Are VPNs ready for prime time? Yes, for remote access
By Tom Pincince
Network World, 5/25/98
nwfusion.com
For almost a year, major
networking vendors and a slew of
start-ups have touted the benefits
of virtual private networks.
Essentially, VPN technology allows
you to build extranets, which enable you to use
the Internet for private communication,
commerce and collaboration.
Let's be honest - VPNs will not replace
corporate WANs in the near future. However,
there are certain applications for which VPNs
make sense today.
Initially, remote access is the most appropriate
enterprise application for VPNs. Corporations
can save $1 million per year per 1,000 users by
implementing an extranet. Because users always
dial in to a local ISP, access charges, such as
long-distance and toll-free phone charges, are
eliminated. In addition, having fewer devices on
the network significantly reduces management
and capital costs.
Major corporations such as American
Airlines/Sabre Labs and 3M Corp. have built
extranets. In doing so, they have not only
reduced costs by at least $1,000 per user per
year over their old remote access system, but
have also quickly and easily provided mobile
employees, business partners and customers with
access to their corporate resources.
In addition to saving you money, VPNs and
extranets can eliminate the headache of managing
modem racks. With the right extranet access
products, modem hassles can be outsourced to a
service provider, freeing you to concentrate on
business issues that contribute to your company's
bottom line.
Furthermore, VPNs and extranets are more
scalable than traditional remote access solutions.
Currently, every time you want to add more
remote users, you have to buy more modems
and add T-1 lines. This is expensive, time
consuming and a management nuisance. With an
extranet, new users, including business partners,
can be added easily, without expensive and
complex equipment upgrades.
Yet, corporations will not abandon their existing
networking infrastructures entirely and shift
remote access, collaboration and electronic
commerce applications to the Internet all at once.
In time, these and other key applications will
migrate to the Internet. Each application that
moves to the Internet will increase your savings.
Supply chain management, for example, will
become more efficient as extranet links between
suppliers and buyers improve the process. Direct
links between retailers and suppliers ensure more
precise inventory control. By creating open
procedures between business partners, extranets
extend electronic commerce beyond online
transactions.
It is important to note that the Internet that will
support these mission-critical applications is not
the wild and woolly Internet, but rather the
business-class Internet. Top-tier service
providers such as AT&T, Concentric, MCI,
Sprint and UUNet will offer the quality of service
and service-level agreements corporations will
demand to shift business applications to the
Internet.
Extranets and VPNs are a viable alternative to
traditional remote access. All corporations may
not be ready to move their entire supply chain to
the Internet backbone immediately - but the
technology exists today, and further innovations
will continue to be available for secure, scalable
and manageable extranet access.
Feedback | Network World, Inc. | Sponsor
Index
Marketplace Index | How to Advertise |
Copyright
Home | NetFlash | This Week | Industry/Stocks
Buyer's Guides/Tests | Net Resources | Opinions |
Careers
Seminars & Events | Product Demos/Info
Audio Primers | IntraNet
The opposing view
The VPNs: Ready
for Prime Time?
forum.
Pincince is vice
president, business
development, at
Bay Networks, Inc.
in Billerica, Mass.
He can be reached
at (978) 916-0731 or
at tom_pincince@
baynetworks.com. |
