Dueling VPN access services

In a June 18 announcement at the CeBit America show in New York, MCI claimed to be offering the industry’s first network-based VPN service.  Within hours of the launch, we received a note from AT&T counter-claiming that it had actually been the first to offer such a service, which was announced on September 7, 2001.  (Given the world events that followed a few days later, it is no wonder that the announcement didn’t get a lot of coverage.)

In a June 18 announcement at the CeBit America show in New York, MCI claimed to be offering the industry’s first network-based VPN service. Within hours of the launch, we received a note from AT&T counter-claiming that it had actually been the first to offer such a service, referencing an announcement dated September 12, 2001. (Given the world events on the prior day, it is no wonder that the announcement didn’t get a lot of coverage.)

MCI’s newest service provides connectivity among existing frame relay sites, ATM sites, Private IP (frame- and ATM-enabled IP VPN) sites and native IP VPN sites using MCI’s Secure Interworking Gateway (SIG) and some special MCI client software.  The SIG is a device that resides in the MCI network and serves as the virtual glue that provides the interworking between the various services.

The offering represents one component of MCI’s Convergence Networking strategy, announced at the NetWorld+Interop 2003 show in April, for allowing customer endpoints to run any mix of technologies that can interoperate with one another.

By contrast, AT&T Remote Access Services provide secured Internet dial access to corporate IP applications for remote and traveling workers. AT&T says that the services are available from more than 60 countries via AT&T’s private dial network. Also, AT&T provides connectivity to its VPN services from its own metro-Ethernet services.

It is apparent that regardless of your desired flavor of access, you can find a service provider willing to work with you.  And both of these service providers are continuing to enhance the range of connectivity options.