IP VPN's offer a wide range of advantages,
which can be summarised by the following key reasons for choosing
an IP VPN solution:
Cost effectiveness
Cost savings are a great motivator for enterprises adopting IP
VPN's in today's economic environment. Previously, network connections
between sites required a dedicated circuit or private virtual
circuit (PVC). IP networks provide access to the entire IP network
for one site for one price - with reduced connectivity charges
due to the sharing of infrastructure. Mobile or remote users can
be migrated to an IP network from private dial-up networks that
are otherwise cumbersome and costly to maintain.
Reduced total cost of ownership
With IP VPN's you buy capacity on the public Internet, and isolate
your traffic using CPE-based or network-based security to create
your IP VPN. This reduces your costs because you don't need to
over specify your network to ensure capacity. Nor do you have
the capital or revenue costs associated with maintaining and developing
a private network, as these costs are shared with all users of
the public network.
Improved security
When your IP VPN is created, you segregate your traffic by encrypting
it. This secures your data against unauthorised third party access
or manipulation. Such intrusions are very difficult to detect
even on a private-circuit-based (rather than IP VPN) network.
This level of security also allows you to control site access
on a user-by-user basis.
Ease of extending private networks to remote locations
Enterprises seeking to operate in rural or far-flung locations
may be unable to afford the installation and usage costs for private
networks. Using a VPN on a mixture of networks may be the only
feasible way to provision services, particularly where budgets
are limited.
Effective platform for web-enabled back-office applications
Enterprises are increasingly adopting applications that make heavy
demands on bandwidth, as they have been designed for Internet-like
networks. IP applications like dial-in for remote access, video-over-IP,
IP telephony, and audio- or videoconferencing can easily be bundled
on top of basic IP VPN solutions.
Speed of implementation
In contrast to the establishment of a customer's own wide area
network (WAN), most of the infrastructure for an IP VPN is already
in place. This enables rapid deployment and flexible development.
