case study · 1994 — 1997

Diamond.net / SAVVIS Communications

Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer

SAVVIS — St. Louis · NASDAQ: SVVS

Co-founded Diamond.net (aka SAVVIS) and, as CTO, designed the first high-quality national Internet backbone — originating the concepts of QoS guarantees, metered billing, and PNAPs with the world's first OC3 ATM Layer-2 backbone linking 22 Tier-1 cities.

⊕ The mandate

  • Designed the first high-QoS national backbone — OC3 ATM fiber across 22 Tier-1 cities
  • Originated QoS guarantees, metered billing, and PNAPs
  • Closed a 5-year, $10M+ contract with Apple Computer as the anchor client
  • Attracted Gateway Venture Partners ($2.2M) to fully fund the company

⚔ The hard problem

Inventing carrier-grade quality-of-service for the public Internet — and proving it well enough to land Apple, before anyone had a metric to measure it.

◆ Outcomes

  • Apple anchor contract; full funding from Gateway Venture Partners
  • Sold to Bridge Information Systems, then a traditional NASDAQ IPO (SVVS)
  • Later acquired by CenturyLink for ~$3.4B; #1 Keynote/Boardwatch rankings

⚙ Focus areas

  • OC3 ATM Backbone
  • QoS
  • PNAPs
  • Metered Billing
  • Networking