MCI's Private IP Service Now Delivers Even More Reach

MCI, Inc. (www.mci.com) announced service area expansions and enhancements to its Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) private network-based Virtual Private Network (VPN) service.

These enhancements to MCI's flagship service, MCI Private IP, will help customers meet growing requirements for secure, reliable and flexible connectivity.

Private IP is now available directly from MCI in Kuwait, South Africa, and Turkey and through additional partner agreements in Brazil, China, India and Mexico. Additionally, the service now features Ethernet Access in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK; and adds access via MCI's IP network across Europe, as well as new application awareness features and WAN analysis reporting.

One company benefiting from these enhancements is Storagetek, the leading provider globally of enterprise information lifecycle management solutions. MCI provided a fully-managed Private IP MPLS-based solution across Europe as part of a global migration from Frame Relay.

"MCI's solution offered a fully resilient service with the ability to upgrade or change bandwidth easily and with minimal disruption. It also enables us to leverage future Voice over IP (VoIP) capabilities and provides Storagetek with the ability to communicate efficiently within the 'any-to-any' global network cloud", said Kieron McGarry, IT Director, Storagetek.

Ethernet Access into the MCI MPLS network gives customers additional access flexibility and the adaptability to undertake easier upgrades and downgrades.

"MCI is committed to developing products and services that will enable customers to gain real competitive advantage from the next generation of communications technologies," explains Roberta Mackintosh, Senior Director, Products, Pricing and Analysis for MCI Europe.

Business applications put ever-growing requirements upon their WANs. To support this, MCI is adding two new features that enhance the application awareness of the Private IP Network.

A new VRF Lite (VPN Routing & Forwarding) feature allows for multiple VPN routing and forwarding features on a single edge router enabling customers to cost effectively segment their network, making provisioning and network management easier compared to a multiple customer edge router solution.

Finally, MCI has begun offering WAN Analysis Reporting powered by Concord, providing customers with enhanced visibility into system efficiency and critical resource availability, as well as the ability to quickly identify network degrading conditions and proactively plan for network capacity.