* Connecting VPN sites with those using frame relay or ATM
Service providers are continuing their push to offer VPN services that roll up just about any kind of access into a single VPN, with MCI making the latest entry.
The company has announced a service called IP VPN Remote that ties together sites connected to MCI’s network via VPN with sites connected to the MCI network via frame relay or ATM.
This enables customers to quickly connect sites that already have Internet access but don’t have a frame or ATM connection to a corporate network. Often VPN is a method corporations use to tie in sites they gain through acquiring other companies. This meshing of the VPN with the dedicated frame and ATM services can make the VPN connections a permanent part of a company’s WAN rather than a quick temporary fix.
The VPN connections can also mark the beginning of migration from frame and ATM to an all IP WAN that might accommodate voice as well as data.
MCI is planning to tie laptops at wireless hot spots into corporate VPNs, giving traveling workers an easy way to log on securely.
Neither of these services is new in concept. AT&T and Sprint have delivered their versions of linking sites into frame relay and ATM networks via VPNs, and AT&T has promised wireless VPN access later this year. As always, more competition is better for getting more and perhaps less expensive service bids.
These are good options for customer uniting networks after mergers, but also for customers that want the flexibility of a VPN without having to invest in equipment, install it, create and manage VPN tunnels and link them together with sites connected to the corporate network by frame relay or ATM. The predictable cost of such a service may be attractive when stacked up against the uncertainty of hardware and software problems that may arise if customers build their own networks. Another factor in favor of such services is that customers may not be able to afford staffing and training to keep up their own VPNs.
