INTECHNOLOGY /WHITE PAPER /

mANAGEd mPLS vs WIRES ONLY vPLS /

OCT 2010 / v1.0

WE NEEd TO FOCUS ON SELLINGINSURANCE, NOT mANAGING OUR INFRASTRUCTURE /

RICHARd CORNER / GROUP OPERATIONS dIRECTOR GILES INSURANCE /

dO YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU ARE BUYING /

As technologies both VPLS and MPLS offer a number of business benefits. However, there are key operational differences between the two, and the old adage stands – ‘do you really know what you are buying’?

The two technologies are marketed in different guises which makes like-for-like comparison difficult and sometimes confusing. However, it can be made simple. Put the technology and the acronyms to one side for a moment, close your mind to marketing spin and think in terms of business benefits and total cost of ownership. Then question one fundamental point - will your business gain most from a fully managed IT and Comms delivery model (based on mPLS architecture) or a ‘wires only’ dIY service based on vPLS?

It’s true that in our simplified take on things ‘managed vs dIY’ is one comparison of the deployment options of both technologies. But it’s one of the most topical and one of the most important.

So with VPLS marketed as the next big thing we ask ‘is it?’ And ‘is it right for you?’

In some respects it’s a case of ‘read the small print.’ vPLS is in fact Layer 2 technology and has been available in various iterations for many years. It runs over mPLS which is Layer 3 and altogether more flexible. So which is the newest and which is best? Well, let’s again put the acronyms to one side and focus on some straightforward business considerations to assist decision making.

AFFORDABILITYVPLS tends to be marketed at an attention grabbing, affordable price. But so are the low-cost airlines. How quickly does that £19 weekend escape to Barcelona escalate?

Add airport tax, add a charge for your luggage, add your in-flight meal, add your seat reservation fee. It goes on. We press submit, the cogs turn, and the cost rather sneakily rises tenfold. It’s not a great experience. So now let’s think about this in the context of managed Service versus wires only vPLS.

The vPLS model promoted by some technology consultants and system integrators can have a nasty catch - spiralling price. The seemingly innocuous menu of pay-as-you-go extras including design, delivery and ongoing support can transform ‘cheap to costly’ in double quick time.

Overheads, for example, will have to include expensive in-house Cisco CCIE accredited network engineers and monitoring software to manage what at the end of the day may be a complex solution. Failing that, the expertise can be outsourced at a frightening hourly rate. These hidden costs increase the risk of budget variance and in an already uncertain economic climate this is a risk too far for many businesses.

By comparison, the Managed Service Model of the UK’s leading providers is fundamentally different. It delivers budget predictability, complete transparency and a full support wrap. No nasty surprises. No unexpected spend.

A wires only service is precisely that but many businesses fail to plan for the hidden costs that will inevitably follow further downstream.

RELIABILITY

In a climate where business continuity and

system resilience is all important, consider too

the fact that vPLS relies on static routing. The

meshed, managed mPLS architecture of leading

service providers is dynamic, self-healing and

automatically re-routes in the event of fibre

break. Consider therefore the time to fix vPLS

and the hidden costs of potential downtime

and engineering costs.

SCALABILITY

As a Layer 3 technology, mPLS will scale more

easily than the capped Layer 2 attributes of

vPLS. An important consideration for growth

hungry business. While it’s true to say that

vPLS can be developed to Layer 3, it involves

additional cost which largely mitigates the

original price differential between the two

technologies.

There is one other fundamental consideration.

While the current economic climate signals

pain for many it also provides strong growth

opportunity for acquisition driven businesses.

This is where the flexibility and ease of

scalability of the mPLS based managed Service

model scores particularly well.

BEYOND THE WAN

In an age of austerity it is sometimes too easy

to ‘knee-jerk’ to the marketing message of

low cost. But buyer beware. Not only should

you fully consider hidden charges and total cost of

ownership issues, but more importantly, technology

advisors should also look beyond the WAN.

Pause before you commit your board and your

business to a path which you may live to regret.

Fully consider where you will be, or want to be

in 18 months’ time.

Ask your Support Partner some basic questions.

In 18 months when your telephone system

(PBX) is life expired or needs a software

upgrade, what are your options? In 18 months

when your server room infrastructure needs

overhauling how much is it going to hurt? In

18 months when your travel and subsistence

budget is under extreme pressure and the

business suddenly appreciates the huge cost

saving benefits of Unified Comms (video calling,

desktop sharing and more) as a cost effective

mechanism for avoiding trains, planes,

automobiles and hotels, will it be too late?

The list goes on.

So is there a solution in vPLS? Yes. But drill

into the detail and really understand how

challenging that could be with the

complexities of N-1 considerations (everything

connected to everything else). Then consider

the alternative solution offered by the mPLS

based managed Service Provider: a solution

that cleverly uses the WAN (the cloud) as

a seamless upgrade path to hosted

services - voice services, data services, Unified

Comms and more. All underpinned by a

support infrastructure whose very

reason for existence is to unburden

you of technology heartache. Easy to

access, immediately available and

monitored 24 hours a day, every day.

Simplicity in a complex world.

Pause before you commit your board and your business to a path which you may live to regret. Fully consider where you will be, or want to be in 18 months’ time.

SUMMARY

So do the benefits of vPLS add up? For some

businesses with big IT departments and

expensive network experts it may be

possible to argue the case. But for the bulk of

forward looking mid-tier, multi-site businesses

who are looking to run lean and efficient IT

operations it makes complete sense to opt

for the managed Service model and the

flexibility of mPLS architecture.

In life there is often resistance to change. And

it’s fair to say there is ebbing resistance to the

managed Service model too. That resistance

however has little to do with the technology.

It works and works well. The unspoken brutal

truth of the matter centres on self preservation

– ‘how will this affect my job’.

However, as King Canute himself discovered

you cannot hold back the tide. In this case

the tide is being driven by visionary IT heads

that do not see the outsourcing of IT and

Communications as a threat, but more as a

career and business development opportunity:

the potential to add real business benefit and

evolve, perhaps, from IT director to CIO. It is a

mature mindset that sees Blogs & Co as the

insurance sales company, not Blogs & Co as

the IT department.

In balanced debate the majority of mid-tier

businesses will continue to score managed

mPLS ahead of wires only vPLS. The tick box

of benefits and the simple logic of the pay-

as-you-grow licence model of the managed

mPLS service is difficult to dismiss. But more

than that it’s an acceptance by many that the

short term saving headlined by wires only

vPLS is heavily outweighed by the long term

future proofing and business agility provided by

managed mPLS service delivery models.

The banner message ‘Focus on the core sales

operation and let technology experts focus on

your IT and Comms delivery infrastructure’

resonates in a tough trading climate. It never

made more sense.

Finally, as you plan your way forward,

consider that not all managed Service

Providers are equal. Seek out those with their

own end-to-end next generation network;

identify those who can seamlessly layer

hosted services (voice services, data services,

Unified Communications and more); short

list those with secure funding, proven track

records and ask to visit their operation and

view their infrastructure first hand. You may

find that some managed Service Providers are

more equal than others.

Will ‘managed’ triumph over ‘unmanaged’? Will managed mPLS continue to dominate the network landscape over wires only vPLS. We think so. do not be deceived by the headline cheap price, expose the hidden support costs and understand the challenges with scalability, flexibility and reliability. And, above all, think beyond the WAN.

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