Sprint Announces Enterprise-Class Managed Internet VPN Solution for Global Companies - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Sept 20, 1999

Responding to the increasing demand for a reliable, secure and managed Internet VPN solution, Sprint has announced a managed service to improve business customers' productivity over the Internet. Sprint's Global Internet VPN service available in November 1999 will combine the security of private networks with the flexibility of the Internet. The service will enable customers to transact business securely over the Internet with the speed, performance and proven reliability of Sprint's network.

Sprint's Global Internet VPN service, integrates new hardware, software and network capabilities into an Internet solution that enables corporations to dramatically improve the way they use the Internet to connect their dedicated access locations to other dedicated access locations, remote users, partners and suppliers. Sprint will offer Global Internet VPN internationally to over 30 countries with the support of Global One, its worldwide joint venture with Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom.

"Companies are constantly looking for ways to streamline processes and gain efficiencies in the digital economy," said Kathy Walker, vice president of product management, Sprint Business. "Sprint's Global Internet VPN services represents a critical step in enabling the outsourcing of enterprise applications to Internet-based solutions, allowing corporations to focus on their core business strategies."

Sprint will address customer security requirements by providing industry leading IPSec-based customer equipment for site-to-site and remote access users while reducing security costs. Sprint's new security solutions will allow enterprises to efficiently scale their VPNs to thousands of internal and external users through a centralized Web-based management tool. Global Internet VPN service will also support Certificate Authority for fast and scalable authentication which in turn will help facilitate the building of extranets.

As part of the service, Sprint will help customers who want to define and/or refine their overarching e-commerce and security policies as they apply to their intranet, Internet and extranet strategies. Once these policies are defined, Sprint can then design and implement the hardware and software solution required for meeting customers' needs.

The Global Internet VPN service leverages Sprint's world class OC48 based Internet network to address corporate customer requirements for performance by offering enhanced SLAs for delay. In addition, Sprint will be offering industry-first guaranteed service levels against packet loss and delay variation with secure, Web-based tools to track the performance of their Global Internet VPN service and Sprint's adherence to its service level guarantees by 1Q00. Sprint will also expand its guarantees beyond the backbone to cover end-to-end performance.

Sprint also is offering first-level help-desk support that extends to the Internet VPN end-user. First-level help-desk support will also be offered for both the remote access dialer software and IPSec client software.

Also, Sprint's fully redundant operations centers will provide continuous, pro-active monitoring and control of both the communications and security policy functions.

"Sprint's Global Internet VPN service demonstrates how we are responding to customer's demands for secure, managed and performance-reliable Internet VPN solutions," said Tammy Cancela, vice president, large business marketing at Sprint Business. "This new service will alleviate many of the concerns that customers have regarding the shift of their mission critical applications to Internet VPNs."

Sprint has selected Nortel Networks to provide its broad customer base with customer premise equipment to enhance the security, flexibility and management features of this Global Internet VPN offering, which will be available in November.

"Sprint's Internet VPN will provide customers with reliable connections when conducting business online," said Clarence Chandran, president, Carrier Packet Solutions, Nortel Networks. "Nortel Networks' industry-leading Contivity* Extranet Switch provides secure tunneling, bandwidth management, authentication and data integrity across managed IP networks and the Internet -- critical elements to the success of IP VPNs. Nortel Networks is pleased our Contivity* Extranet Switch has been selected to deliver Sprint's service."

For its unique IP clustered technology, Sprint has also selected Network Alchemy, which provides scalability and promises a smooth, uninterrupted customer experience, even during upgrades and periods of extremely high traffic.

"The Network Alchemy solution offers Sprint's customers non-stop clustered networks -- a factor of reliability not available from other Tier-1 carriers," said Kenny Frerichs, president and CEO, Network Alchemy. "The secure global VPN, with its emphasis on reliability, performance and scalability, allows Sprint to deliver unmatched value among their competitors. We are pleased to work with an industry leader such as Sprint to provide this first-of-its-kind service."