Savvis

In 2005, Savvis announced a change in its name from Savvis Communications Corporation to Savvis, Inc. to reflect company expansion from network services to Global IT services.[6] Until January 21, 2014, Savvis was referred to as Savvis, a CenturyLink company, an autonomous managed-hosting entity under the CenturyLink umbrella.[7] In early 2014, the company name was changed to CenturyLink Technology Solutions, in order to better align the Savvis business unit and the CenturyLink parent company. In early 2015 CenturyLink Technology Solutions was fully absorbed within CenturyLink's IT Services group, it is now unified under one name "CenturyLink".

In 2006, Savvis announced that Level 3 Communications would acquire Savvis’ content delivery network (CDN) services business for $135 million; the deal included network assets, customer contracts and intellectual property used in Savvis’ CDN business.[8]

In 2007, Savvis opened a data center in Singapore, increasing its presence in the Asia Pacific region.[9] The following year, it opened a new data center in London, increasing its services in Europe.[10]

In June 2010, Savvis acquired Canadian technology firm Fusepoint, including data centers in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.[11]

In January 2011, Savvis was positioned in the Leaders quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Web Hosting (2010 Edition) by Gartner, an IT research and advisory firm. Savvis is positioned alongside 19 other web hosting providers, including AT&T, Rackspace, Verizon Business, Terremark, and Sungard in the measurement of "completeness of vision" and "ability to execute".[12] As well, the company launched its global, cloud-focused Savvis Alliances Program for channel partners.[13] Savvis also entered into partnership with Bharti Airtel Limited to launch a major strategic managed hosting and cloud computing initiative in India.[14]

On April 27, 2011, telecommunications firm CenturyLink, Inc. and Savvis reached an agreement whereby CenturyLink acquired Savvis through a buyout of outstanding common shares in cash and stocks, for approximately $2.5 billion USD. This valued Savvis at $40 per share, which represented an 11% premium over Savvis’ closing price on April 26, 2011. Under the agreement, Savvis shareholders are to receive $30 per share in cash and $10 in shares of CenturyLink common stock.[15] In September 2011, Savvis announced facility expansions in existing markets including Atlanta, Boston, and Toronto; as well as the opening of 2 new data centers in Seattle and Piscataway, New Jersey. This adds 100,000 square feet of raised data center floor space in the 5 cities, bringing the total sellable global footprint to 2 million square feet.[16]

On 8 September 2004, Savvis' Operations Security Manager, Alif Terranson, left his position and went public with internal Savvis documents, releasing them to media outlets including the BBC,[17] the Register,[18] and others. These documents disclosed that Savvis was soliciting the business of spammers and that Savvis was realizing between $200,000 to $2,000,000 in per month from these customers.[19] As a result of the negative media attention, Savvis resumed business using Spamhaus (a worldwide organization of spam fighters) to prevent and resolve customer spam issues. In a joint press release, Steve Linford, CEO and founder of the Spamhaus Project was quoted, "Spamhaus has long recognized Savvis as a 'White Hat Network' with exemplary policies and procedures to control the proliferation of spam. We are pleased to work with Savvis to fight against spam and encourage others in the industry to adopt their leadership model."[20]

In October 2005, then CEO Robert A McCormick and Savvis were listed as defendants in a claim brought by American Express. The case involved charges made on McCormick's corporate American Express Card that were reported to be $241,000 at a New York strip club, Scores.[21] While McCormick asserted that the charges were fraudulent, Scores claimed to have fingerprints of McCormick's, used specifically to verify that his large charges were legitimate.[22] In November 2005, after an investigation into the matter by the audit committee of the board of directors, Savvis accepted McCormick's resignation. In March 2006, Savvis announced that the litigation brought by American Express against Savvis, McCormick and Scores had been resolved in a negotiated settlement.[23]

In 2009, multiple lawsuits were filed against Savvis alleging that Savvis improperly certified as compliant with credit card security standards processors, which may have resulted in significant security breaches. An analysis of one complaint reported: "According to a post-incident forensic analysis, at the time Savvis issued the [certification], CardSystems had been improperly and continuously storing unencrypted cardholder data."[24]