Qwest wins NIH Web-hosting contract

Qwest Communications International Inc., Denver, won a 10-year, $40 million Web-hosting contract to provide the National Institutes of Health with backup computing for its 27 institutes and centers across the country, the company announced today.

Under the contract, Qwest will provide a suite of collocation and communications capabilities to ensure the confidentiality, availability and integrity of NIH information, while NIH scientists, other employees and partners and the public will be able to conduct business as usual in the event of a disaster.

The company will provide Web hosting for NIH servers, program management, and multigigabit connections to the Internet, the NIH campus and the Internet2 Abilene Network.

Qwest is also the backbone provider for the Internet2 Abilene Network, which connects NIH with more than 130 universities and other research institution nationwide.

Web-hosting operations will take place at one of Qwest's eight centers in Sterling, Va.; Burbank, Sacramento and Sunnyvale, Calif.; Chicago; Denver; Newark, N.J.; and Tampa, Fla.