VON: Global Crossing expands IP service portfolio

SAN JOSE--Global Crossing has joined forces with iPass to add wireless remote access to its Global Remote Connectivity service. Global Crossing Mobile IP Connect will enable enterprise VPN customers to allow their employees to securely access corporate data networks via 40,000 Wi-Fi hotspots and 35,000 broadband and dial access points in more than 160 countries nationwide.

The new service is the latest in a series of IP service expansions by Global Crossing, which earlier this week launched Applications Performance Management for Converged IP Networks, working with Visual Networks, now part of Fluke Networks.

“In 2005, we brought out a lot of features, lots of services on our converged IP platform,” said Kevin Courteau, director of product marketing management for Global Crossing. “We have done that using best-in-class products. With both of these new services, we’ve chosen best-in-class partners. We could have built them ourselves, but they can do it better and provide updates because they are specialty shops in these areas. For speed-to-market and service quality reasons, we believe this is the best approach.”

Global Crossing is finding that customers are ready to buy converged services, he added, as more functionality emerges on IP backbones and the comfort level grows with the quality of service.

“We are seeing dramatic growth in converged IP services,” Courteau said. VoIP traffic was 70% of Global Crossing’s total voice traffic in 2005, up from 49% in 2004. The number of converged service customers was up 250% in 2005 over the previous year, and that number includes customers who bought more than one service, and not just an IP-VPN, he said. IP VPN traffic was up 300% in 2005.

Global Crossing Mobile IP Connect recognizes that road warriors and even extended-day workers using a home Wi-Fi network need access, but also need security, he said. The service provides one level of security to log on and get access, and another layer of security that protects corporate data network access, based on customer-determined security policies and methods.

This is a scalable approach that capitalizes on the iPass infrastructure, Courteau said, and gives traveling workers an easy means to identify available access methods, including hot spots, in major metropolitan areas to which they travel.

Applications Performance Management gives enterprises a proactive means to not only monitor network performance but to determine how effectively network resources are being used and whether capacity should added or shifted. That approach increases network availability and ensures the performance of mission critical voice, data and video applications, Courteau said.

“We deploy [Visual Network] probes at all locations and collect data at one-second intervals,” he said. “This enables you to do future planning based peak period usage and available bandwidth. It gives the IT managed the control over network visibility to be proactive in planning.