Protecting the Network from the Edge to the Cloud
I will be moderating a panel discussion at the NY WAN Summit on Monday, March 9, 2020, at the Hilton Midtown Hotel in NY. As you know, security considerations are an important consideration when considering SD-WAN. Gartner’s coining of the term SASE brings this subject to the forefront, though I have been emphaizing this area […]
SD-WAN, or SASE: Focus on the Biggest Picture
All too often, when our team gets called into an engagement, we spend time helping our client anticipating their networking and security needs of tomorrow. Too often, the IT leaders are focussed on one thing when it comes to SD-WAN — getting off of MPLS. The cost savings of replacing MPLS circuits with SD-WAN and Internet bandwidth have […]
How SD-WAN Facilitates WAN Security
As a follow-up to the RSA San Francisco security show, it’s important to think about SD-WANs and security. In a previous post, we spoke about security and the future of networking, with an emphasis on various vendors’ approaches to securing SD-WAN internet connections. We didn’t, however, speak about the WAN itself. New WAN, New Security To solve the security issues […]
SD-WAN or MPLS: Which is Right for Business Voice?
In our last post, we discussed the general differences between MPLS and Internet-based VPN services. It’s not that one is necessarily “better” than the other. It’s more of a matter of the problem. Some issues are better addressed with the Internet VPN, some with MPLS, and some with a combination of both. Let’s start with one of […]
Local Loop Diversity – Do You Really Have It?
Local loop diversity…it’s a common story: an enterprise contracts with their carrier for diverse local loops to different POPs to provide diversity and protection against a loop failure from a back-hoe or other cause of failure. Then your network goes down. How could that happen? You designed your network to prevent that. What could you […]
Ethernet over Copper for Access to VPLS and MPLS Networks
Ethernet over Copper access does not require fiber. But this technology offers excellent scalability for VPLS and MPLS network and Internet access. For the full year 2012, the global Ethernet access device (EAD) market grew 3.5 per cent, to $860 million, with growth slowing as a result of the economy and a drop in carrier spending. “People […]
VPLS Prices Drop Dramatically
Prices in the marketplace are dropping as more carriers offer Ethernet Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS). But due to limited availability in some regions, VPLS can still be an expensive WAN option to implement. According to a recent report by research firm TeleGeography, Western Europe and the United States saw the largest price drops for […]
Level 3 to purchase Global Crossing
This is not “new” news (from April, 2011) , but since many clients were not aware of this merger, I feel compelled to post it here: Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) said it agreed to acquire Global Crossing Limited (NASDAQ: GLBC) for about $1.9 billion stock deal to boost its service portfolio. Including Global […]
UK Finance Company switches to MPLS global VPN network
Not too long ago, a communications solutions provider has revealed that it has migrated a UK finance company onto a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) IP-VPN across its Wide Area Network (WAN). The Funding Corporation, a finance and loan provider, has given the order to migrate its existing voice and Internet services to a MPLS network […]
What we learned after trip to China
My client just returned from China. I asked him to test his VoIP soft client to the USA phone system with the VPN over the internet and compare to the Frame Relay network. Would you believe that it worked pretty well using the hotel wireless and VPN over the internet…but it would not work at […]