AT&T Teams with IBM Cloud to Extend Highly Secure Private Network to Clients

Companies Bring Customers New Opportunities for Creating Hybrid-Computing Solutions on SoftLayer Infrastructure

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Sep 18, 2014, 09:30 ET

DALLAS and ARMONK, N.Y., Sept. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T* (NYSE:T) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) are continuing to speed up business adoption of cloud services by extending AT&T NetBond^SM services to the SoftLayer platform for stronger security and performance.

This extension of the IBM and AT&T alliance will allow businesses to easily create hybrid-computing solutions. AT&T Virtual Private Network (VPN) customers can use AT&T NetBond to connect their IT infrastructure to SoftLayer's cloud services. The service allows customers to benefit from highly secure connections with high reliability and performance as an alternative to relying on public Internet access.

"AT&T NetBond gives customers a broader range of options as they explore how to best leverage a hybrid cloud," said Jim Comfort, general manager of IBM Cloud Services. "Customers can easily move workloads to and from SoftLayer as if it were part of their local area network. This added flexibility helps optimize workload performance while allowing customers to scale IT resources in a way that makes sense."

AT&T NetBond combines the security of AT&T virtual private networking with cloud resources. As a result, business customers have flexible and high performing access to the cloud. It also dynamically allocates VPN bandwidth, allowing customers to use as much or as little as they need.

"Businesses look to AT&T and IBM to deliver best in class solutions to meet their most demanding needs— especially when it comes to cloud," said Jon Summers, senior vice president growth platforms, AT&T Business Solutions. "Together, we're making the network as flexible as the cloud and giving enterprises confidence they can migrate their business systems to the cloud and still meet their security, scalability and performance requirements."

AT&T NetBond offers the following customer benefits:

Simple: Seamlessly works with existing AT&T VPN through APIs, creating an automated experience. Customers don't need to order or manage any other equipment or access lines.
Savings: Network elasticity that automatically flexes with the needs of the cloud service. Companies can save as much as 60 percent on networking costs.
Performance: Delivers as much as 50 percent lower latency and three times the availability when compared with the public Internet.
Security: Isolates traffic going directly to cloud platforms using the AT&T private global network, providing more protections from risks such as DDoS attacks.

The companies expect these capabilities to be available in first quarter of 2015.

For more information on AT&T NetBond, visit, www.att.com/netbond.
For more information on SoftLayer, visit www.softlayer.com/info/att-netbond.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and internationally. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's most reliable 4G LTE network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile Internet, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV service with the AT&T U-verse^® brand. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com/aboutus or follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/att and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/att.

© 2014 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
Reliability claim based on data transfer completion rates on nationwide 4G LTE networks. 4G LTE availability varies.

About IBM Cloud Computing
IBM is the global leader in cloud with an unmatched portfolio of open cloud solutions to enable clients for the hybrid cloud era with integration, control over data and expertise. IBM Cloud has helped more than 30,000 clients around the world. Today, IBM has 100+ cloud SaaS solutions, thousands of experts with deep industry knowledge helping clients transform and a growing global network of data centres. Since 2007, IBM has invested more than $7 billion in 17 acquisitions to accelerate its cloud initiatives. IBM holds 1,560 cloud patents focused on driving innovation. In fact, IBM for the 21st consecutive year topped the annual list of US patent leaders. IBM processes more the 5.5M client transactions daily through IBM's public cloud. For more information about cloud offerings from IBM, visit http://www.ibm.com/cloud. Follow us on Twitter at @IBMcloud and on our blog at www.thoughtsoncloud.com. Join the conversation #ibmcloud.

Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this press release contains financial estimates and other forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results might differ materially. A discussion of factors that may affect future results is contained in AT&T's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AT&T disclaims any obligation to update and revise statements contained in this news release based on new information or otherwise.

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