"With the economies of scale we've got... we can reduce the cost dramatically," compared with traditional approaches to VPN such as ISDN and frame relay, Sykes said.
The Request VPN service is built on the company's DSL access network and ATM backbone. The Cisco routers used in the network allow the provision of VPN as a service, providing security by routing the relevant traffic directly to other locations (either point-to-point or multipoint) on the VPN rather than through an amorphous Internet 'cloud'. By keeping VPN traffic separate in this way, security is achieved without encryption, reducing network latency.
According to Sykes, pilot projects using the service are underway in the automotive and travel industries.
"We see a spider web radiating out to other organisations" involving a variety of functions including ERP, videoconferencing, and sales and support tools, he said. "We've built our infrastructure to support this."
Troy Kohut, senior analyst and partner at Frost & Sullivan, said his firm was predicting "tremendous growth in broadband and VPN".
Eighty-five percent of businesses surveyed by Frost & Sullivan plan to implement a VPN solution in the next 18 months.
VPN vendors have so far largely ignored SMEs, which do not need their own WAN infrastructure, do not have much legacy equipment, but do realise that "solid communications is mission critical" and many are now looking at IP VPN.
Frost & Sullivan itself uses IP VPN. "We have a lot of telecommuters... it gives them great access," said Kohut, adding that the technology is also good for remote offices. "The cost of providing this level of service is [otherwise] extremely high," he said. The technology also means "for the vast majority of SMEs... a lot of the security fears disappear."
Request's VPN system was piloted and tested for over 12 months before being put on the market.
"We don't think there's an equivalent product out there," said Sykes. Request is a strictly wholesale operation, and clients are serviced through a network of over 100 resellers with expertise in particular markets.
