| One of the easy things to do when discussing the | | | | same issue as that of reliability; less conscientious |
| products and services available on the market is to | | | | suppliers will push lots of traffic across a smaller |
| wax lyrical about the way the market is going, the best | | | | network, whereas more conscientious vendors will |
| solutions that you can buy and the most cost effective | | | | make sure that there is loads of capacity and will be |
| results you can achieve. And in an extremely dynamic | | | | able to talk confidently about their high reliability and low |
| industry, such as IT, there is plenty to talk about. We all | | | | latency.Whilst you are digging deep into the knowledge |
| know that there are constantly evolving solutions and | | | | bank of your supplier you would also be well advised |
| a parade of suppliers who can provide them.But rather | | | | to talk to them about the provision of voice over the |
| than talk about the best technology, I think it would be | | | | managed VPN. Voice can be run across your |
| useful just to swing the debate over to the issue of | | | | broadband VPN, but not all suppliers really know how |
| the Supplier. Recently one of our customers, 'The | | | | to do this or are capable of doing it. But be aware, this |
| Firewall Warehouse' implemented a broadband VPN | | | | is something that is happening and will become more |
| for it's 3 offices and centralised warehouse that are | | | | and more popular. Because of this a good supplier will |
| spread across the UK.Nick Johnson, Director of The | | | | be either encouraging you to run voice over your |
| Firewall Warehouse said, 'For the management team | | | | managed VPN now or setting your expectations to do |
| the technological argument and the financial benefit | | | | it as part of your medium term planning.But knowing |
| derived was not really an issue. Where we struggled | | | | about the technology and how it applies to you is |
| was with our choice of supplier.'Johnson went on, 'the | | | | important, but equally so is their knowledge of process. |
| problem was that we treated the sale as a | | | | So many times you can place orders and then be lost |
| commodity and didn't really respect the fact that | | | | in a sea of promises. A good supplier will guide you as |
| connecting our business up and passing our vital data | | | | to what they will do, but also as to what you need to |
| between sites was, in reality, one of the most | | | | do. You don't need to spend hours on working with the |
| important things on our agenda. Sure, we understood it | | | | supplier but you do need to be in synch with their |
| all, but we really should have made sure that we | | | | programme and understand what they are delivering, |
| understood the product source, the delivery schedule, | | | | when they are delivering and basically when to flick |
| the time we needed to invest and the fact that those | | | | the switch.A good supplier will have a combination of |
| who provide you with critical solutions need to be close | | | | automation and human resource. You should expect to |
| to you and your business.''As it so happens we ended | | | | be able to be given an online service to manage and |
| up with a good delivery and a solution that is fast, | | | | indeed provision your service, but likewise you should |
| robust, capable and secure, but only after we realised | | | | know the service agent who is in charge of your |
| that we were not paying enough attention to the deal | | | | project. Invariably you will have questions, date |
| and consequently put our own management efforts | | | | slippages, configuration changes and so on and you |
| into play, which incidentally was not that arduous.'The | | | | want that piece of mind that your supplier works with |
| lessons 'The Firewall Warehouse' learnt were that you | | | | you to change the schedule and meet your demands. |
| need to do a bit of basic research yourself before | | | | Do watch out for this because once you lose track of |
| kicking off the supplier process.The web is a fantastic | | | | what you and they are doing it becomes an absolute |
| source of information, as we all know and by | | | | muddle of spaghetti to unravel.Other simple things to |
| searching 'VPN network' 'managed VPN', 'managed | | | | look out for are the speed and simplicity of the supplier |
| broadband', and a few other similar phrases, it is | | | | process. Automation of process invariably means that |
| possible to become that much brighter and informed. | | | | line orders are placed quickly, but you need to |
| But equally important is to understand what is behind | | | | understand their acknowledgment process and update |
| the marketing web pages, what do the network | | | | process so that you are comfortable with what |
| providers actually do?Now, even in the commodity | | | | information you expect to be fed to you over the |
| sale, not all vendors offer the same product or service. | | | | order lifetime. Likewise you need to actually |
| For a start, don't ever believe that broadband is just | | | | understand how the installation takes place. It should be |
| broadband. It comes in various guises and is delivered | | | | a speedy delivery of a box, a speedy delivery of a |
| with varying levels of quality and efficiency.Some of | | | | connection or connections and a harmonious bringing |
| the better known names do not necessarily offer you | | | | together of the items to create your managed VPN. If |
| the best quality broadband and quite frankly the | | | | you can't see that nice clear plan from your supplier |
| delivery and customer care capabilities are woefully | | | | then be warned that it all might not be plain sailing.So |
| inadequate for the small and medium sized business. | | | | don't panic, but just be conscious of getting stuck in to |
| So it's important to understand your vendors offering. | | | | some of the detail when you are evaluating your |
| What contention rates and speeds are on offer for a | | | | supplier. This is absolutely not just about price. It's about |
| start? And if you can get into a discussion with a | | | | their knowledge of how to create and run a project |
| supplier about this you will find that one who has | | | | and it's about the network they use to provide it. It's |
| knowledge of the topic and an understanding of how | | | | also about how they efficiently supply you and |
| best to network a business will really give you that | | | | appraise you along the way as well as their ability to |
| added comfort.Additionally you need to know how | | | | persuade you of their business and technological |
| good the service is and there are two issues that | | | | integrity.It's a fun thing to be able to make your |
| need some real clarity. The first of these is | | | | business better and I also think that your supplier will |
| Reliability.Now the answer to reliability is not just a | | | | actually want to be part of that journey too. So do |
| simple claim of being reliable. What you need to be told | | | | probe and ask questions about some of the issues |
| is the structure of the network and an explanation of | | | | raised and I'm sure you will find your choice of supplier |
| how they intend to provide you with the usual spiel | | | | to be much easier and fairly natural. Like most choices |
| about 99.999999% guaranteed uptime. This revolves | | | | the most appropriate one is fairly obvious once you |
| around how they have built their network and how | | | | know which questions to ask.Nathan Hill-Haimes is the |
| they can demonstrate a lack of network congestion. | | | | Managing Director of Managed Communications Ltd |
| The least reliable infrastructure will be the one that | | | | and a serial entrepreneur, having built, sold and turned |
| packs as many people as it can on to a limited | | | | around several Internet centric companies prior to |
| network. Conversely, the better network is that which | | | | founding Managed Communications - Communications |
| can cope with lots of traffic as well as having a lot of | | | | is a high-performance Managed VPN Service provider |
| free capacity.Which brings up the second issue; | | | | - the company does not use the public internet to |
| namely that of Latency. This again needs explained to | | | | create VPNs as experience has shown this is where |
| you by the supplier and they need to convince you | | | | many issues regarding latency and security can occur. |
| that there is low latency on their network because | | | | In addition to standard VPN services bonding of lines |
| they are being generous with the capacity and not | | | | enables higher capacity than other service providers |
| overburdening their infrastructure with users. It's the | | | | can offer to key VPN sites. |