In brief: MCI, Equant announce content delivery

Plus: Valere Power rolls out battery-testing software for carriers.

Businesses looking to deploy enterprise content delivery networks, but hoping to avoid the headaches of managing them, have a couple of new options. MCI and Equant last week each announced enterprise CDN services.

Both companies are offering behind-the-firewall, customer-premises installations that they will manage and monitor. Businesses need load only the content they want to move. MCI’s service is software-based and runs on IBM servers.

Pricing starts at $7,500 per month for a core server and $525 per month for each edge server. MCI also charges a one-time installation fee of $1,000 per server. The Equant service uses Network Appliance NetCaches. Pricing was not released.

Valere Power last week announced the availability of battery-testing software for its AC/DC telecom power-distribution systems that gives carriers information on the health and reliability of their battery back-up systems. The software runs a series of tests that can be configured to automatically generate alarms if a battery string fails the test. Key voltage, current and battery-amperage hours also are tracked during the tests. The software runs on and ships with Valere’s Compact DC Power System and Integrated Power System.

For existing customers, the software is available as a free upgrade. To use the software, customers must have installed a LAN access card in the power supply.