Samsonite Selects EarthLink Managed Infrastructure as a Service Solution

ATLANTA, May 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- EarthLink, Inc., (NASDAQ: ELNK),a leading IT services and communications provider, recently teamed with Broadleaf Services to deliver Samsonite LLC, the world's largest travel luggage company, a managed colocation solution and professional services to transform the company's IT infrastructure. As part of the solution, Samsonite has migrated all of its North American IT operations to an EarthLink's SSAE 16 SOC 2 compliant data center.

EarthLink worked with Channel Partner Broadleaf Services to thoroughly understand Samsonite's business needs. Samsonite was looking for a national provider that offered fully-managed colocation services and could help their company migrate to the cloud and an IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) solution. EarthLink customized a solution which included professional services to execute the migration of Samsonite's physical IT assets to the EarthLink data center. EarthLink will also provide Samsonite with ongoing consulting on capacity planning as well as server and storage utilization to ensure Samsonite's IT environment is properly sized and operating at peak efficiency.

According to Samsonite, EarthLink's Managed Services have significantly reduced the time and personnel resources that Samsonite's IT staff needs to deploy to manage its IT infrastructure.

"We sought a solid relationship with a service provider willing to help us fulfill our long term objective of building an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) environment and move to the cloud in the future," said Bill Morrison, Director of IT Americas for Samsonite LLC. "When Broadleaf recommended EarthLink, we were very impressed with their data center in Marlborough, MA, which is located near our U.S. headquarters. EarthLink and Broadleaf's professional services and engineering expertise made the migration to the data center incredibly smooth. With server and data center management off our plate, I can now assign my IT team to more strategic projects that will help our company innovate and grow."

Broadleaf's Vice President of Sales Ted Lambert explains that EarthLink was the clear choice. "Samsonite was looking to build a true partnership with a managed service provider. They wanted a provider that has the ability to deliver the level of service they need for the long term and will communicate effectively with the Samsonite IT team. As Samsonite grows, they want the partnership to flourish and for EarthLink to provide additional services when needed. EarthLink understood Samsonite's vision, developed the long and short term solutions and executed a near seamless data center migration," he said. "EarthLink also provided a business continuity solution to protect the IT environment during the migration phase."

With geographically-diverse SSAE 16 compliant data centers located throughout the country and linked to EarthLink's nationwide IP network, customers can choose the best location option for their managed colocation solution. Click here to watch a video highlighting the business value of EarthLink's next-generation cloud platform in the data centers.

"One of EarthLink's great strengths is how well we collaborate with partners like Broadleaf to create customized solutions for customers," said Michael. D. Toplisek, EarthLink Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "Enabling Samsonite to hand off time-consuming server maintenance and consolidate their global data center operations with us frees their IT team to focus more on their core business."

About EarthLink
EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ: ELNK) is a leading IT services and communications provider to more than 150,000 businesses and one million consumers nationwide. EarthLink empowers customers with managed services including cloud computing, managed and private cloud, and virtualization services such as managed hosting and cloud workspace. EarthLink also offers a robust portfolio of IT security; application hosting, colocation and IT support services. The company operates an extensive network spanning 28,800 route fiber miles with 90 metro fiber rings and 8 secure data centers providing ubiquitous nationwide data and voice IP service coverage across more than 90 percent of the country. Founded in 1994, EarthLink's award-winning reputation for outstanding service and product innovation is supported by an experienced team of professionals focused on best-in-class customer care.  For more information, visit EarthLink's website at www.earthlink.net.

About Broadleaf Services
Broadleaf helps organizations to effectively manage their data assets with products and services that include: storage, protection, availability, recoverability, virtualization and collaboration. Broadleaf has an in-depth knowledge of storage consolidation, data protection, WAN optimization, disaster recovery and virtualization technologies. Broadleaf provides hardware, software, design, implementation, knowledge transfer and on- going services according to the scope of each client's needs and goals.

About Samsonite
Samsonite is the worldwide leader in superior travel bags, luggage and accessories combining notable style with the latest design technology and the utmost attention to quality and durability. For more than 100 years, Samsonite has leveraged its rich design heritage to create unparalleled products that fulfill the on-the-go lifestyle needs of the business professional. Samsonite markets products under the Samsonite, American Tourister, Samsonite Black Label, and Hartmann brands.

SOURCE EarthLink, Inc.