Virtual Computing, Storage and Security for Latin America

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and managed hosting have experienced rapid adoption by enterprise users in North America and Europe. Level 3 Communications is now offering a new set of data center services to enterprises in Latin America.

The countries of Latin America span North America (Mexico), Central America, the Caribbean and the continent of South America. This is an area of over 8 million square miles and 14% of the land surface of the globe that’s home to a population of almost 600 million. It’s also a region where major economic sectors include, banking, agriculture, manufacturing, commodities and tourism.

Level 3 Communications has a major commitment in Latin America, with operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, the United States (Florida) and the Caribbean region. They already have 15 world-class data centers located in the main business centers of Latin America. The connectivity is in place to support communications in-country, between countries and to the rest of the global community. Options include SDH Private Line, Wavelengths and Ethernet Wavelengths, Ethernet Transport, IP VPN, high speed Internet Protocol and more.

What’s exciting now is the opportunity for virtualized services in the cloud to replace local data center operations. Cloud computing, storage and security have the advantages of being quickly scaled, and paid for as an operating rather than capital expense.

Level 3 Dynamic Enterprise Computing offers virtual computing, storage and security elements with dynamic pricing based on resource consumption. Resource availability is assured, but not limited. You can rapidly scale, or burst, to cover unforeseen business activities. All the while, you are paying for what you actually use, rather than having to provision resources that may sit idle just to ensure that you have enough online to keep up with demand peaks.

Level 3 is a major force in cloud computing with the advantage of also being a major worldwide telecom carrier. You have a choice of public, private or hybrid cloud arrangements. You also have the connectivity you need. You can connect to the public cloud through Level 3’s core Internet backbone. For a private cloud, Level 3 offers MPLS, private line and wavelength connections.

One thing you might want to consider is converging your network to support both voice and data. This has the advantage of eliminating the redundant telephone network, but the options it opens up go far beyond simple wiring. Once you’ve substituted IP phones for the analog desk sets you have now, your voice communications will all take place over your local network and the WAN connections you have in place with branch offices and other remote business locations. This lets you bypass the telephone industry toll charges for interoffice calls.

The biggest change of all comes when you abandon the large and expensive in-house PBX telephone system in favor of a hosted PBX solution in the cloud. It works like a virtual server, only for voice communications. The service provider takes care of trunk lines to the public telephone system. All other calls stay on-net. You also have the option of integrating your smartphones and other mobile devices into a unified communications system. You’ll have the same services available in the field as you do in the office.

Do you do business in Latin America, North America or elsewhere in the world and need the high performance connectivity and data center services that help make an enterprise successful? If so, have a look at the suites of cloud computing and networking services available from Level 3 Communications and other top rate service providers.



Note: Map of Latin America image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Managed Security Moves To The Cloud

When cloud services are discussed, it’s most often Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, or Software as a Service. You can now add Security as a Service to the list. Integra is offering a suite of Cloud Security Services, starting with Cloud Firewall Service.

Managed security is attractive to many companies that don’t have full time IT staff or don’t want to get into the acquisition and maintenance of their own security appliances. Instead, they buy this service by the month with the provider installing a security device on the premises. Security in the cloud is a bit different. Not only do you not have to make the capital investment in security hardware or maintain it, but the hardware is invisible to you as well.

Integra Telecom is uniquely positioned to provide this type of cloud security because they are both a facilities based telecom carrier as well as a cloud services provider. Most providers are in one business or the other. The advantage of this dual role becomes apparent when you see just how the security is being accomplished. Integra builds a firewall between the public Internet and your network. What’s different is that they do this off in the cloud, not at the edge of your LAN. A major advantage is that you can also include your VPN or VPNs and MPLS network connections between business locations behind that firewall.

The actual security component is a Palo Alto Networks Enterprise Firewall. Their solution is a rack mounted appliance that supports firewall throughput up to 10 Gbps with up to 4,000,000 sessions and 20,000 SSL VPN users. You could buy one of these and install it in your own data center, but you can gain the benefit without the management headaches by letting Integra do this for you in their cloud.

Integra’s Cloud Firewall Service goes beyond mere port blocking for network protection. Their solution is application aware so it can block unauthorized traffic based on policies for a particular application. Application visibility, control and reporting is part of the standard level of service designed for smaller organizations. The mid-level “plus” service adds intrusion detection and protection, URL filtering, policy customization, report customization, and an optional VPN client for remote users. The premium level of Cloud Firewall Service adds network anti-virus and anti-spyware protection along with file and data content filtering.

Like many cloud services, this firewall service offers the opportunity to increase the protection of your network while reducing the total cost of ownership. Is it any wonder that the cloud is moving in to envelop just about every business? There are also advantages for smaller companies to assure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements without having to staff up a separate security department.

When considering managed security, it is well worth your while to take a systems approach that treats network security as tightly integrated with public and private network connections. Integra is well versed and equipped to provide connectivity as simple as dedicated Internet access and complex as private multi-site converged voice, video and data networks.

Could your business benefit from managed network security in the cloud? Why not get competitive pricing and options for cloud services that make sense for the requirements of your particular organization? Then see if doing it yourself still makes more sense.

Windstream’s Enterprise Level Managed Security

The larger your organization, the more important network security becomes. You have more assets to protect, there are more nodes where something hostile can enter, the consequences affect more users, and you may be under stricter scrutiny from regulating agencies. Examples are HIPAA in the medical field and PCI DSS for financial transactions.

The simplistic firewall solutions that work fine for individuals, small organizations and even some medium size companies are just not sized for organizations with hundreds or thousands of users. They may not be robust enough to meet the threats, either. While some large organizations build an in-house security staff and effectively manage their own network security, others are finding that buying a managed security service is more cost effective.

Managed security for large and enterprise level organizations is a specialty of Windstream. Known as a provider of broadband Internet, phone services and digital television with millions of customers in 23 states, Windstream Communications also offers a wide range of IP-based voice and data services to business and government agencies. They’ve got the scale and expertise to meet the expectations of larger companies. Their newly expanded managed security service for enterprise businesses is well worth a look if your operation has outgrown its network security solution or if you are considering options to cut expenses.

Windstream’s security solution is fully managed and monitored around the clock. They’ve partnered with Fortinet, an acknowledged leader in unified threat management, to offer a highly robust security service. Since Windstream can now provide both the WAN bandwidth and security, they are in a prime position to be able to protect your organization from network intruders.

What do you get with Windstream managed network security? It’s a suite of service that include firewalls, antivirus protection and intrusion detection. Application intelligence detects and prevents malicious traffic gaining network access. You’ll have protection against the nearly continuous onslaught of viruses, worms and phishing attacks that are a fact of life with computer networking. Site to site Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections are IPSec encrypted. Remote access VPN and remote desktop options are available. Secure WiFi options are also available, as more and more companies are including wireless access points. Web content filtering is also included to protect employees from objectionable Web content.

Do you have a need to meet or exceed industry compliance standards such as HIPAA and PCI DSS? Windstream has a managed solution that will ease the burden of this.

If your organization has a need for large scale and robust network security and you like to let an expert service provider hand this for you, or you just want to see if managed security makes more economic sense than doing it in-house, then you should take a few minutes to put in a request for pricing and consultation from our Telarus consultants. It costs you nothing and could be a big money saver as well as offering peace of mind.

Telnes Broadband for T1 Dedicated Internet

Businesses need highly reliable connections to the Internet. What once was occasional use of the Web is now an integral part of doing business. Even non-Internet companies are now Internet-enabled, requiring consistently available bandwidth to connect to their customers and suppliers and even their telephone service provider. The gold standard for Internet connectivity is the dedicated connection. For most businesses that's provided through a T1 data line with guaranteed availability.

Telnes Broadband is an Internet Service Provider or ISP that is focused on businesses, not residential users. In fact, over 99% of their customer base is comprised of business and government users. They've become a popular provider for companies who depend on their WAN (Wide Area Network) connections to the Internet, especially those who need fast installation and connections for multiple branch offices, distribution centers, franchisees, or customer sites.

Telnes Broadband distinguishes itself by providing coverage out of more than 10,200 central offices nationwide supported by over 800 field technicians. A T1 connection consists of a local loop that connects point to point from your business location to a central office and then a port to the Internet via the provider's network. More than 3,200 central offices in major population centers are designated for "core services" that offer the lowest prices and quickest installations. Expanded services cover smaller markets and more remote areas. The beauty of T1 lines is that they are almost universally available.

Telnes provides their T1 service with a 99.99% guaranteed uptime, also referred to as "four nines" availability. They also guarantee network delay (latency), packet delivery, time to repair and installation time as well. One the distinguishing features of business class services versus consumer Internet connections is this type of Service Level Agreement or SLA.

Telnes goes a step further by offering managed services, including managed security and full time link monitoring. They will provide you with a 100% managed firewall that is operated and monitored by their full time security team. Techniques such as intrusion detection, virus and spyware protection, vulnerability scans and network perimeter protection keep pests and predators out, while letting you make full use of the Internet for business purposes.

Once you have a rock solid connection to the Internet, you can do much more than just browse the Web and share emails. You have the option to host your own servers, conduct full motion video conferences, view security cameras, communicate among offices using VoIP telephony, enable remote workers, store and retrieve data off-site, and share data files with remote sites, customers and vendors.

Is your company looking to add T1 Dedicated Internet service or simply looking for a better price or higher performance than the Internet service you have now? If so, let our team of experts help you find the best business broadband services from Telnes Broadband and other competitive providers.