ViaWest delivers broadband access, hosting, co-location and network consulting in four states. With its Phoenix-Las Vegas-Salt Lake City-Denver fiber backbone network, ViaWest offers the technical strengths of a national Internet provider combined with the personal attention and community presence of a regional firm. The ViaWest backbone leverages multiple providers, so in the event of connectivity problems, traffic can be instantly and seamlessly rerouted.

"We saw a gap in the market between the giant Internet companies and local providers," said Steve Prather, vice president of ViaWest Network Services. "ViaWest hosts small sites for a monthly fee of $25 and supports full e-commerce solutions at thousands of dollars per month. Our customers know that as they expand, we can migrate them efficiently. They also know we have a highly flexible Web hosting environment and that we partner with Hewlett-Packard and other major industry players."

With an eye toward wide marketplace acceptance, ViaWest offers three tiers of service on "AtomicServers," a state-of-the-art Web-hosting platform that is both easy to use and packed with functionality. Customers who require the fewest resources can take advantage of ViaWest's affordable and feature-rich Shared Server packages. The Virtual Server platform is designed for more robust sites, and supports messaging, secure commerce, full database capabilities and streaming media. ViaWest's Dedicated Server option is suited to the most advanced sites, offering customers the control, reliability, security and performance of a private server without the upfront hardware costs.

ViaWest's range of Web hosting services required a powerful, easy-to-use operating system that was widely accepted by application developers. The company considered several options, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Solaris. ViaWest decided that Linux would give its customers the most flexible and cost-effective platform, one that would be easy to maintain, while supporting the maximum range of business applications. The open availability of the Linux source code allows the company to refine the platform to meet specific requirements. Prather noted that Linux has exploded in popularity within the last three years, and a majority of Web application developers and Web technicians now prefer it. Prather estimates that Linux supports approximately 70 percent of the company's complex or dedicated hosting, and accounts for about 90 percent of the smaller sites hosted under the Shared Server option. ViaWest also offers the Windows platform running on the same HP hardware for customers using Microsoft applications.

Linux' open-source status and cost benefits create an important synergy for ViaWest and its customers. "Developers jumped on Linux because it is inexpensive and has lots of power," said Prather. "Hence, our customers can get almost any application compiled in Linux format. And since Linux is open source, developers keep tweaking it to make it better. For us, the fact that Linux is basically free is a very significant benefit because we're not paying a proprietary vendor thousands of dollars to license their operating system, with additional fees for support. We can run Linux on multiple servers at little cost, and invest our funds in enhanced service."

In another strategic move, ViaWest decided to standardize on Hewlett-Packard hardware, in part because of HP's demonstrated commitment to Linux and the open source movement. HP was the first original equipment manufacturer to adopt a comprehensive Linux strategy that covers systems, software and services. ViaWest runs its Linux-based AtomicServers platform on one- and two-rack configurations of high-performance, high-density HP Netserver LPr and HP LP 1000r servers, depending on customer application requirements. Both servers contain the latest Pentium III processors, and are well suited to the cost and scalability requirements of a growing ISP. They are compact, modular and lead the industry in rack density. ViaWest also uses HP ProCurve Ethernet Switches for many of its networking components.

When evaluating hardware, ViaWest was very concerned with reliability and long-term operational efficiency. "Today's high-end servers are packed with so much memory and processing power that manufacturers need to do significant R&D to ensure that their products work for sophisticated operations like ours," said Prather. "We wanted a real player in the industry that had sufficient resources and a genuine commitment to this kind of research. HP understands our requirements and takes proactive steps to meet them. We know that the next shipment of HP servers will be stress tested with the newest versions of operating systems, and that their latest chipsets will support our Linux platform and interoperate with existing hardware and software."

"HP does whatever it takes for us to operate and move forward. If we need 30 servers in a hurry, HP delivers. We're not forced to inventory $100,000 worth of servers just to manage growth. Thus far, HP servers have run almost flawlessly, but when troubles arise, their service is quick and comprehensive. We once had problems with a server, and HP immediately swapped in a new box, no questions asked. They sent the old box to their labs for the kind of in-depth analysis that allows them to prevent such problems for ViaWest and other customers in the future."

ViaWest's relationship with HP is also an excellent sales tool for a relatively new ISP in a tough market. According to Prather, "HP's reputation as a technology leader and top-tier hardware provider builds considerable credibility with our customers. Clients entrust their business to us partly because they know we use the most advanced and reliable equipment."

HP hardware is also well suited to ViaWest's hosting operations platform, which dramatically simplifies hardware migration and other processes that enable customers to upgrade their services. For most ISPs, such upgrades cause major headaches and expense, and can take days to achieve. Almost inevitably, programmers have to retool code or content when they move a customer from box A to box B because box B has a different directory structure, uses different file types, and so on. ViaWest's migration engine, powered by Ensim, automatically manages and maintains all of the original content, as well as the configurations and settings of its deployed equipment. The system cuts costs, minimizes downtime and ensures that every build is identical to the next, regardless of the hardware system, as long as the operating system remains the same.

ViaWest continues to build on a solid foundation of technology based on Linux and strategic partnerships with HP and other technology leaders. In July, the company received an additional $2 million in equity financing. ViaWest has raised an aggregate $34 million to complete twelve acquisitions, fund internal process development and fill out its sales and network infrastructure.