Company: Coal Marketing Co. Ltd. (CMC); Dublin, Ireland
Revenue: U.S. $1.5 billion
The challenge: Nagging network downtime, which can take up to a week for carriers in Ireland to fix.
The decision: To switch from several network carriers to One Ring Networks, which provides a combination of 3 megabytes of fiber and 3 megabytes of wireless connection for better uptime.
The motivator: In September 2006, CMC launched its new dual headquarters in Atlanta. Global operations warranted 100% uptime as well as eliminating the headache of using several carriers.
The cost: About $1,100 a month -- half the previous cost.
The bonus: "They monitor it; it works. I don't have to sit there and actively see that they're adhering to the SLA [service-level agreement]," says Fly.
Career boost: After the successful opening of CMC's Atlanta office, Chase Technologies, which specializes in travel technology, stole Fly away from CMC. He became IT director there in January 2007. Chase Technologies is making a similar switch to a combination of fiber and wireless lines.
Lauren Horwitz, former managing editor, production, for CIO Decisions, is now managing editor for TechTarget's Data Center Media Group. Write to her at lhorwitz@techtarget.com.
This was first published in March 2007