NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: CAROLYN DUFFY MARSAN'S ISP NEWS REPORT 11/10/04 Today's focus: SLAs: BT focuses on reducing customer risk
Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED], In this issue: * BT Americas says it provides more realistic performance ��targets * Links related to ISP News Report * Featured reader resource _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by Cisco Systems Special Report: Bridging the Gap; Enterprise ROI IT professionals today don't indulge in the latest-greatest technology for their own sake; instead they concentrate efforts on projects that are most likely to help achieve business goals. Read about the challenges and opportunities when IT starts 'bridging the gap' and directly contributes to enterprise ROI. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=87948 _______________________________________________________________ SECURTIY SUMMIT: CAN SECURITY BE A COMPETITIVE EDGE? Recently 23 prominent IT executives and academics gathered at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH for a daylong roundtable to address such questions. CIOs and VPs from some of the largest and most well-known companies in the US shared with peers their security fears, goals, frustrations and challenges. Find out more: http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=87917 _______________________________________________________________ Today's focus: SLAs: BT focuses on reducing customer risk By Carolyn Duffy Marsan When it comes to its service-level agreements, BT Americas differentiates itself by providing realistic performance targets that its customers can rely on for network availability and reliability. "What our customers were asking for is to see an SLA that truly allowed them to set expectations about network performance," says Ian Bailey, senior product manager at BT responsible for SLAs. "What we did was to put together a program to analyze the risk by supplier and the risk by location so we could offer truly realistic targets. These targets are based on what they can get from the network in terms of availability and reliability." BT calls this strategy, which it launched last spring, "target-based SLAs." BT's target-based SLAs apply to its Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network, which now features 19 nodes in the U.S. alone. We're looking at BT's SLA strategy as part of an ongoing series on the SLAs offered by top-tier ISPs. In previous issues of the ISP News Report, we've analyzed the SLAs offered by AT&T, MCI, Infonet, Equant, Sprint and Internap. (You can view reports about the other SLAs in the ISP News Report archive: <http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/isp/index.html> .) Some ISPs such as MCI claim to provide 100% availability on their IP backbones. BT instead offers what it says are more realistic performance guarantees for its IP network. "We used to guarantee 100% availability at one point, but any customer who puts the tiniest bit of thought into it will realize that that's not possible," Bailey says. "For our best products, we offer better than five nines of availability [99.999%]. But to do that we have to have knowledge of the infrastructure and sometimes it comes down to the design of the network." To achieve the highest possible network availability, corporate customers have to purchase their network infrastructure from BT on an end-to-end basis, says Kevin Moss, general manager, product management for BT Americas. "We don't have to be the underlying infrastructure end to end, but the customer has to be buying it from us so we have management and control over it," Moss says. "The network design makes the difference between three nines, four nines and five nines of availability." As an example, BT executives describe a customer network that has 200 sites around the globe. Only 10 of those sites have data centers, so it's critical for communications to remain available to those 10 sites. These 10 sites have higher-end services, more redundant links and more stringent SLAs than the other 190 sites. "What customers are really looking for from us is providing the systems engineering expertise to design each site at a cost level and design level that meets their needs," Moss says. "If they have a five-nines location, we'll give them the right combination of ISDN backup and redundant routers and dual access links to meet that level of performance." BT offers immediate service credits for higher-performance sites, and crediting is pro-active for customers that have dedicated service management. BT doubled the credits it offers in March, when it announced more realistic performance targets in its SLAs. However, BT executives point out that they are trying to de-emphasize service credits in their SLAs. "Customers don't want the service credit. What they want is the service," Bailey says. He adds that BT is trying to offer its customers better feedback about what they've done to fix the problem when a failure occurs. In November, BT will launch a new offering called Applications-Assured SLAs in which BT will put probes into a customer's network and offer SLAs that include the performance of key applications. (Please see the previous newsletter for more about BT's Applications-Assured SLAs.) With this new offering, BT expects to be more proactive when it comes to customer service. "By putting probes into customers' networks, we'll be able to see problems and fix them before the customer even sees them," Moss says. "We will be watching their networks and managing the service proactively. And credits can be proactive as well for the biggest customers." What experiences have you had with SLAs for Internet services such as dedicated and remote access, transport, co-location and VPNs? Send me your thoughts at <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and we'll share them with the other readers of the ISP News Report. Hopefully, we'll generate a lively and informative discussion about the SLAs offered today by the major ISPs. RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS More about BT's customer service http://www.nwfusion.com/nlisp818 _______________________________________________________________ To contact: Carolyn Duffy Marsan Carolyn Duffy Marsan is a senior editor with Network World and covers emerging Internet technologies and standards. Reach her at <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by Cisco Systems Special Report: Bridging the Gap; Enterprise ROI IT professionals today don't indulge in the latest-greatest technology for their own sake; instead they concentrate efforts on projects that are most likely to help achieve business goals. Read about the challenges and opportunities when IT starts 'bridging the gap' and directly contributes to enterprise ROI. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=87947 _______________________________________________________________ ARCHIVE LINKS Archive of the ISP News Report newsletter (formerly Internet Services): http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/isp/index.html _______________________________________________________________ FEATURED READER RESOURCE NEW! Website dedicated to Networking for Small Business now available The editors of NW Fusion and PC World have combined all their expert advice, authority, and know-how into a powerful new tool for small businesses, the new Networking for Small Business website. Get news, how-to's, product reviews, and expert advice specifically tailored to your small business needs. 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