New hardware, software make site-to-site e-business services more secure, reliable

Nortel Networks has enhanced its industry-leading IP (Internet Protocol) virtual private network (VPN) platform to make site-to-site eBusiness services more secure and reliable.

Malcolm Bayes, VP of Nortel Networks SSA, said: "As demand for reliable site-to-site connectivity continues to rise sharply, with global VPN expenditures expected to increase 606 percent by 2004 (Infonetics Research), Nortel Networks now delivers cost-effective, site-to-site VPN capabilities through its Contivity platform. The Contivity platform enables service providers and enterprises to implement easily provisioned VPNs for critical intranet and extranet applications."

The enhanced Nortel Networks IP VPN offering - including Contivity 100 and Contivity 600 VPN switches and new Contivity software - can be rapidly provisioned for secure, reliable, site-to-site connectivity over the Internet, expanding VPN scope to cost-effectively link more branch offices and suppliers, and facilitating growth of eBusiness. Contivity 100 and Contivity 600 expand the low-end range of the Contivity family, cost-effectively addressing VPN needs for small branch and small office environments.

"The Contivity VPN solution enabled us to successfully link our business partners as part of our extranet e-commerce network," said Scott Banks, director of Information Services at i2 Technologies. "The new Contivity 100 and 600 platforms significantly reduce our extranet deployment costs, directly impacting our bottom line."

Nortel Networks Contivity site-to-site VPN capabilities, including OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) advanced routing protocol and virtual router redundancy protocol (VRRP), address the most rapidly growing segment of the VPN services market. Enhanced fail-over capabilities between remote sites and improved bandwidth management with DiffServ and priority queuing services guarantee minimum bandwidth for enterprises and service providers for improved quality of service (QoS).

"We`ve seen a tremendous upsurge in demand for site-to-site VPNs from our business customers seeking to deploy intranets and extranets as part of their eBusiness applications," added Bayes. "These new Contivity enhancements enable us to cost-effectively deliver the same performance, scalability and reliability for site-to-site VPNs that our customers have come to expect from Contivity for their remote access VPNs."

Nortel Networks Contivity solution creates robust IP VPNs for enterprises and service providers building managed IP VPNs, providing an `all-in-one` VPN solution for remote access and site-to-site VPN services in a highly scalable and highly available platform. The enhanced VPN capabilities of Contivity enable service providers and enterprises to apply bandwidth rules to each VPN tunnel to more efficiently manage network traffic. By guaranteeing a minimum amount of bandwidth, service providers can deliver service level agreements (SLAs) and enterprises are able to ensure reliable traffic flows between sites.

"The ease of implementing and managing VPNs with Nortel Networks Contivity allows Genuity to provide our multi-national customers with secure global remote access," said Timothy Bowen, VPN and Internet Security Services product manager at Genuity. "Contivity provides us with a flexible and scalable platform to base our value-added services on, providing managed VPN solutions to global enterprises."

Nortel Networks comprehensive IP VPN solution encompasses both industry-leading CPE and network-based platforms addressing varying customer requirements. In addition to Genuity, service providers deploying managed IP VPN services based on Contivity - including Sprint, BellSouth, Global One, UUNet, SplitRock and others - are empowered to extend managed IP VPN services to smaller business sites, increasing their revenue bases. Additionally, enterprises can quickly connect smaller branch offices and remote users to the corporate network, resulting in significant cost savings and improved communication throughout the enterprise.

Each Contivity VPN Switch is a single hardware device that provides routing, firewall, bandwidth management, encryption, authentication and data integrity for secure tunneling across managed IP networks and the Internet. With Contivity VPN switches, businesses can connect remote users, branch offices, suppliers and customers with the cost and performance advantages of shared IP networks and the same level of security and control as private networks.