Your organization has just opened a sales office in Hong Kong or an offshore manufacturing site in Singapore, and high-speed data and voice connections to U.S. headquarters are paramount. To get from here to there, however, requires negotiating with several carriers for multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) or IP virtual private network (IP VPN) services, which are replacing Frame Relay networks. These carriers’ likely have different types of services and different standards for interconnecting various MPLS and IP VPN networks.

One option to contracting with a traditional carrier like AT&T for such services is to use a virtual network operator (VNO). VNOs buy network services from carriers around the world and then connect them to construct a managed network for enterprises. VNOs do not own their own infrastructures, but instead rely on a network of arrangements to support network access.

According to Gartner analyst David Neil, “The VNO can pick the best carrier to meet the client’s needs. In addition, VNOs are usually priced attractively because they buy wholesale network services, but they don’t have the margins of some of their competitors.”

Enterprises are thus left with a choice of either contracting with multiple service providers for overseas connections and managed services or using a VNO.

Jeff Phillips, vice president of product marketing at Virtela, a VNO, says the most obvious benefit to selecting a VNO is geographic reach. “VNOs are able to aggregate and integrate service providers around the world to not only offer enterprises a greater global footprint, but an unmatched depth and breadth of providers that results in greater choice,” he contends.

According to Andrew Goldsmith, vice president of marketing and strategic planning at Global Telecom & Technology, “For a growing number of enterprises–those with complex, multicountry data networking requirements–the traditional, network-centric carrier approach doesn’t work particularly well. If a customer has a requirement that can’t be served completely by the carrier’s network, the result can be less flexibility, added cost, added delays and added vendor management headaches for the customer.”

A chief benefit for using VNOs, Phillips explains, is being able to leverage a single source–one contract, one invoice and one phone call. “VNOs mask the complexity and market instability of dealing with multiple suppliers, multiple technologies, multiple languages and multiple currencies around the world, all of which are necessary to deliver and maintain a global network.”

Goldsmith adds, “In many cases, our SLAs (service-level agreements) are competitive with, if not better than, those offered by many traditional carriers. The reason is that our SLAs are end-to-end. The metrics we offer apply to all components of the service we offer, not just the ‘off-
net’ portion.”

Phillips contends that Virtela’s SLAs also “are better than traditional carriers. We maintain relationships with more than 250 network providers around the world, all of which go through a rigorous certification process to ensure the end result is a unified, best-of-breed network spanning more than 190 countries.

As Gartner’s Neil says, however, before contracting with a network service provider or a VNO, “Carefully examine its strategy, coverage and technology road map. Enterprises must manage their vendors, not the other way around.”
 

Short Takes Feds aim high The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have contracted with satellite system suppliers UDcast, On Call Communications and Intelsat for high-performance disaster-recovery communications systems. The OnSPOTT Emergency Response System gives public safety agencies communication services that set up in a matter of minutes so response teams can concentrate on the immediate needs of their communities. better performance Hilton Grand Vacations Club has selected and deployed Riverbed Technology’s Steelhead WDS appliances to accelerate the performance of applications at its offices worldwide. The appliances have been installed in six locations to date: Orlando, New York, Las Vegas, the Big Island of Hawaii, Honolulu and Tokyo. “We looked at a number of WDS products before we decided on Riverbed’s Steelhead appliances,” says Richard Jackson, senior director, technical operations, at Hilton Grand Vacations Club. “Last year, we deployed a Steelhead appliance in Tokyo and one in Hawaii. The performance improvement was dramatic.”

Data security still at risk

In light of highly publicized cases of data breaches and Web attacks, many enterprises are now attempting to improve data security. According to an IBM survey of companies in the healthcare, financial, retail and manufacturing industries, 83 percent of U.S. organizations believe they have made their data safer by installing or upgrading antivirus software, installing or upgrading a firewall, implementing intrusion detection/prevention technologies, and implementing vulnerability/patch management systems on their networks.

The reality, however, is that the total number of records containing sensitive, personal information involved in security breaches since February 2005 has topped 100 million and continues to grow, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer information and advocacy program that keeps an up-to-date list of data breaches on its Web site.

Organizations are under pressure to improve security, but hackers are finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in systems, on networks and within Web applications to obtain valuable data. According to ScanSafe, a Web security service, malware is becoming more sophisticated, gaining the ability to remain undetected on an infected computer to extract information through keystroke logging, screen scraping and session watching, and deliver it back to a collection site.

While old-fashioned data breaches–documents found in recycling bins, trash cans or the mail–have become less prevalent, the number of personal records exposed through more modern means is on the rise. Headlines typically focus on the big incidents, such as ChoicePoint’s mistake that allowed fraudulent businesses access to 163,000 records or the Department of Veterans Affairs’ stolen notebook containing 26 million veterans’ records, but smaller, less-publicized incidents are far more common.

Every day, companies mismanage digital data, sending it via unsecure e-mail, inadvertently posting it online, transmitting it over a non-secure connection or simply failing to protect it from unauthorized users. Corporate computers, USB drives, disks and other storage devices are reported lost, stolen, misplaced or sold with unencrypted personal data on them. Data is being hijacked through phishing, network intrusion, malware invasions, hacking and employee theft.

Ross Paul, senior product manager at Websense, provider of Web and desktop security software, says research conducted by the company found that both worms and bots are being replaced by more creative, organized cybercriminals who create more covert, malicious codes seeking unprotected data.

Traditional security measures, however, may no longer be effective against the moving target of cybercrime, says Aaron Newman, CTO, Application Security. “In the past, security was dealt with in an outside-in mindset, defending the walled garden from intruders. But in today’s reality, this leaves far too much room for error–or malfeasance. We must make 2007 the year of inside-out security–starting with the ultimate target of exposure, the database, and working our way out in a layered defense.”

Short Takes better visibility Paisley Consulting, a provider of governance, risk and compliance, and audit automation software, has selected Apparent Networks’ AppCritical network diagnostic software to provide full visibility into the networking components that contribute to application performance. The software allows Paisley’s tier 1 software support engineers to quickly and accurately diagnose network performance problems. “With AppCritical’s ability to proactively provide detailed results and specific feedback on potential issues with customer networks, we can identify and resolve issues on the client’s network more quickly and efficiently,” says Jay Dorenkamp, Paisley Consulting CTO. automated messaging Citigroup has deployed Alcatel’s Automated Message Delivery System (AMDS), a session initiation protocol, premise-based broadcast voice-messaging solution. AMDS is a browser-based interface delivered on Alcatel’s Advanced Communications Server (ACS) platform. “Sales is a highly voice mail-driven business in the investment banking world, making AMDS invaluable for Citigroup staff,” says Dan Hollins, assistant vice president at Citigroup. “The cost savings are significant but the real business benefit of this product is an increase in productivity and time to market.”

publications Wi-Fi Telephony, Challenges and Solutions for Voice over WLANs, by Praphul Chandra and David Lide, is a guide to voice-over-WLANs that begins with a review of IPO-based networks, including WLANs, and then explores the requirements for WLANs to carry voice traffic. Protocols for VoIP, security issues, optimized WLANs for voice traffic and integration of voice-over-WLAN systems with other networks are also covered. www.books.elsevier.com

EVENTS VoiceCon Spring 2007, March 5-8, Orlando, meets the demand for reliable, objective and practical information on enterprise voice, IP telephony and converged networks. www.voicecon.com Infosec World Conference & Expo, March 19-21, Orlando, focuses on information security. Explore the latest on two-factor authentication, how to protect your company’s mobile network, and how top organizations have successfully implemented identity management. www.misti.com/infosecworld2007 Data Center World, March 25-29, Las Vegas, provides hands-on educational programs that enable data center managers to better balance the key components of their jobs: management, business and technology. Five tracks include data center management, security, best practices, disaster recovery and facilities management. www.datacenterworld.com