years, issues with poorly engineered hardware, multi-network connectivity and legacy networks over mixed media of copper and fiber can slow down critical communications and data transfer errors.  AboveNet recognized this problem and decided to move beyond traditional SLAs by instituting their Agility Guarantee.  Designed for customers whose mission-critical data requires the lowest latency available, the Agility Guarantee doesn’t hide behind confusing numbers and metrics.  The latency is stated in round-trip values, assumes AboveNet will never exceed “x” ms (as opposed to averages) and applies to end-to-end service not just POP to POP. 
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As with any contract or service level agreement, the Agility Guarantee’s true strength and merit is evident by what is offered if AboveNet doesn’t meet the promised latency.  Customers will receive the maximum credit which can be up to 50% of the MRC per product supplement.  Additionally, within five days of the credit being issued, the customer may cancel the affected service without any obligation.  Not only is AboveNet’s Agility Guarantee the strongest in the marketplace but also the cancellation and refund terms help mitigate the risk of trying their new services offerings.

"AboveNet is naturally positioned to provide ultralow-latency performance due to our fiber-intensive delivery model, and our focus on high bandwidth customers," AboveNet chief technology officer Rajiv Datta adds. "By offering these services with direct routing and minimal equipment interfaces, we can offer round-trip latencies as low as sub-1-ms for some of our services, which I believe is unmatched in the industry."

The Agility Guarantee is available to AboveNet’s customers in the top 15 US metro markets and the United Kingdom.  Are you ready to get more information on AboveNet’s ultra low latency network to ensure your mission critical data is moving as fast as possible?  Contact NEF to discuss your options today.