Verio enhances VPN,host services

LAS VEGAS - Verio is taking steps beyond its shared hosting roots by rolling out services designed to meet the needs of larger businesses that want features such as enhanced backup and load balancing. It's also announcing an economical IP VPN service that takes advantage of its parent company's global network.

The new offerings, which will be announced this week at NetWorld+Interop 2002 Las Vegas, make use of Verio's new worldwide reach and illustrate its efforts to attract bigger business customers, while continuing to provide options for its established small and midsize customer base.

In the hosted services department, Verio is introducing a package of modular service components that address security, disaster-recovery, performance and availability, and can be mixed and matched according to customer needs, says John Scott, vice president of product development for the enterprise hosting unit at Verio, a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Communications.

The services include a hot database backup, which lets Verio back up systems without affecting system performance; local and global load-balancing services; managed security services; and enhanced monitoring services that tell not only whether a Web site is up, but also whether its applications are running properly.

Analysts say these services will help Verio as it hunts for larger customers, but warn that the company has a long way to go to compete with managed hosting companies such as Digex.

"Ultimately that's where they'd like to be, but I think they've got a long road ahead of them to get there," says Courtney Quinn, a senior analyst at The Yankee Group. "It's a good first step for them."

Verio executives did not release specific details about pricing, but say the services would range from several hundred to several thousand dollars per month, depending on the size and configuration of the hosting platforms.

For VPN customers, Verio has deployed Cosine VPN devices at four sites throughout its global network to support edge-to-edge IP Security (IPSec) tunnels over Verio's public IP network. The ISP has deployed two boxes at each site for redundancy. Verio expects to add additional sites as the service rolls out.

While the ISP already offers a customer premises equipment (CPE)-based VPN service, it says this new service represents a more economical VPN option. "Users can save up to 50% compared with our managed CPE VPN," says Sherry Quinn, product manager at Verio. The service starts at $400 per month per 128K bit/sec dedicated IP connection.

The Global IP Security Gateway service is less expensive because the ISP does not manage customer equipment or the tunnels from the customer site to the edge of its network. The managed CPE VPN service also offers users minute-to-minute monitoring from Verio's global network operations center, Quinn says. The new network-based VPN does not offer the same type of monitoring.

The Global IP Security Gateway service does not require users to deploy specific routers at their sites. Customers have the option of installing their own gear and establishing IPSec tunnels from their locations to the edge of Verio's network for an additional level of security. Verio has tested several CPE devices that support IPSec encryption, including routers from NetScreen Technologies, Check Point Software, Juniper Networks and Netopia.

Verio also is teaming with international local providers around the globe, including HKNet in Hong Kong, StarHub in Singapore and NTT Singapore. The ISP has relationships with 14 service providers that will resell and provision Verio's service locally for customers overseas.

Global IP Security Gateway is slated for availability early in the third quarter.