Global Crossing shuffles team, targets services
The international communications carrier creates a new services unit and appoints several executives to new positions.
The Hamilton, Bermuda-based company, which has nearly completed construction of its massive fiber-optic network, appointed David Walsh as president and chief operating officer. Walsh, who will report directly to chief executive Tom Casey, formerly was a co-COO with Gary Cohen.
Cohen has been named president and chief operating officer of Global Crossing Solutions, a new business division aimed at so-called managed services. Managed services, whereby equipment, servers and network bandwidth are managed on an outsourced basis for customers, is a hot growth area for many communications companies.
"We've found very strong demand for managed (network) services," said Ron Kaplan, a senior analyst at IDC. "Companies are asking for those services for a variety of reasons. They often don't have the internal expertise, or they want all their services from one carrier. A lot of these carriers are responding to big demand from their customers."
Loudcloud, SiteSmith and Totality, formerly MimEcom, are among several start-up companies known as managed service providers (MSPs).
More established Web hosting firms such as Exodus Communications and other communications carriers also are offering managed services. By outsourcing the installation, upkeep and monitoring of network and Internet infrastructure to these companies, businesses are free to focus on sales or product development.
Several other Global Crossing executives are now charged with new roles.
Wally Dawson, formerly chief executive of Atlantic Crossing, the company's Atlantic subsea network, will serve as executive vice president for global networks and will oversee network planning and construction.
Carl Grivner, previously chief operating officer for North America, will replace Wim Huisman as CEO of Global Crossing Europe. Huisman will retire. Jim Demitrieus, formerly president of Global Crossing acquisitions IXnet and IPC, will succeed Grivner.