AmeriPride Taps Hughes for Network Backup

Posted April 5, 2011 at 5:37 pm



GERMANTOWN, Md., March 29—As the Hughes broadband satellite network reaches more consumers in rural America to provide high-speed Internet service to their homes, the company is quietly serving businesses as well, no matter where they are located. TRSA member AmeriPride Services is one of these. In publicizing the relationship, Hughes describes its offering to the Minneapolis-based uniform rental and linen supply chain as “a reliable and ubiquitous satellite backup network service to AmeriPride service centers in the U.S. and Canada.”

Hughes Access Continuity Service backs up AmeriPride's network, ensuring continuity of network services in case of landline outages. The technology provider noted that this high-speed backup is critical to AmeriPride's operations, as more than 150,000 businesses rely on the company to deliver garments weekly and its deployment of RFID and bar-code systems (tracking exactly where garments are at all times) has heightened customers’ expectations of prompt delivery and great service.

Jack Clemons, AmeriPride's infrastructure manager and information security officer, said the company needed a path diverse satellite-based backup solution since even terrestrial backup networks are vulnerable to the same outages that affect the primary network. The company considered 3G wireless, but quickly ruled it out because of performance and reliability issues.

"Our business and reputation requires on-time deliveries and quick response times. Should a storm, backhoe or other calamity take down our primary network, chances are we'd lose our dial-up backup network as well. Hughes has already proven its mettle by protecting us during several network outages. Hughes not only gives us an always-on backup network service that covers even our most remote service centers, the company was also able to fine-tune network performance to make our garment-tracking applications run at peak performance when the backup failover kicks in," Clemons said.

"Terrestrial network outages are a fact of life. Companies cannot afford to lose revenue from a location when the primary network connection goes down," said Mike Cook, Hughes senior VP. "Hughes Access Continuity Service can quickly bring sites on line and protect companies like AmeriPride against significant revenue losses due to network outages."

Hughes is known as the world's leading provider of satellite broadband for home and office, delivering network technologies, managed services, and solutions for enterprises and governments globally. The company has shipped more than 2.5 million systems to customers in over 100 countries, reportedly representing over 50 percent market share. HughesNet is the recognized as the market leader for high-speed satellite Internet service.

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