WorldCom has introduced a slew of new software applications in a
bid to give enterprises a better handle on their remote access
services.
The company has introduced new versions of its remote access
management software, effectively updating the client the company
acquired in its 1998 purchase of CompuServe Interactive Services.
The new software will enhance administrators' abilities to provide
and mange remote access users, improve the functionality of the
client-side remote access software and provide tools to track and
capture performance data on any given connection.
To be sold to large enterprises and packaged with its Internet
service offerings, the new WorldCom Access Manager software client
includes a phone book of available dial-in numbers for cities in
more than 80 countries and boasts a new user interface. The
software can also now be updated automatically with software pushes
from a central server.
WorldCom has also built support for its IP VPN remote service into
the Access Manager software. The added functionality includes
automatically finding, configuring and launching third-party VPN
clients, as well as supporting all access means including Digital
Subscriber Lines (DSL), third-party cable, and later this year some
of WorldCom's wireless services.
Additionally, the company has introduced an add-on software module,
dubbed WorldCom Dial Analysis. Utilising IP performance management
technology developed by Visual Networks the software allows
enterprises to access statistics captured from a dial-up session.
Using agents, Visual Network's technology tracks and records IP
network performance, the speed of a connection, the history of
numbers dialled, and the length of each session. The agents then
report the data to a database, which WorldCom taps into with its
back-end management console, ESM (Enterprise Service
Manager).
WorldCom has also updated ESM, making it a Web-based application
that administrators can use to create and manage remote users,
create groups, and prohibit users from using costly 800 numbers
rather than dialling locally.
According to Ralph Montfort, director of Access Product Marketing
for WorldCom, the company's software enhancements now allow
WorldCom to offer more stringent service-level agreements (SLAs) on
its remote access service, dubbed Internet Dial Corporate. The new
SLAs assure 95% network accessibility and a log-in success rate of
90%. The company also offers a second SLA that provides 99% and 95%
success rates, respectively, for accessibility and log-in success
rates.