The days of routing Internet and data traffic to China via London are over. South African companies that conduct business in Asia and PacRim can now look forward to reduced latencies of under 200ms, thanks to Internet Solutions` (IS) new MPLS point of presence (PoP) in Hong Kong.
Todd Schoeman, international VPN product manager for IS, says: "Our operations team has delivered the first MPLS PoP that uses the SAFE cable out of SA for direct connectivity to the Far East. This is a first for a South African ICT company offering MPLS VPN services. This PoP delivers a round trip time of well below 200ms between SA and Hong Kong, which is similar in latency to London from SA and quicker than from SA to New York."
Previously, customers had two options - either an IPLC (international private leased circuit) or being routed via the SAT2 or SAT3 cable systems that run to London and then onwards via other cable systems headed toward the Far East. IPLCs are costly, while routing via London has high latency due to long cable distances.
Now customers can enjoy the following benefits:
* IP VPN connectivity directly to Hong Kong and the PacRim via SAFE cable connectivity.
* IPVPN services in five Classes of Service including data and multimedia Classes (as of 1 February 2005, voice services become legal).
* Security and end to end management of the network as per the IS MPLS offering.
* A redundant service in that SAFE failures have alternate rerouting via London or New York during times of outage.
* Onward connectivity from Hong Kong to any Asia, Pacific Rim country - including Australia and New Zealand - can be achieved via leased circuits and our interconnect agreements with predominant service providers in the Far East.
This MPLS Node will be subject to stringent SLA parameters as is usually the case with IS Network services.
"Our customers who currently have connectivity to the East are going to notice an immediate difference in speed when we cut them over to the new node," says Schoeman. "Bandwidth costs will be lower and IS ensures our backbone capacity is always ahead of the customer uptake. It`s IS`s first footprint in the Far East and if business continues to expand as rapidly as at present, we will expand and add to the eastern infrastructure. With our existing agreements with strategic partners in Europe and the US, we are well positioned to cover almost the entire globe and deliver a world-class service to our customers."
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