|
IP VPN
IP VPNs allow organisations to revolutionise
the way they work. They can make current business practice
more effective and facilitate new ways of working. IP VPNs
can improve your competitiveness, business success and
cost-efficiency. When adopting any mould-breaking technology,
you need to be well informed in order to make the right
decisions for your business.
A VPN has the appearance, functions and benefits of a
private wide area network, but utilises (at least in part)
the shared infrastructure of a public network. A VPN is
private in the sense that its membership is restricted
to a predetermined set of end points, each of which could
be a local area network (LAN) or an individual computer.
It is also private in the sense that traffic does not have
to comply with public-network requirements, such as addressing.
An IP VPN is a VPN in which the shared public network
is an IP network - which may not be part of the Internet.
VPNs can also be built on several other types of public
network. The most widely used VPNs today are frame-relay
services, while in some regions, voice VPNs built on the
public switch telephone network (PSTN) are widely used.
An IP VPN service typically includes a device or application
that regulates and monitors access to and usage of the
VPN. This facility can be within the service provider's
network, or located at the customer's premises. It can
be owned and managed by either the customer or the service
provider.
Key Benefits:
Cost effectiveness
Cost savings are a great motivator for enterprises adopting IP VPNs in today's
economic environment. Previously, network connections between sites required
a dedicated circuit or private virtual circuit (PVC). IP networks provide access
to the entire IP network for one site for one price - with reduced connectivity
charges due to the sharing of infrastructure. Mobile or remote users can be migrated
to an IP network from private dial-up networks that are otherwise cumbersome
and costly to maintain.
Reduced total cost of ownership
With IP VPNs you buy capacity on the public Internet, and isolate your traffic
using CPE-based or network-based security to create your IP VPN. This reduces
your costs because you don't need to overspecify your network to ensure capacity.
Nor do you have the capital or revenue costs associated with maintaining and
developing a private network, as these costs are shared with all users of the
public network.
Improved security
When your IP VPN is created, you segregate your traffic by encrypting it. This
secures your data against unauthorised third party access or manipulation.
Such intrusions are very difficult to detect even on a private-circuit-based
(rather than IP VPN) network. This level of security also allows you to control
site access on a user-by-user basis.
Ease of extending private networks
to remote locations
Enterprises seeking to operate in rural or far-flung locations may be unable
to afford the installation and usage costs for private networks. Using a VPN
on a mixture of networks may be the only feasible way to provision services,
particularly where budgets are limited.
Effective platform for web-enabled
back-office applications
Enterprises are increasingly adopting applications that make heavy demands
on bandwidth, as they have been designed for Internet-like networks. IP applications
like dial-in for remote access, video-over-IP, IP telephony, and audio- or
videoconferencing can easily be bundled on top of basic IP VPN solutions.
Speed of implementation
In contrast to the establishment of a customer's own wide area network (WAN),
most of the infrastructure for an IP VPN is already in place. This enables
rapid deployment and flexible development.
|
