http://netvouz.com/GollyJer/tag/research?feed=rss GollyJer's bookmarks tagged "research" on Netvouz http://www.onestopclick.com/research/buyers-guides/mpls-buyers-guide-page-3/145_36.html It is worth asking prospective providers the following questions:Who owns the backbone?Which 3rd party local loop carriers will they be using the 'tail circuits'? Remember, this is where the majority of problems are likely to occur.Ask to see a list of references of similar companies that have deployed MPLS. GollyJer Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:48:55 GMT http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid7_gci1167598,00.html Key questions to askAs you interview potential service providers, be sure to address the following key issues:Does the service provider track and monitor the entire network?Can it secure its own network traffic and manage priority traffic across other networks?What are the performance thresholds for network latency and availability?How is performance measured and delivered to you?Are there procedures for on-the-fly load rebalancing, security assessments and regular backups?Can its data center support your requirements for physical and network security, capacity, availability, operations and backbone connectivity?How quickly will the provider respond to business change?What are the terms if the network goes down or the level of service is not maintained? GollyJer Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:56:35 GMT http://www.techworld.com/networking/features/index.cfm?featureid=3360&pagtype=samechan Three precautionsAnyone in the market ought to consider at least these three simple precautions when MPLS is in play:Ensure that responsibility for network traffic labelling is assigned. This means more than watching as the carrier's sales rep nods and says it's handled. Just as access control lists between internal VLANs are necessary for meaningful segmentation, someone needs to define label assignment and distribution rules before data is forked over to the MPLS cloud.The contract or service-level agreement should include a description of suitability, not just performance metrics for the connection. This means the usual contractual disclaimer "We're not responsible for how you use this connection" ought to be extended or replaced with a bounding statem GollyJer Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:59:30 GMT