DENVER -- Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE:Q) was awarded a 10-year, $40 million Web hosting contract by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a complete back-up computing capability for all 27 NIH Institutes and Centers across the United States. Qwest will provide total Web hosting for NIH servers; multi-gigabit connections to the Internet, the NIH campus and the Internet2 Abilene Network; and program management. Under the contract, Qwest is providing a comprehensive suite of collocation and communications capabilities that will ensure the full confidentiality, availability and integrity of NIH information. This contract gives NIH a highly reliable, secure backup for all hosted applications and Web sites, allowing NIH scientists, other NIH employees and partners, and the general public the ability to conduct business as usual in the event of a disaster. "This significant win is further proof of Qwest's continued commitment to the hosting segment of the market," said James F.X. Payne, senior vice president and general manager of Qwest's Government Services Division (GSD). "In an age when communicating and protecting scientists' work is nearly as vital as the science itself, Qwest offers NIH more than 10 years of direct collocation hosting experience for large enterprises." Qwest is also the backbone provider for the Internet2 Abilene Network that connects NIH with more than 130 universities and other research institution across the country.