Infonet Delivers Global Managed Data Network Service to Cronos Group

Infonet Services Corporation announced that it is delivering a global network to The Cronos Group, one of the top ten largest suppliers of intermodal marine containers in the world. The network is supporting software applications across the group's 16 offices throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. Cronos Group owns and manages a fleet of over 395,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of dry cargo, refrigerated, tank and other specialised containers. Through an extensive global network of offices and agents, Cronos leases containers to approximately 400 ocean carriers and transport operators, including all 30 of the largest ocean carriers. To serve its shipping clients worldwide, Cronos required a customised network infrastructure solution to guarantee the transfer of mission-critical data, with higher performance than other business applications, such as internal email. After considering a number of different solution providers, Cronos chose Infonet because it could best prioritise these business-critical applications. Cronos can now ensure the immediate transfer of customer-oriented applications and inter-office ordering requests over less critical data on the network. Another differentiator over other network providers was Infonet's pre-existing relationship with Cronos. Infonet had already demonstrated a complete understanding of the organisation's core business requirements. "Infonet has always demonstrated an excellent understanding of the challenges we face as a global business. We have been very impressed with the seamless migration of regional Cronos offices onto the new network, and Infonet's ongoing management of the infrastructure," said Geoff Isherwood, Head of IT at Cronos. "The added flexibility of being able to send business-critical data down a separate, prioritised channel means we can ensure quick responses to clients, and that we are not missing any opportunities to grow revenue." All of Cronos' worldwide offices, with one exception, are linked to the network via Infonet's own nodes. Each region is able to respond rapidly to any client enquiries, which are prioritised across the network via separate permanent virtual circuits. Infonet's mobile solutions also allow Cronos employees to dial directly into one of Infonet's regional nodes without incurring large charges. In addition, Cronos' network managers are able to proactively monitor how the Infonet infrastructure is performing and check the status of links to the network through Infonet's reporting portal. "Our partnership with Cronos is evidence of Infonet's 30 plus year experience in delivering mission-critical networks to global businesses," said Robert Cavan, Managing Director of Infonet UK. "Our ability to offer managed communications with minimal delay, high throughput, time-critical prioritisation and split path application prioritisation across the network is essential to today's large corporations."