Vanco making its mark in U.S.

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: OPTICAL NETWORKING
08/29/05

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* U.K.-based virtual network operator is winning over
  multinationals
* Links related to Optical Networking
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Vanco making its mark in U.S.

By Denise Pappalardo

The telecom business is not an easy one today, although it seems
a little bit more manageable for one company that while light on
physical assets has a growing enterprise customer base.

Vanco is a virtual network operator (VNO) from the U.K. While
not new to the industry, the company is only recently becoming a
player among U.S.-based multinationals. VNOs essentially own no
network assets and instead rely on wholesale agreements with
service providers worldwide. Established in 1988, Vanco has
enjoyed stable leadership and steady growth since its founding.

"Vanco seems to be doing awfully well," says David Passmore,
research director at consulting firm Burton Group. "Last year
the company's revenue grew by 40%. They have quite a niche with
international enterprises that need coverage in multiple
geographic locations."

While Vanco started out as a U.K. and European player, the
company now supports services in 230 countries and has made a
major push in the U.S. over the past two years.

"The beauty of its business is that it's not capital intensive
like a traditional carrier since it's just riding on top of
other people's networks," Passmore says. "They provide a buffer
for carriers that may seem unstable or are having business
problems. They have the ability to pick the providers with the
best performance in any given geographic region."

Bermuda-based Bacardi, with sites in the U.S., fits the
description of the new customer Vanco is hoping to attract. The
spirits producer and distributor started looking for a new
service provider in 2003, says Ron Stan, director of IT, and
selected Vanco to deploy its global 37-site MPLS VPN. Bacardi is
using Vanco's MPLS Matrix service, which offers a single
management view into a user's entire MPLS network regardless of
how many underlying physical network providers are involved. The
deployment is just under way with five sites up and the
remaining expected to be online by mid-September, Stan says.

"We went through a fairly extensive RFP process," Stan says.
"Then we looked at the overall fit of the solution that was
being provided from tool set, analyst rankings, to the financial
stability of the providers. And most importantly, we did
reference customer checks for all providers."

Vanco won Bacardi's business for several reasons, Stan says,
including the completeness of its RFP response, its
presentation, pricing, overall fit of technology, network
management tools, financial stability, industry rankings and
references.

But because Vanco is not widely known in the U.S., the company
faces challenges in winning large contracts. And while Vanco
reaps financial benefits from not owning a network, it also does
not have ultimate control over that underlying infrastructure.

Passmore says customers have to know the VNO they're working
with and be sure they are willing to take end-to-end
responsibility for any faults or problems on their network.
Users are depending on their VNO to fix things rather than
having to deal directly with the provider.

For the rest of this story, please go to page 2 at:
<http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/082905-vanco.html?page=2>

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_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Denise Pappalardo

Denise Pappalardo is a Senior Editor at Network World covering
service providers. She can be reached at
<mailto:denise_pappalardo@nww.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by HP
FROM THE NETWORK CORE TO THE NETWORK EDGE

Traffic management becomes critical as your network
infrastructure expands to support different types of traffic and
users. Most traffic management solutions have serious
limitations: too expensive, difficult to use, and overly taxing
on bandwidth. However ProCurve Networking by HP addresses these
requirements, overcomes the limitations of other solutions, and
gives you valuable insight into LAN performance.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=111687
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

Archive of the Optical Networking newsletter:
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/optical/index.html
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FEATURED READER RESOURCE
IT STAFF SHORTAGE LOOMING

Outsourcing. Automation. Downsizing. The industry has been awash
in unemployed IT pros. But experts are now predicting an IT
staffing crunch is just around the corner, and the implications
for U.S. technology innovation are sobering. What might be
causing the shortage and what might need to be done to prevent
it? Click here:
<http://www.networkworld.com/nloptical5787>
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