MPLS over DSL Evens the Playing Field for SMBs

Getting more for less during these tough economic times is a must--and after a recent conversation with New Edge Networks we think that their MPLS over DSL service is a good way for small to medium-sized businesses to do just that. New Edge says they can provide this service to 90 percent of US businesses--so if you have between 5 and 40 sites and an appetite for T1s without the budget to match, you may want to check it out. Kudos to New Edge for anticipating the need for businesses to squeeze better application performance out of a lowly DSL connection and for proactively partnering Redback Networks to make it happen rather than passively waiting on the sidelines.  

For those of you not familiar New Edge Networks, it is a CLEC founded back in 1999 to bring broadband access to SMBs in the US hinterlands. Acquired by EarthLink in 2006, New Edge is now a wholly owned EarthLink subsidiary. Because they don't own last mile infrastructure, New Edge must offer value added services to stay in the game--and they are embracing the challenge. The company worked with Redback to extend MPLS tagging across DSL, and first released their MPLS over DSL service two years ago. We're told the service costs half the going rate for a T1 connection.

We asked product marketing and channel programs director Brett Theiss for a preview of other performance management offerings in the works. He told us that New Edge is currently investigating what he calls "no nonsense" tools to monitor and control application performance. Ultimately New Edge wants to go beyond just application performance monitoring and control to offer related professional services--and ultimately application performance SLAs. Theiss scoffs at current carrier SLAs as "nothing more than marketing fodder"--and he should know, since he helped write SLAs while at AT&T.

New Edge is already talking to application vendors like SAP about application-specific SLAs. As a step in that direction, New Edge has a partnership with SAP to boost SAP performance of over the New Edge network. Getting the world to understand the value that New Edge can bring to application performance is a challenge according to Theiss. He told us that people often think of network service providers like power companies. Said Theiss: "We want to sell solutions, not just wires. A solution means trying to take care of business needs. I don't want to be a commodity service. MPLS is MPLS--it's all the same. We need to add value through alliances such as the one we have with SAP."

• application performance
• Application Performance Management
• Earthlink
• MPLS over DSL
• New Edge Networks
• Redback Networks