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A Private Internet is a bit like having the public Internet all to yourself. The business benefits of being able to communicate with everyone on-line in the community - typically your organisation including home workers - are similar to the public Internet, but the problems of security, random frustrating slow-downs and unpredictable response times are gone.
Private Internet (MPLS IP VPN)
Like the public Internet, a Private Internet uses the IP protocol for sending voice and data to the correct destination, but unlike the public Internet the technology at the heart of a Private Internet is able to prioritise traffic, such as business-class voice that demands rapid guaranteed transmission times.
The diagram below illustrates the tightly defined design of a Private Internet. The term MPLS is explained below.
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Public Internet
The Public Internet is made up of a huge and growing number of individual computer networks, that are joined together in myriad ways and act as relay stations for billions of packets of information that make their way simultaneously to their correct destination… somehow, and this is where the problem lies.
This diagram(1) depicts the Internet connections between regional networks at the edge and the high-speed networks in the core - confusing isn't it, and it keeps changing!
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A Private Internet is secure and can be engineered to handle different traffic types and applications with the appropriate ‘Quality of Service’ (QoS), which means that business applications like IP Telephony, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Client Server and Virtualisation can be deployed with confidence.
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The miracle is that traffic arrives, but there is no guarantee how long it will take, where it will encounter congestion and delay, and whether it will be compromised en-route.
If you are using the public Internet, your data is in there... somewhere.
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Private Internet Business Benefits
- Secure and private
- Dependable performance for business-class applications, such as Voice, CCTV and critical data.
- Choice of link types to connect the whole organisation, from data centres to home workers
- Option to provide centralised and protected access to the public Internet
- Option to provide secure connections for Partners and Customers.
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Public Internet Business Benefits
- Ubiquitous availability
- Open access
- International reach
- Ad hoc access from Internet Cafes, wireless hot spots and client premises.
- Easy (uncontrolled) access to a wealth of good (and bad) websites, information and services.
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Public Internet VPN
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is the term commonly applied to encryption techniques that create a pseudo private environment for an organisation that uses the public Internet, but a public Internet VPN cannot overcome the problems of shared usage, delays and security threats.
In other words, there is no quality of service, there is uncertainty of delivery and there is always the risk of data or destination addresses being subject to attack from hackers, denial of service attacks, impostors and other malign agents.
Private Internet VPN
MPLS IP VPN is the more technical term used to describe a Private Internet. Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is the underlying technology - which the public Internet lacks - that is able to differentiate traffic, so that business applications run smoothly and predictably. MPLS is also able to create secure private VPNs for multiple organisations (multiple Private Internets) on a shared network infrastructure – such as the AlwaysON Next Generation Network - with no means for users and traffic on one VPN to access users or traffic on another VPN, unless authorised connections have been established by the network operator.
(1) The circular illustration above was devised by the Lanet-vi programme of I. Alvarez-Hamelin to show the hierarchical structure of the Internet.
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