XO Communications
Robust Networking to Tackle Complex Challenges

Businesses face the pressure of doing more with less and are turning more frequently to cloud-based applications to control costs while delivering required computing resources. The ensuing migration to the cloud can pose security and network performance challenges when accessing computing resources through the public Internet. XO Communications, headquartered in Herndon, VA, solves these challenges by employing a network-enabled cloud solution which is a private network fully integrated with the cloud, offering faster, more consistent and secure connections across a company’s network.

“As part of our network-enabled cloud strategy, XO is providing reliable, more secure access to cloud resources through direct connections to AWS with an XO Bandwidth on Demand feature option,” said Don MacNeil, chief operating officer at XO Communications. “In doing so, XO is helping companies maximize their network investments with cost-effective connections to the cloud.”

The company’s flagship product, Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP-VPN), provides a strong infrastruc¬ture that can assure seamless availability, accessibility and service continuity. XO’s IP-VPN is a fiber-based Ethernet multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network that supports six differentiated classes of service. A class could be voice, internet traffic or a critical business application, for example; with the whole notion being that each application is rightly treated and prioritized based on the customers’ desired usage and network.

The XO Wide Area Networking (WAN) product provides a Bandwidth-on-Demand (BoD) feature. When enterprises need higher throughput, XO BoD automatically allocates more bandwidth without the need to preschedule peak requirements.This feature enables enterprises to maximize the use of cloud applications through optimized WANs while only paying for the amount of bandwidth they use. XO also offers the ability for enterprises to leverage hybrid clouds by providing them private networks and direct connections to public cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).

By offering innovative IP, networking solutions, and fixed wireless capabilities, the company provides efficient, agile and secure solutions for organizations. XO has realized success in several major vertical sectors, including retail professional services and manufacturing. XO offers a wide array of services ranging from intelligent wide area networks to hosted IT services. The company serves more than half of Fortune 500 companies, in addition to leading cable, mobile wireless, domestic and international telecommunications companies across the U.S. For example, a health care analytics company integrated AWS directly into their XO MPLS IP-VPN WAN via a 1 Gbps connection. They leveraged the XO BoD solution by committing to a 100 Mbps information rate, since they were unsure of how much of the entire 1Gbps connection they would use every day. With BoD, the company only pays for access to the full 1 Gbps connections when required, while only paying for 100 Mbps when they don’t need to burst.

Moving ahead, XO plans to continue to focus on innovating Network Enabled Cloud and Unified Communications services with regards to features, performance, elasticity, visibility and security.