Ninemsn portal host Hostworks last week signed a networking contract with Cabletron that coincides with its move to become a fully independent ISP.
Hostworks, a spin-off company from the South Australian Cooperative Centre named Ngapartji, is in the final stages of severing its ties and has bought $300,000 worth of Cabletron networking equipment to support its growth.
According to Hostworks CEO Marty Gauvin, his company won the right to keep hosting ninemsn as its flagship client after EDS was due to take over the hosting services.
The company will install a mixture of SmartSwitch 6000 Switches and SmartSwitch routers and will soon begin a 30-day trial.
Gauvin reports he dumped old Cisco routers for Cabletron because of the products' lower price per port and "flat-out performance" needed to manage high traffic flow.
"We actually flooded Telstra's backbone when we held an event [on ninemsn] recently," he said.
Gauvin said over the last 12 months the company has witnessed 20 per cent growth in traffic which occasionally "goes insane".
As a result, the company has direct links into the Telstra and Optus Internet backbones. It is also one of just four Microsoft Internet data centres, which gives it a close operational association with Microsoft and its development team.
Cabletron is naturally chuffed about the deal, and reports it is close to signing deals with other ISPs in the coming weeks.
According to Sebastian Rice, Cabletron's Spectrum marketing manager: "We are starting to see a snowballing of [our ISP] business."
Ian Fewtrell, Cabletron's managing director, said the contract is market recognition of the company's Layer 3 and Layer 4 switching products.
Cabletron's distributor, Hallmark, will supply Hostworks with the equipment.