The Growth of MPLS VPNs

MPLS VPNs have been around for long enough now that they are starting to be open to the all-important TCE (Total Customer Experience) analysis that businesses covet.

According to the Computer Encyclopedia, a VPN (Virtual Private Network) is "a private network that is configured within a public network (a carrier's network or the Internet) in order to take advantage of the economies of scale and management facilities of large networks".

This Encyclopedia also defines virtual IP VPNs from carriers as network systems where "carriers offer multipoint networks that accept only IP packets from the customer and run over an IP core.

These virtual private routed networks (VPRNs) connect the customer's IP router to the provider's IP router and require some coordination."

This what an MPLS VPN is.

According to a BusinessWire press release from May 13th, 2008, Dianne Hurley, who is Vice President of Information Technology at The BRIAD Group, which is the largest T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant operator, says, "As a long time [leading MPLS VPN provider giant] MegaPath customer, we look to the company’s Site-to-Site MPLS VPN service to deliver cost effective connectivity without sacrificing reliability or performance. MegaPath’s leading-edge service enables us to deploy the latest bandwidth intensive applications, which increase employee productivity and customer satisfaction. We have not seen any other secure connectivity solution that offers the value we receive from the MegaPath Site-to-Site MPLS VPN service."

So the interest in MPLS VPNs is already huge and it is growing.

MPLS VPNs have definitely already begun to become the mainstream, and surveying says they should overwhelmingly become the norm within the next one to two years. So far, businesses that get surveyed almost universally report being
satisfied with their choice to implement the MPLS VPN. In addition, most seem very pleased with their choice of supplier.

However, surveys of companies using MPLS network also revealed some subtle criticisms and room for improvement of the technology by network suppliers. Installation times, for one thing, still tend to run over and take too long. Another somewhat prevalent problem seems to be complicated and sometimes just plain wrong billing - although the pricing itself is usually considered quite reasonable.

Another problem is, perhaps as something to be expected, on the customer service end. Although customer service reps and speed of response by suppliers' call centers have scored very high, the level of expertise of the reps has not scored so high.

But the current problems with MPLS VPNs are par for the course with the introduction into the mainstream market of new advanced technology. One can only expect the technical problems to diminish and service to improve as MPLS VPNs undergo continuous development.Article written by Van Theodorou, for a free analysis, telecom audit and a free consultation go his site for business long distance or Voice T1.