BT lifts lid on iVPN managed service

BT has introduced its first 21CN service for global organisations

BT has officially unveiled its Intelligent Virtual Private Network (iVPN) service, which it said will help organisations with a global reach to save costs and better manage their infrastructure.

Available immediately, the new service improves productivity by managing and prioritising traffic over customer networks spanning multiple sites around the world, and is primarily aimed at new customers, according to BT head of marketing for network services Claire Ritchie.

"We see this as a huge step, because it's the first global service on our 21st Century Network rollout, a huge step because we will be able to offer an enhanced customer experience," she said.

The company is currently developing tools to migrate existing customers that operate wide area networks on BT's Multi-Protocol Label Switching service to iVPN over the next 18 months, Ritchie added.

Ian Pheby, product manager for iVPN at BT Global Services, said that customers will see "significant enhancements", including certified helpdesks in local languages, and a changeover from regional to site-to-site service level agreements.

Benefits include lower cost of ownership, increased visibility of network usage, faster delivery of service and more accurate billing, according to BT.

However, Pheby was unwilling to disclose pricing details, saying that costs will depend on location and the chosen level of service. It will also depend on required bandwidth, which could vary from 64Kbit/s to 2.5Gbit/s. "In pricing, we will be competitive with the market," he said.

BT is aiming to combine iVPN with other BT services, such as internet-based access, application optimisation, voice management, videoconferencing and unified communications.