* Virtela to expand its overseas business relationships
VPN service provider Virtela Communications is going to expand its overseas business relationships to give its customers better prices.
The service provider uses multiple backbone providers’ networks to create its own MPLS overlay network on which it runs customer traffic. Virtela chooses which of the underlying physical networks to use for any given customer based on how well the networks are performing and price.
By choosing the best performing networks, Virtela is able to offer service-level agreements to its customers.
The company’s new CEO Larry Morgan says it will seek out multiple providers in each country to provide better quality of service. He says he also plans to bring in more providers using his own contacts and by bringing in new personnel that he knows have existing relationships with foreign carriers. Morgan spent 15 years with international carrier Infonet.
Virtela also will expand its sales among businesses that are based in other countries as opposed to businesses based in North America that have branches overseas.
This will make Virtela a larger customer of the underlying network providers, which in turn means that Virtela will get better prices for bandwidth, Morgan says. The savings will be passed along to customers as lower prices, he says.
While he wouldn’t detail the service, Morgan says that within a month the company will also offer a packaged security service that is based on custom services they supply to certain customers today.
Businesses looking for competitive prices on network-based VPNs might take another look at Virtela and those that are already customers might look for the promised pricing breaks in the near future.
