Equant adds application-oriented SLAs, consulting services

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: CAROLYN DUFFY MARSAN'S ISP NEWS REPORT
07/06/05
Today's focus: Equant adds application-oriented SLAs,
consulting services

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Equant aims to improve performance of IP apps
* Links related to ISP News Report
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Equant adds application-oriented SLAs,
consulting services

By Carolyn Duffy Marsan

Equant is expanding its suite of consulting services geared
toward helping corporations improve the performance of key
applications running over IP networks, and the top-tier global
ISP is backing up these services with its first Application
service-level agreements.

Equant announced the new services and SLAs in late June. The
services are available in the nearly 200 countries where Equant
does business. Customers of the consulting services and SLAs can
choose either Equant's private MPLS network or its public
Internet service.

In the past, Equant offered traditional SLAs based on IP network
metrics such as round-trip delay, availability and jitter. Now
Equant is adding end-to-end guarantees for how well individual
applications run over an IP connection.

"I'm not aware of anybody else having an Application SLA," says
Dan daCosta, solutions marketing manager for Equant. "I don't
know if anyone else has as much proactive capabilities as we do
to monitor applications and do something about it."

To take advantage of the Application SLAs, customers first must
purchase Equant's consulting services. These services are known
as Strategic Network and Application Predictor or SNAP.

Some SNAP services have been available for a few years. This
includes the Application Performance Analysis, which involves
Equant installing Packeteer devices on either end of the network
to measure the response times of applications. Equant
consultants and corporate network managers use data from the
Packeteer devices to tweak applications or networks to optimize
performance.

Customers can leave the Packeteer devices in their networks for
ongoing application performance analysis. The devices can take
certain actions if application performance falls below certain
thresholds.

Under the SNAP umbrella, Equant also offers Application
Pre-Deployment Analysis. This service, available for a few
years, allows corporate network managers to figure out how a new
application or a new version of an application will impact
network performance.

The two new SNAP services are: Network Performance Optimization
and Predictive Network Modeling. Under the Network Performance
Optimization service, Equant consultants help customers with
network forecasting and budgeting to handle such issues as
traffic growth and seasonal peaks. The Predictive Network
Modeling service allows customers to ask what-if questions about
their IP networks to determine what might happen if a new
application is added or if the network is migrated to a
different technology.

Equant has been offering all four SNAP services to a handful of
beta customers for the past nine months. One European financial
services firm used the SNAP services to test how the company's
network would respond to a significant increase in Web traffic
prompted by a new advertising campaign. A consumer products
company used the SNAP services to determine why its SAP
applications were not performing up to par.

"We got the software developers involved and optimized the
design of the SAP application and matched it up with the
network," daCosta says of the consumer products company. "Now we
have one of the strongest relationships with this customer. We
went from almost losing this customer because they thought our
network wasn't responding to the point where they contact us
before making changes to applications."

Once the SNAP services are engaged, Equant will offer customers
an application SLA. Equant says that interest in its SNAP
services and Application SLAs are coming from companies with
mission-critical applications such as SAP and Oracle.

"Our customers are spending a lot of money on their
applications," daCosta says. "The network is only 20% of their
IT budget, but it can kill their network application or make it
work depending on how it's designed."

Equant says the SNAP services cost anywhere from tens to
hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on what the customer
wants to accomplish. The ongoing Application Performance
Analysis service, with the Packeteer devices, costs between $200
and $500 per month, per site.

"The return on investment for these services is that on the pure
network side, there is optimization," daCosta says. "[Customers]
can increase utilization anywhere from 50% to 70%. Where
customers are seeing a much stronger payback is in increased
productivity because they can speed up their rollout time and
increase their uptime for applications."

RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

More about Equant's new services and SLAs
http://www.networkworld.com/nlisp3011
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Carolyn Duffy Marsan

Carolyn Duffy Marsan is a senior editor with Network World and
covers emerging Internet technologies and standards. Reach her
at <mailto:cmarsan@nww.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Nokia
Empower Your Mobile Enterprise

Nokia believes that business mobility will fundamentally change
the way work gets done-and for the better. To allow the entire
organization to get the most from this paradigm shift in
productivity, Nokia Enterprise Solutions focuses on delivering
increased efficiency through enhanced mobility. Learn more by
downloading this white paper today!
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=107699
_______________________________________________________________
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