OSS Companies Race to Provide VPN Provisioning Software: Study

📅 January 9, 2002 - Decades ago, enterprises created their own private wide area networks because telecom carriers could not offer a cost-effective wide-area solution. Recently though, carriers have launched IP Virtual Private Networks , a shared networked designed to wean enterprise customers from their venerable "private lines." But whether a significant number of enterprises will jump on the VPN bandwagon or not is still an open question.

According to a new analyst report, the key VPN success ingredient is nolonger network technology or clever marketing - it's carrier investments inOSS software to provision and manage this new hybrid telecom/enterprisenetwork.
"The major VPN technical issues in routing, bandwidth, and security have allbeen solved," says report author and research director, Dan Baker, ofTechnology Research Institute. "Now, it all comes down to efficiency - getting activation and network management costs down. Without a significant cost advantage, enterprises will decide to skip the VPN parade. But since OSS software streamlines provisioning tasks, it may lower operational costs enough to enable the VPN market."
TRI's report profiles companies and software initiatives at the frontline ofVPN provisioning:
Realtime IP Traffic Management: Software from Orchestream andSmartPipes allows an enterprise to dynamically control its IP bandwidth.Rather than merely knowing whether the network pipe was available for 99.9%of the month, the customer can measure performance on a business applicationbasis.Three-Tier Service Delivery Framework: Introducing a new IP servicehas traditionally meant reinventing the provisioning wheel. Now Visionaeloffers a universal service delivery framework. As new services areintroduced, software "blades" are loaded into a "chassis," greatlysimplifying legacy OSS integration.Business Rules in Service Activation: Software from Astracon andAgilent helps a carrier tailor its VPN to unique business rules. Forexample, the software might instruct the OSS to "always configure a serviceusing the least-cost routing algorithm" or "configure using a maximum ofthree service provider hops."E-Enabled Centrex - Enterprises will eventually use a Web interfaceand make on-the-fly changes in VPNs, voice circuits, and CLASS services."Smart" office buildings will be both physically wired and "OSS-wired" sothat telecom and broadband services can be rapidly configured. Here, SaskTeland MetaSolv are pioneering solutions.Telecom network discovery - "Auto-discovering" a telecom networkpopulated by hundreds of vendor-proprietary "magic boxes" was formerly adaunting task. Now Syndesis provides software that audits telecom networkconfigurations to identify precious "stranded assets."
TRI's 479-page analyst report, Telecom OSS & E-Business Integration, isbased on a survey of 85 telecom and OSS vendor executives. For a 23-pagereport synopsis, visit technology-research.com/oss.htm.