By Dan Baldwin
A week or so ago we posted a blog about a major public Internet outage that adversely affected multi-location businesses that connected their offices using VPN that rode the public Internet.
In the post we discussed the migration that many businesses have launched away from VPNs on the Internet to metro Ethernet and MPLS networks.
Today we're presenting an interview we conducted recently with Jeff Cohen, partner of Cynergy Telecom, and a Telecom Association VPN migration expert.
We posed the following questions to him:
1. Start us out with a little background information. What is the prevalence of businesses using VPN's on the public Internet to connect their multiple locations and how long has Cynergy been assisting these kinds of businesses?
2. Please explain the migration steps for VPN customers you have migrating to MPLS.
3. How does a Metro Ethernet private network solution differ from a MPLS solution?
4. What are the different flavors of Ethernet? (Copper over, fiber, etc.)
5. For VPN customers not ready to migrate to a MPLS solution, what are some "fail over" option they might want to consider and what are the pros and cons of each? (WiFi, Fixed Wireless, Cable and DSL with Load Balancing Routers, etc.)
6. What sort of businesses should contact Cynergy if they want help and do you work with other consultants and sub-agents? What's the best way to contat Cynergy?
Click the audio player below to listen to the interview now with your computer speakers. Click here to download the MP3 of the interview.
Scroll down below to read the interview. Click here to print the interview.
Interview Transcription
Dan Baldwin: Our topic today is "Migrating your multi-location business from a VPN on the public Internet to a private Ethernet or MPLS network".
Today we're speaking with Jeff Cohen, partner of Cynergy Telecom, a telecommunications management company based out of Atlanta. Jeff, thanks for visiting with us today.
Jeff Cohen: Thank you, Dan. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you.
DB: Jeff, start us out with a little background information on the topic we're discussing today. What is the prevalence of businesses using VPNs on the public Internet to connect their multiple locations, and how long has Cynergy been assisting these kinds of businesses?
JC: Well Dan, about 15 years ago virtual private network access was a fairly new concept for most businesses, and prior to that, most companies were utilizing some sort of either frame relay or private line. And while those 2 technologies were beneficial to companies at the time, cost savings, efficiencies and things of that nature were requiring more companies to look for alternative solutions.
That's when the virtual private network, or VPN, really became more a prevalent technology, and about 15 years ago again while large corporations had already had a good head start with VPN technologies, the rest of the companies were really starting to realize the possibilities the VPNs provided to them.
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