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  Office Technology Today : Got MPLS - North Bay Business Journal

  Small Business of the Year! - Argus Courier
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Article published - Apr 14, 2008

North Bay Business Journal

OFFICE TECHNOLOGY TODAY: Got MPLS? New tech for networks
Carriers replacing older network systems to increase bandwidth

By Loralee Stevens
Staff Reporter

NORTH BAY – If your business has several locations there’s a new acronym in your future. MPLS – Multi Protocol Label Switching – might sound as un-sexy as Digital Subscriber Line or DSL did 10 years ago, but the advance it represents in telecommunications technology could be just as significant. It’s the latest and greatest technology for wide-area networks, traditionally based on services such as frame relay and ATM to connect one local area network with several others. With new applications such as video conferencing, e-mail and Voice over Internet Protocol in demand, wide-area networks have become Rube Goldberg-like contraptions fashioned out of different platforms and protocols. “MPLS is one of the few networks to offer Class of Service, and it’s just as secure, if not more secure, than frame relay,” said Glenn Illian, co-owner of Top Speed Data Communications in Petaluma, a reseller of voice, data and video services. The IP-based MPLS network allows traffic to be prioritized, he said, so e-mail can take a back seat to VoIP or video conferencing, ensuring clear communication. “Most all carriers want to offer Class of Service, so they’re encouraging the migration to MPLS by keeping the cost comparable to the older technologies, and in many cases lower,” he said. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Covad, O1 and TelePacific are among the many carriers offering MPLS. Analysts expect frame relay and ATM to be phased out over the next few years because IP networks like MPLS are less expensive than switching technologies and much easier to install and repair. “They’re self-healing,” said Mr. Illian. “If there’s a breach in the network, traffic reroutes around it automatically instead of having to be rerouted manually.” Top Speed Data is designing MPLS networks for CamelBak in Petaluma, American AgCredit and Summit Technology Group in Santa Rosa and Richmond-based Mechanics Bank, among others. Santa Rosa-based civil engineering firm Winzler & Kelly Consulting Engineers is in the process of rolling out MPLS as it expands its network of offices. The company currently has 11 sites from San Diego to Portland, Guam and Saipan. “We’re growing like crazy,” said Winzler & Kelly IT Director Jason Ramsay. “Our older network architecture for our virtual private network was showing strain.” The clincher for the move to MPLS, he said, was VoIP and video conferencing. “It guarantees quality of service and low latency, and as we increase traffic over our network, that’s what we have to have. If our rollout is successful, we’ll have centralized all our traffic in about a year,” said Mr. Ramsay. Older wide-area networks require each local network to be connected with all the others by separate switches. MPLS requires only a connection to a central cloud. “Opening a new location is much easier and less expensive with MPLS,” said David Zahn, vice president of sales and marketing for TelePacific. The Los Angeles-based competitive local exchange carrier serves Marin, the Napa Valley and parts of Sonoma County. TelePacific rolled out MPLS in 2004, and it’s been widely adapted by subscribers with multiple locations, he said. “Its simplicity and scalability improve our provisioning efficiency, but our main reason for offering it is the closer relationship we establish with our customers who choose it. They’re more likely to come to us for all their telecommunications requirements,” he said. Banks, real estate brokers, retail chains and hospitals are finding the combination of increased broadband and same or lower costs irresistible, said Mr. Illian. Top Speed Data recently brought monthly costs for a large hospital network down from $78,000 to $45,000, allowing them to grow the network, he said. According to Floyd Ridenhour, chief administrative officer at 19-location American AgCredit, moving from frame relay to MPLS was a slam dunk. “We got three times the capacity at considerably lower cost. For the first time, our VoIP is working almost flawlessly. And with the money we saved we invested in a backup DSL system to keep our traffic flowing even if a circuit goes down,” he said. As with DSL and cable modems, customers can invest in their own on-site MPLS equipment for about $2,000 and up, depending on the age of their current system, or rent from the carrier at about $50 a month. “Either way, if your wide-area network is over 3 years old you’re prime for MPLS. It’s an enormous advance for network technology,” said Mr. Illian.

Your Network With MPLS

The beauty of M P L S is that it eliminates multiple routers, firewalls and IT management headaches from all of the remote locations by putting control and management of the entire network into one center, usually Headquarters.

Your Network Without MPLS

To accomplish anything close to an M P L S network right now is a muddle of routers, firewalls, tunnels involving massive amounts of IT management at EVERY location within the network. Relying on old technology is costly, less efficient, less scalable and much harder to manage.

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Small business of the year: Top Speed Data

Article Published - March 15, 2006

Argus Courier

By DANE GOLDEN
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

Top Speed Data president Anthy O'Brien has a simple reason why she gives so much back to the community.

"I'm hooked," she said. "I love it."

The company is being honored as Small Business of the Year at the Petaluma Community Recognition Awards dinner at the Sheraton Sonoma County-Petaluma on March 24. This is the fourth year for the awards, which are given by the Petaluma Chamber of Commerce and the Argus-Courier.

Local organizations that have benefited from the organization's volunteer efforts and donations include Petaluma People Services Center, the Casa Grande High School mentoring program, Leukemia Foundation, Hospice of Petaluma, National Kidney Foundation, Petaluma Youth Soccer, United Anglers of Casa Grande, American Lung Association and Canine Companions.

O'Brien said that the satisfaction and rewards of giving back to the community more than compensate for the efforts of volunteering.

"You start out thinking you're going to be doing all this good stuff, and in the end you find that you get so much back you think, 'Oh, maybe it was about me,'" she said.

One recent rewarding experience was organizing the first Hospice Walk for Hospice of Petaluma last fall, where volunteers handed out information door to door. O'Brien said it was a lot of work organizing the effort, but, "In the end you start walking yourself, and it's really great. People are so happy to get the information, and you hear stories about how Hospice helped them."

But it's not just O'Brien or co-founder and vice president of sales Glenn Illian who volunteer in the community. Most employees do so as well.

"Everyone who works here sort of has the same beliefs, and it's wonderful," said O'Brien. "We do two things, almost all of use volunteer for something, and we all try to go to the gym to keep our sanity."

Top Speed is a hands-on independent telephone company broker that helps businesses find the best voice, data and wireless packages from the various carriers, whether Sprint, AT&T or even smaller providers. O'Brien and Illian have been running it since 2002.

For O'Brien, she also got a lot from the leukemia Foundation's Team in Training. She participated in a century ride, or 100-mile bike ride in Lake Tahoe, raising $6 thousand. Preparation for the ride took five months.

"It was an experience of a lifetime," she said. "It changed my life. Just the whole feeling of what you were doing for medical research and for the people that really needed you and the group of volunteers are just fabulous."

How does she do all the volunteer work and still have enough energy to run a successful business?

"I think the more you do, the more energized you get," O'Brien said. "If everyone in this town knew what you got out of what you get for giving, everyone would give something."

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To learn more about us, enjoy watching a TV interview of Anthy O'Brien, listening to our radio commercial, or browsing our press releases.

You can also schedule your FREE Telecom Audit or click here to TALK TO GLENN.