By Steve Anderson, Contributing TMCnet Writer

EarthLink, a partner of master agent Telarus (News - Alert), has recently released plans to augment its offerings in both core fiber and IT solutions by stepping up its total count of data centers with four new ones, as well as offering a new cloud hosting platform to provide more robust solutions for users.

EarthLink's new data centers will be opened in San Jose, South Florida, Dallas and Chicago throughout 2013 and with those new centers comes a fully-featured cloud fabric that will be welcomed by business clients looking to get in on a variety of cloud solutions. With these developments, the master agent partner can power various cloud solutions that include virtual desktop services, security functions, colocation, and both backup and application solutions.

Naturally, a cloud network requires a regular network to match, especially when spread over such a broad swath of the country. So to meet the additional needs that such services engender, EarthLink is stepping up its fiber network to match it, giving it the necessary capacity in key locations to bring the services into play. Additionally, the augmented capacity will be making its way to users, allowing EarthLink to add an additional seven markets, as well as native 100 Gig transport.

Michael Toplisek, EarthLink's executive vice president of Products and Marketing, described the motives for EarthLink's expansion in a statement saying, "We see in the marketplace that the IT needs of companies are growing and evolving as they look for ways to virtualize their businesses and strategically maintain, if not decrease their cost structures. As a result, EarthLink is continuing to evolve our IT solutions architecture, infrastructure and services."

The telecommunications company needs to keep its offerings up-to-date, which is proven a recent decline in revenue figures, which were down one percent on the previous quarter. However, profit was actually up, checking in at $1.4 million compared to a net loss of $1.1 million in the second quarter. The year-to-year picture, however, was much worse, with a profit of $7.5 million in the third quarter of 2011.

EarthLink's move to capture more of the IT services market is likely to pay off significant dividends as more companies discover the value inherent in such services. Taking advantage of the cloud allows for better remote worker capabilities and a terrific level of disaster planning capability as workers can work anywhere, regardless of conditions. Only time will tell if EarthLink's plans pan out, but it's a safe bet that they, their clients and their innovative partner Telarus won't be disappointed.

Edited by Jamie Epstein