UUNET is dressing up its VPN offerings

LAS VEGAS - UUNET last week beefed up its virtual private network (VPN) offerings with the introduction of a new managed global service that offers strong security and networkwide service-level guarantees.

UUsecure, introduced at NetWorld+Interop 99 last week, will support the Internet Engineering Task Force's Internet Security (IPSec) protocol when the service is available in June, and class-based queuing (CBQ) by the fourth quarter.

The company's existing VPN services, which UUNET inherited through parent company MCI WorldCom's many acquisitions, include WorldVPN and the Virtual Private Data Network (VPDN). Neither of these services, which are based on different firewall technologies, is as robust as UUsecure because the offerings do not support IPSec or bandwidth management features.

UUsecure will be a fully managed offering based on Xedia's AccessPoint QVPN routers deployed at each site on a customer's VPN. All of UUNET's UUsecure VPN customer networks will be managed and monitored from the ISP's Global VPN Network Operations Center in Ann Arbor, Mich.

UUNET engineers in the network operations center will use Xedia's new QVPN Builder policy manager to establish VPN requirements, such as approved user lists and the level of encryption that should be supported.

QVPN Builder will also allow UUNET to make adds, drops or changes remotely to the AccessPoint QVPN routers. UUNET isn't the first ISP to deploy Xedia's QVPN product line. Concentric Networks announced its ConcentricQoS VPN service earlier this month (NW, May 3, page 6).

ConcentricQoS also supports IPSec-compliant encryption and CBQ, features that let business users set up various priority queues for IP traffic based on application type, IP address or URLs. The CBQ feature will be available when Concentric rolls out the service next month. UUsecure users will have to wait until at least October for that same feature.

But UUNET's service will have the advantage of global reach. UUsecure will be available in 14 countries by year-end, says Ralph Montfort, product marketing manager at UUNET. Some of the first countries to get the service after the U.S. will be Germany and Canada, where UUNET is already testing the service, he says.

The service also comes with standard service-level agreements (SLA) that guarantee 99.9% network availability from site to site for 10 or more sites. And for users supporting fewer than nine sites, the network availability guarantee is 99.8%. UUNET is also guaranteeing that average round-trip latency will not exceed 120 msec between VPN sites.

The company is backing up its claims with 15% to 30% service credits if it does not live up to its guarantees in a given month.

UUNET's SLA is one of the primary reasons J.D. Edwards & Co. is rolling out a UUsecure VPN pilot, says Dan Lacinski, director of network services at the Denver software manufacturer. "UUNET has a measurable and meaningful SLA that will allow me to hold it to its guarantees," Lacinski says. "I'm getting close to and in some cases exceeding my existing frame relay SLAs."

If the pilot is successful, J.D. Edwards may set up a 20- to 100-site UUsecure VPN, Lacinski says.

In announcing its UUsecure service, UUNET also stated it is trimming its VPN product line. The ISP is no longer selling its ExtraLink, ExtraLink Remote or SafeReach IP products because of product overlap, Montfort says. UUNET and MCI WorldCom Advanced Networks merged earlier this year.

UUsecure is slated for availability in June for $595 per month per 56K bit/sec connection, $1,895 per month per 1.544M bit/sec T-1 connection and $35,000 per month per 45M bit/sec connection.

UUNET: (703) 206-2600