[vpn] How many are considering managed services?

[Christopher Gripp]

Well,
We do the outsourcing and our model is focused entirely on the Remote
access piece.  We leave the Anti-Virus, URL filtering, etc to the
company.  We have been approached to provide similar services for
existing customers and may include them sometime in the future.

I would say outsourcing is more common among larger enterprises than in
the small to midsize companies.  For example, we have mostly F1000
accounts.  The economies of scale are more evident when you are talking
5000 users as opposed to 500.  Although, we do have customer even in the
100-300 user range also.  

Certain companies, and it is more of a philosophy I think, prefer
outsourcing as much as possible while others have the normal
apprehensions regarding the matter.  One of the benefits most managed
solutions don't provide is a large footprint.  For instance, if you go
with AT&T or Qwest to manage the VPN then the only users they will
support are those with their service.

We have contracts with numerous providers across the country and manage
connections for all of them.  We also provide the provisioning services
for the telecommuter line if needed.  So, whether you have pre-existing
service or need to qualify for and order new service we do that piece
too.  That is probably our biggest differentiator.  We are essentially
provider and vendor agnostic.  YOU decide what you want and we do all
the dirty work; design, test, order, deploy, support (24x7), reporting
on SLA's, etc.  Things that an internal group would probably prefer not
to deal with.


Christopher S. Gripp
Systems Engineer
Axcelerant


-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Carlson [mailto:carlsonmail at yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 7:28 AM
To: vpn at securityfocus.com
Subject: [vpn] How many are considering managed services?


Hi all,

Quick poll (and discussion) for the list:

How many are considering or currently have managed
security services?

While most of the participants that publish to this
list are technical and no doubt would elect to manage
their own VPN, you probably are feeling the business
pressures and reasons to outsource:

- 24x7 support and monitoring
- keep up with security events and patches
- get new versions and features more quickly
- cost savings
- etc.

Is this a common theme in enterprises today?  I think
the VPN vendors and ISP people lurking on this list
would be curious, too!  :-)

Also, if you're considering or have managed security
services from your ISP or dedicated MSP, what other
services are you thinking about?

- Anti-Virus
- URL Filtering
- Bandwidth Management
- etc.


This list has been a little quiet (I know it's summer
vacation time), so I'd thought I'd perk it up with
active discussions!

Thanks all!

Chris
--

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger
http://phonecard.yahoo.com/

VPN is sponsored by SecurityFocus.com


VPN is sponsored by SecurityFocus.com