Making SLAs more than paper: Brix Networks unveils new verification suite

One of the major problems with service level agreements as they currently exist is that they often are worth about the same amount as the paper they're written on. Even worse, in the case of pacts between e-commerce companies and Web-hosting providers, getting rebates for poor service may not be able to replace lost business.

Brix Networks, a year-old start-up based in Billerica, Mass., this week will unveil a hardware and software suite designed to let carriers proactively measure and verify the real-time, end-to-end performance of their advanced service offerings. Moreover, the company also will announce it is launching a service bureau to provide verification services to carriers lacking the financial or personnel resources to provide internal monitoring.

Aimed at the higher-margin services such as virtual private networks, voice over IP, streaming media and hosting, the Brix System consists of a centrally located database, BrixWorx, and two varieties of boxes called Verifiers, placed at the IP service demarcation point. BrixWorx, which is located in the company's Boston area data center for its turnkey application, contains the software that lets carriers test service from the network layer to the application layer. Regardless of application, the company built the central platform on a Sun server using Oracle database tools.

More important than just testing, Brix Networks sees the system as a way to warn carriers of impending problems.

"SLAs are pretty feeble right now," said Tom Pincince, president and CEO of Brix Networks."It doesn't tell me much about how my packet got from Chicago to Miami. The whole idea here is to build a relationship between two parties."

Though many carriers - including Sprint and WorldCom - provide customers with basic elements of SLA verification, Brix Networks is developing a more proactive model, Pincince said.

"The carriers are revenue-hungry enough," he said. "They don't want another way for the customer to beat them up. And frankly, the customers don't want the money back."

Brix Networks also is trying to distinguish itself by not just pinging network elements, but running simulated services over the networks. In the case of a voice-over-IP service, for instance, the company has an H.323 stack built into the Verifier product, allowing it to provide simulated calls.

Though providing a series of tests that cover high-end service might not be unusual for a small start-up, offering a service bureau model is atypical. However, it does offer smaller carriers more options, said Jamie Warter, vice president of marketing and business development for Brix Networks.

"A lot of these don't have enough operational help,"Warter said."What we don't want to get into is telling people how to test their networks."

According to John McConnell, president of McConnell Associates, a Boulder, Colo.-based consultancy, new entrants such as Brix Networks almost have to pursue the biggest piece of their niche as soon as possible.

"What they're after is the service-verification game," McConnell said. "In terms of whether they're biting off more than they can chew, if they don't do that, I think their chances for success are much less."

It also helps that the vendor is working in a market with plenty of room to grow.

"I don't think they're writing some new, exotic application. It's just a matter of being able to scale it," McConnell said.