tuesday 7 august 2001

Working together to lead the revolution in digital Media distribution
Cable & Wireless, the global telecommunications group, today announced a three-year global managed hosting contract with Europe’s first digital distributor, Tornado Group PLC (“Tornado”). The deal will enable Internet users around the world to download and purchase digital media content quickly and securely, whilst safeguarding the content owners intellectual property rights.

Cable & Wireless’ managed hosting platform replaces a co-location solution previously used by Tornado. It will give global capability and additional resilience to Tornado’s revolutionary Digital Media Distribution System (DMDSO), which provides a secure environment for the distribution of digital media including entertainment content, such as music, games, and books.

By choosing Cable & Wireless’ solution, developed in alliance with Sun Microsystems, Tornado will benefit from a robust, highly secure and fully managed platform, hosted at Cable & Wireless’ flagship data centre in Swindon, UK. It also gives Tornado Tier One Internet connectivity, which ensures fast and reliable transfer of data. This complete solution will allow Tornado to continue spearheading the revolution in the distribution of digital media including the brokering of online relationships between content owners and retailers so that they can develop new revenue streams and meet the increasing consumer demand for digital downloading.

Additionally, as part of this contract, Cable & Wireless has entered into a relationship with Tornado whereby both companies will actively promote each other’s products and services to their respective customer bases, ultimately driving revenues from multiple sources. A full end-to-end solution for the delivery of digital content is now available with the Tornado DMDSO hosted at Cable & Wireless on its global IP network and additional products such as Frame Relay offered by Cable & Wireless to retailers.

“We chose Cable & Wireless to support our proposition as they have not only the powerful infrastructure and global recognition, but also the true commitment to our sort of business”: says Ian Watson, Managing Director, Tornado. “There are numerous commercial and practical advantages to distribution in a digital environment as well as real consumer hunger for receiving music, and other entertainment content in this fashion and with our technology, companies can turn this demand into a sound commercial proposition. Our business is about making digital distribution happen in a secure and audited way, so that our customers can take advantage of its clear benefits and, where appropriate, transform their content into revenue.”

“This agreement is very important for Cable & Wireless as it demonstrates our global capability in delivering managed hosting solutions,” says Andrew McGrath, President, Service Providers, Cable & Wireless. “In choosing to work with Tornado, we are committed to assisting and enabling this innovative business demonstrate the true potential of digital distribution.

“Digital media is a growth area, but the delivery and management of that content is key to its success. Consumers must be offered a technical solution that meets their requirements, an open architecture supporting all digital formats. This is where Tornado proved to us that their system is leading the way,” continued McGrath.