Connectivity services look at services from an enterprise point of view and incorporate all kinds of services-voice, data, video, and Internet under one basket. With convergence and shift from TDM to IP, the concept of single network providing all services is gaining ground and so the concept of connectivity services is catching up.

Earlier, service providers used to offer services as per the license agreements, e.g., basic service providers used to offer basic telephony and ISDN services whereas NLD operators used to offer leased line services. But large operators now opt for all types of licenses (basic, cellular, ILD, DLD, ISP, international connectivity services like ATM, frame relay, IP-VPN, and MPLS-based IP-VPN). Initially, all the operators were busy with infrastructure deployment but with majority of the deployments complete in large cities, the concept of integrated service became the order of the day.

With integrated service provider like BSNL, Bharti, Tata, and Reliance coming into the picture, service providers are offering the complete bouquet of services for enterprises. This is beneficial for both service providers as well enterprise users. Today, service providers even operate a separate customer-care help lines for corporate customers of connectivity services.

Connectivity services not only look at providing communications services but also includes: design, integration, security, and network management-all as a complete package. Even if connectivity services are provided by integrated service providers, all the services apart from communications services can be taken care of by integrators such as CMC, Datacraft, IBM, HCL Info, HCL Comnet, HP, Network Solutions, and Wipro. So, in some cases, the integrators might compete with and in some cases they may even collaborate with the telecom service providers. So, the integrators in some cases manage on behalf of the telcos and in some cases they manage the telcos-when they are the system integrators for the corporations. Here, integrators have had an advantage over telcos as they understand SLAs better.

Service providers have restructured their organization structure as they feel that it is better to go with complete solution rather then focusing on individual services marketed by different individuals within the same organization. All the integrated service provider provide all kinds of services be it wireless or wireline, TDM or IP, and voice or data. E.g. Tata Indicom Enterprise Business Unit (TIEBU) is the enterprise division of Tata Teleservices and provides services from Tata Teleservices, VSNL, and others. Reliance Infocomm also has an enterprise division and so does Bharti's enterprise division called Airtel Enterprise Services. Even, the incumbent operator is not planning to be left behind and has formed an enterprise division.

Presently, incumbent operators-BSNL and MTNL-have a large market share and all private operators are targeting the creamy customers of incumbent operators. The coming of private operators has increased the quality of service from BSNL and MTNL and the incumbents have become more responsive. In terms of reach, private operators still have a long way to go in comparison to the incumbent operators.

Problems and Solutions

• Shift from vendor to partner: Enterprises are increasingly looking at service providers as partners, so there is lot of expectation from them. They are not only expected to provide solutions but are also expected to help the enterprises in growing their business, just like a business partner would. However, business partners need to share a lot of information and collaborate with each other.

Corporates require seamless broadband connectivity for voice, data, and video applications

Presently, enterprise users have some clues on what the service providers' growth plans are, but there needs to be greater collaboration. Service providers should share their future roadmap so that enterprise users can plan ahead.

• Connectivity services as business proposition: Presently, connectivity services are looked at as a business proposition and not merely as telecom pieces. Today, corporates look at many macro- and micro-level issues before they finalize vendors. Nowadays, decisions relating to connectivity services no longer involve only the CIO, the top management is also involved in these decisions. With more people getting involved, sales/negotiating cycle has become longer. However, one advantage of this is that, there is a lot of clarity at the initial stage, and this helps in better adherence of SLAs. Also, with the increase in deal sizes as well as sales cycles the corporates have become very choosy about their 'partners' as they want to opt for one who can deliver as per their requirement and not what the partners are carrying in their kitty.

Corporate users now look at lot of things like fault management, business-continuity management, service-level management, and lifecycle management before finalizing their service providers.

• Local loop, a big obstacle: The major challenge for corporates is not in the backbone infrastructure but in the last mile. With corporates reaching out to smaller cities, the problem becomes more acute. Corporates are forced to opt only for those cities where the telecom infrastructure is okay. And they are not able to go where there may be a real need or opportunities, except for acceptable telecom access. In majority of the small cities, there is no choice but to opt for BSNL's infrastructure, which has improved over the years.

For local loop, integrators and international connectivity service providers are investing a lot on ensuring that customer service deliverables are achieved by building know-how on how to maintain high uptimes and by following a mix-n-match approach.

• From competition to cooperation: With technologies, applications, and geographies increasing for enterprise users, the complexity of the network is also increasing and so there is need for partners, system integrators, and managed service providers who can work along with service providers to see that all the functions run smoothly. So, the service provider have to pick up the contract, outsource bits and pieces, and see how efficiently it can be managed in terms of time and cost.

Changing Work Preferences Bandwidth needs of enterprises are growing very fast and are expected to grow at the rate of 50 percent or more every year with increased number of applications coming into the picture. With users wanting to use their network anytime, anyplace, anywhere their demands have shifted from narrowband to broadband connectivity, to increase the productivity of the employees. With mobile deployment catching up, lots of mobile applications are also making inroads as they provide higher levels of automation. Applications like sales force automation, and others will come into play but service providers are still tackling with security-related issues.

The real skill of service providers lays in the partners that they possess and how they can join hands, understand each other, and work with unified strength to provide error-free solutions to corporates. Service providers should also focus on educating corporate customers on a regular basis on the new technology options in the market.

• Wireless, still a long way: Presently, wireless is used more in the local loop where speeds are reasonable but they are still problematic for MAN/WAN applications. In the big cities, frequency issues are still there though these issues get eliminated in rural areas. Better wireless technologies like WiMax are being tested but there are still outstanding issues, e.g., cost and benefits ratio of wireless is not appealing to a large range of customers.

• SLA: 5 times 9 needed: The SLA (service level agreement) commitments are critical for any business. With competition becoming aggressive, enterprise users are asking for high uptime and presently majority of large companies are asking for 99.999 percent uptime. So, enterprise users are looking for service providers who can provide SLAs with network uptime of 99.999 percent and also provide redundancies. Enterprises are also looking at service providers for network and bandwidth optimization.

Communications infrastructure in India is unreliable therefore enterprise users opt for three levels of redundancies to ensure that their links remain on. This increases network complexity as well as cost for the enterprise users. If service providers can improve on this front, it can reduce costs as well as increase efficiency for enterprises.

• Proper mix in account management: Account management teams should have relationship managers acting as an interface between the enterprise and the service provider's sales and marketing team. Relationship manager also helps in educating the enterprise users about the various services available. The account management team should also have domain experts and integrators so that it can offer a complete package to enterprise users depending upon their particular requirements. This also helps in keeping the costs low and leveraging on existing infrastructure. The team should also have technology people as it will give the team a 360-degree view.

• Business intelligence not reporting: While large corporates in financial sectors are deploying their own NOC for confidentiality reasons, majority of companies use network integrators' network management facilities. Network complexity has led to service providers doing most of the work for enterprises. Today the corporates are more interested in monitoring their networks and ensuring that the SLAs are adhered to. The reporting cycles have shifted from monthly to weekly to daily and now to online. Enterprises are looking at network management facilities that can: offer all the requisite tools so that optimization can happen at all levels and that can manage facilities remotely. Using network performance management tools and reports, enterprise users are also interested in knowing what kind of applications are creating problems, where the bandwidth is being choked, where is there a need for additional bandwidth.

• Shift from TDM To IP: Enterprise users are opting for IP-based technologies as they provide flexibility as well as increased reliability. In majority of the cases it also leads to lower total cost of ownership (TCO). So, the move is towards IP-EPABX, IP-VPN, and MPLS based IP-VPN, IP-SAN, and VoIP solutions. On the IP front, enterprises have moved from the pilot stage and are now looking more on the deployment aspect.

But the real challenge is how to maintain the legacy applications or services and also migrate to new technologies, both at the same time.

• Prime concern: security: Security is the agenda number one for enterprise users. And with increased focus on IP and wireless, corporates are more concern about it as they are more open in nature. With increased reliance on network and increasing number of applications, security is vital for enterprise. Security has to be implemented at different levels to make the environment secure.

MPLS Allows Service Providers to Deliver IP-VPN Services to Business Customers Source: Cisco Systems

Some service providers are implementing security operating centers (SOC) which will be connected to the network operating center. This will help in remote security management of the network and providing security and management at the same time.

• Building trust: Service providers should build trust through transparency by providing the right information at the right time to corporates. Service providers have to invest in tools so that information can be provided in a proactive manner. During the finalization of deals, prices for different services should be unbundled so that corporates can negotiate a better deal.

Corporates are not interested in better packages, they want to opt for better financial packages.

Technology Trends
• MPLS based IP-VPN service: Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) was developed as a packet-based technology and is rapidly becoming the key for use in core networks, including converged data and voice networks. MPLS does not replace IP routing, but works alongside existing and future routing technologies to provide high-speed data forwarding between label-switched routers (LSRs) together with reservation of bandwidth for traffic flows with differing quality of service (QoS) requirements. MPLS uses a technique known as label switching to forward data through the network.

IT managers in all verticals irrespective of size are facing challenge of supporting an increasingly complex enterprise network with increased requirement of voice, data and video applications and the challenge is how to integrate them. The IP-based VPN has emerged as a viable solution for meeting these challenges. To deliver IP VPN services profitably, many service providers in India are enhancing their core networks by deploying Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology. MPLS blends the intelligence of routing with the performance of switching, enabling service providers to extend the capabilities of IP to large-scale VPN implementations.

MPLS based IP-VPN provide lot of benefits to service providers as well as enterprise users. These are: improved customer retention and increased profitability by offering cost-effective and flexible VPN services based on IP and MPLS; entry point for selling managed IP services in addition to access; ability to customize VPN services for corporate customers, improved profitability through reduced costs for VPN service provisioning and network operation; flexibility to change the internal network architecture quickly for efficient use of resources; and support for network scalability to deliver customer-specific, on-demand services.

The IP-VPN service is ideal for enterprises (large, mid-sized, and small) as they have strong requirements for IP-VPN design, including domestic and international connectivity, strong security, and integration with existing legacy network. The service provider must be able to quickly add new sites, providing strong security and service quality backed up by SLAs.

MPLS blends the intelligence of routing with the performance of switching, providing significant benefits to networks with a native IP architecture as well as those with IP, ATM, or a mixture of other Layer 2 technologies. MPLS technology is critical for creating scalable VPNs and delivering end-to-end quality of service (QoS). It enables service providers to make efficient use of existing networks to meet future growth and support rapid fault correction of link and node failures. The inherent MPLS traffic engineering and fast reroute capabilities can significantly improve network service quality by providing the ability to maximize network bandwidth and reroute traffic rapidly in failure conditions within the core network.

MPLS technology helps to deliver highly scalable and differentiated IP services end to end with simpler configuration, management, and provisioning.

IP-VPN
It is the hottest WAN technology today. IP-VPN is 'an emulation of a private wide-area network (WAN) using IP facilities, including the public Internet or private IP backbone'. From this definition, it follows that an IP-VPN could either be CPE-based or network-based. A VPN can be built on any of the layer-2 technologies, including frame relay (FR); however, that would just be a VPN rather than an IP-based VPN. The primary advantages offered by IP-VPN are based on two parameters-first, IP-VPN is a connectionless service in contrast to the layer-2 ATM and frame relay services, and second, IP-VPN is a ubiquitous (any-to-any) service in contrast to the point-to-point inherent feature of an ATM/FR service.

IP-VPN services are recognized as the next evolutionary step for corporates that are currently using the more expensive FR or ATM-VPN services, private line services, or the public Internet for their connectivity needs. Also IP-VPNs are expected to increasingly replace CPE-based VPNs as these services offer more security than the Internet, cost-effective any-to-any connectivity, and the capability to carry multiple types of traffic for customers who want an integrated network solution. According to a recently released report by In-Stat/MDR on IP-VPNs, a major driver for uptake of IP-VPN services was found to be the increasing momentum towards convergence of voice, data, and video traffic on a network-based IP-VPN service. IP-VPN also has the ability to offer more innovative offerings such as SSL remote access, Wi-Fi hotspot VPN access, and multicasting over VPN services. Event though such services are not available in India as of now, most services providers are expected to offer them soon.