ISP division to speed net integration

Change is a way of life at MCI WorldCom. Most recently, the nation's second-largest telecommunications service provider decided to integrate its UUNET and Advanced Networks ISP divisions. This change came only one year after the carrier created the Advanced Networks division, which was to offer Web hosting and virtual private network (VPN) services. Mark Spagnola, UUNET president and CEO, spoke with Network World Senior Editor Denise Pappalardo about the integration and what the move means for users.

Why did the company decide to integrate MCI WorldCom Advanced Networks and UUNET?

What we saw happening over the last year was the Internet and enterprise networks coming together more quickly than both groups had anticipated.The UUNET team was looking to add more value-added features such as security for customer. And the Advanced Networks team was looking to add more core Internet access services. We felt we were confusing the customers and decided the best thing to do is to bring the divisions together.

When the company last month announced its decision to integrate the two Internet groups, MCI WorldCom said further product integration was also coming. What services will be affected and how?

Early talks have taken place, but final decisions have not yet been made.

Will UUNET still support the seven VPN services it does today?

Hopefully, not the services that do that same thing.

I don't have the product calendar in front of me, but I do know that there has been a lot of work on VPN product rationalization.

MCI WorldCom Advanced Networks was formed from CompuServe Network Services, ANS and part of UUNET. How will this merger affect network integration?

We think this will speed up some network integration, but that was happening anyway. For example, Advanced Networks was already using UUNET's dial access network. The underlying network is more and more UUNET's platform every day. This isn't a result of merging the two organizations, but it has been accelerated.

Are the networks interconnected?

The networks already interoperate, but the issue is how to scale customer demands. For instance, if a customer needs a 100-site VPN set up there is a lot more bandwidth on the UUNET backbone than there is on the old CompuServe backbone. So some existing customers may be ported over to UUNET's underlying infrastructure to better support their demands, but these changes hopefully should be invisible to customers.

Are the billing systems integrated?

No. This is our chief information officer's responsibility, and he will begin looking at that. We will continue to run [MCI WorldCom Advanced Networks'] systems and processes in the near term. We will look at, real quickly, back-office technology that would integrate systems, but there is not a specific plan to do that.

Why is merging UUNET and MCI WorldCom Advanced Networks a positive move for customers?

For UUNET customers, it lets them have access to more complex stuff. Let's say they want to do more than just IP access, such as integrating multiple systems onto a VPN, it will now be just a natural upgrade. For legacy Advanced Networks customers, although they always had it, they will have more direct access to UUNET's Internet access bandwidth. Maintaining two ISP divisions was too confusing from a sales and marketing standpoint. Now customers have one sales team to deal with for all IP services.

Have all the sales folks been trained on the various services?

In some cases the answer is yes, but not in every case. The sales team will be cross-trained as new products roll out. And as we roll out remote access products, for example, everyone who sells remote offerings will be trained. o