InformationWeek

s it possible to have too much bandwidth and redundancy in your network? Not if poor performance or a few seconds of downtime can cost you money and ruin your reputation with very demanding customers, say IT executives at Multex.com Inc. The New York company, which provides real-time investment data to businesses in the financial-services industry, last week added even more bandwidth and redundancy to a network that already had lots of both.

Multex has two Manhattan data centers that serve customers such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and Standard & Poor's, and are connected with numerous T1 (1.5 Mbps) and T3 (45 Mbps) private lines from various service providers. Last week, the company inked a deal to buy eight wavelengths, or optical channels, on a fiber system operated by Metromedia Fiber Network Inc.

Metromedia provides managed optical services based on dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology, which multiplies the number of optical channels on a single fiber strand. As backup, Multex also has contracted with Verizon Communications Inc. for high-speed capacity on a Sonet (synchronous optical network) ring that the local carrier is building in New York.

Six of the eight Metromedia wavelengths are being used for Gigabit Ethernet traffic; the other two are for 200-Mbps mainframe connectivity between the two data centers.

Multex has benefited from the decline in the price of bandwidth. "With rapid customer growth, we needed a first-class network infrastructure but couldn't afford to break the bank on it," says CIO Tom D'Ambrosio. While he wouldn't provide specific numbers, D'Ambrosio says Multex is paying $1,500 to $1,750 for each Gigabit Ethernet wavelength, which provides 25 times the bandwidth at roughly half the price of a T3 line, and is paying 10% to 20% less for the other two wavelengths. "It's just insane pricingwise," D'Ambrosio adds. "It would be kind of tough to turn this down."

Multex chief operating officer Chris Feeney says he "wanted the highest level of redundancy and diverse paths in the network to ensure availability and reliability of our services."

The fiber links are designed to let the two data centers share the load of a growing number of customers downloading greater amounts of research data from the Multex Web site. Products include a package with research headlines, original articles, opinion pieces, and member-generated content and free reports from more than 350 providers. The bulked-up network also lets Multex employees use bandwidth-hungry applications such as videoconferencing, E-learning, and, eventually, remote interviews.

One analyst is impressed with Multex's network. "I've yet to even hear of a company using everything from private lines to Sonet to DWDM in their network. Multex seems to be getting the best of both worlds--multiple layers of fiber transport and affordable prices," says Daniel Briere, CEO of telecom consulting firm TeleChoice. "Because of the complexity of the latest DWDM optical technology, [Multex] made the correct choice in opting for [Metromedia's] managed network-service package."