VPNs and Visibility
By Sosheel Samuel,
Sr. Director, Technology Services,
July 31, 2012
Businesses love their virtual private networks (VPNs) for many good reasons. VPNs make the most of your budget but are still secure, and they allow "day-extending" or vacationing employees to access the network anytime, from anywhere.
VPNs aren't just good for your employees. Everyone else who needs access to certain data reaps the benefits: VPNs allow vendors and contractors access to just the applications and data they need, so they can work remotely without compromising network security.
Another benefit of VPNs is that they can be managed by a third party (the service provider) - but therein also lies the rub. Although having an outside vendor manage your VPN is a great way to reduce the number of in-house IT staff you need for your network, there are still times when a CIO needs a bird's-eye view of what's happening on the network.
The Intelligent Network: Visibility with Even More Control
For customers seeking the visibility of an in-house network with the cost savings of a VPN, tw telecom'sIntelligent Network is the answer. The Intelligent Network offers users a global view of all segments of their network via MyPortal, the online customer account access and management panel. MyPortal allows VPN customers to monitor bandwidth usage and to quickly spot where and when problems arise.
The Intelligent Network is being rolled out in stages. Phase I, Enhanced Management, gives customers greater visibility into their network performance metrics. Phase II, Dynamic Capacity, gives customers greater control over their network's performance, and the ability to immediately increase or decrease and bandwidth for events like data storage or videoconferencing. Phase III, Applications Aware Networking, will give customers the ability to manage Class of Service - prioritizing more important or latency-sensitive applications such as voice or telepresence.
VPN is a wonderfully cost-effective tool, but its lack of network visibility can be a real drawback. tw telecom'sIntelligent Network is helping customers bridge the gap between VPNs' benefits and shortcomings by putting network control back in the hands of CIOs - where it belongs.