CABLE & WIRELESS: Global Solutions, Single Source

 Enterprise networking is changing at a breathtaking speed. Today’s enterprises require data connectivity which can carry essential applications such as global workgroups, intranets, e-mail, remote printing, and client/server networks for the new crop of global organizations.



With telecommunications becoming a strategic operational and marketing tool, multinational companies are choosing to buy bandwidth capacity rather than build their own networks. In addition to cost savings and access to most modern technology, this flexibility gives them increased business agility to seize opportunities and respond nimbly to new competitors anywhere in the world. 

Besides, these companies now need to link their sites with a service that has enough bandwidth and flexibility to meet their business needs–now and in the future. A service that understands data, and can transparently transmit all the protocols networks use; and a supplier who will take responsibility for their network–across the globe. 

This is precisely where the UK-based Cable & Wireless (C&W) comes into the picture, with a high-speed network and IP-based technology, offering global managed data service.

The company has recently partnered with Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) and the alliance intends to offer global managed data network services providing a comprehensive suite of seamless data network solutions on a global basis over a frame relay backbone.

“To service global customers, you need to have a global reach–not just representation in the corner of the world but in all of the emerging markets in between. And we have over 125 years of experience in delivering international solutions with operations over 50 countries and provide a network of solutions that is truly global, “ says Sunanda Das, general manager (India), Cable & Wireless. He added that the nature of enterprise networks today is such that there is a greater need for network connectivity among a much larger end user population. These diverse users and systems need to communicate with the host and database sites and with each other with varying degrees of frequency. 

“Moreover, the new applications in the marketplace demand much higher bandwidth because the amount of traffic generated by them is so much greater,” he says.

“This kind of diversity requires a mix of ways to handle it. Prioritization, differing urgencies, and support of bursty traffic are all requirements for contemporary networks. The traffic

characteristics of the new applications in today’s enterprise are different from those of traditional applications in another way. Whether it is moving documents and files between locations, transferring an image, or accessing a remote server, these new applications tend to be “bursty” and periodically demand higher bandwidth, “adds Raj Metrani, sales manager, C&W.

He points out that burstiness occurs when a serving facility, which might ordinarily support a relatively homogenous and even level of traffic, is accessed by a transaction, such as image transfer or a database file, that requires all or much of the available bandwidth for a brief time.



Cable & Wireless rightly claims that the global managed data service, with its global reach, wide range of CIR options and sustained bursts up to access speed, is ideal for all LAN to LAN connectivity requirements.Another service, which C&W along with VSNL has introduced in India, is its secure dial service. This basically is a global remote LAN access server, which provides remote users with secure, reliable access to information systems on a corporate LAN from points of presence world-wide.

Designed specifically for teleworkers, mobile/field-based staff or small offices, and accessible via PSTN, ISDN or GSM, secure dial service provides a comprehensive remote LAN access solution.

Further, secure dial service supports two types of IP tunneling, namely, ATMP and PPTP. ATMP provides tunneling across the secure dial service network from the point of presence one dials into, to the point of presence of the nearest LAN. This would mean that users’ traffic is kept logically separate to other users’ traffic as it crosses the network. PPTP provides end-to-end tunneling all the way from a user’s laptop PC to the Windows NT server sitting on a LAN. This also encrypts data to provide the highest level of security. 

C&W claims the probability of blocking on a secure dial service is 0.03 percent. This equates to 97 percent of the calls in the busy hour being allocated a port. In addition to constantly monitoring the service quality, C&W regional service management centres provide a 24-hour, 365-day service to the network managers for the reporting of service faults, billing inquiries, and other service/provisioning issues.

Users can have a special username and password, which allows them to dial in to secure dial service and to change their own password. Network managers can also have a special username and password which enables them to add new usernames, delete old usernames, re-instate users who have forgotten their passwords and had their username disable, and to change users details such as CLIs, and to swap them between different LANs.