British Telecom is getting ready for a renewed push for its
Internet protocol virtual private network (IP VPN) managed services
through its BT Ignite division. The move comes as the company
completes unwinding its Concert joint venture with AT&T.
BT is looking to roll out additional VPN services based on
technologies such as Internet Protocol Security (IPsec),
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and Class of Service (CoS), as
a way to prioritise and manage traffic in a network, said Steve
Brady, vice-president of data and IP services for BT Ignite.
"We expect Concert to be fully dissolved by the end of the first
quarter of this year. But once that is done, we will use the
Concert capabilities we will inherit to bring IP VPN services to 30
countries across Europe, with AT&T continuing to be one of our
biggest customers," Brady said.
BT Ignite offers a variety of IP services to corporate and
wholesale customers throughout Europe, including American Express,
McDonald's and Visa. The company is looking to become more of a
presence in Europe now that it is freeing itself from Concert,
Brady said.
"We already have between 800 and 700 IP VPN customers in the UK
alone. We have found IP VPN to be one of the most buoyant markets
we've seen in a long time. In fact, demand in the last nine months
is the strongest we've seen for any IP product in the last six
years," Brady said.
A VPN is a private network that uses the Internet to send secure,
encrypted packets of data and allows access to a corporate network
as if the user were on a LAN.
BT sees IP VPNs as a way to help customers to run their business
more efficiently and effectively, Brady said. "Our MPLS network
allows a number of VPNs to share the same network with tight
security, as security is designed into the basic fabric of the
network with MPLS. It allows for sharing the network and also
brings good quality of service as well as cost effectiveness,"
Brady said.
Additionally, BT Ignite uses IPsec technology to create a defined
and secure tunnel through the Internet and offer the benefits of
pan-European connectivity, Brady said.
"We see MPLS and IPsec as a very powerful combination, and we
expect MPLS with CoS to be very effective. Most of our customers,
once they've gotten IP, ask us 'When can you give us class of
service?' Well, we'll start taking orders at the end of April,"
Brady said.
CoS will actually become available in the UK at the end of May, and
BT plans to roll out CoS throughout Europe in the 12 months after
that, Brady said.
Although BT Ignite would not reveal its pricing plan for CoS, there
will be an additional cost for the service. "We've bounced our
pricing plan off of a number of clients and it's judged to be
reasonable," said Steven Carter, manager of BT Ignite's EquIP and
metro product division.
"CoS is an alternative to just buying a bigger access pipe because
it manages traffic better. CoS automatically classes the priority
of the packet - be it voice, data or video - and assigns it a level
of importance from one to three. The network reads the packet
headers to determine which class it is, making the network more
application aware. CoS gives a much more user-orientated approach
to IP networks," Brady said.
BT will also couple CoS with directory services and other
applications that can then be tailored to different departments in
a company as well as different users. "It has a number of benefits,
such as when a new employee comes to the company, or leaves for
that matter, a business can add or delete that employee's
connection through one directory structure," Brady said.
Currently, BT Ignite's VPN business is still smaller than its frame
relay business, though Carter would not say just how much revenue
VPNs are generating for BT. "It's in the millions of pounds, I can
say that, and we do expect it will grow exponentially," Carter
said.
In the more distant future BT Ignite will also look to optical
Ethernet technology to bring more services to customers, Brady
said. "What we're most interested in is using optical Ethernet as
another access medium into IP VPNs. It will be very important to
large corporate sites and for bringing multimedia to their sites,"
Brady said.
Last October, BT and AT&T agreed to disband their loss-making
Concert joint venture and return the assets to the parent
companies.