Shadow VLAN offers interconnect resiliency for Wholesale Ethernet, EoFTTC and EFM connectivity. TalkTalk Business is making this more accessible by reducing the cost as well as making it simple to order in their MyNet portal. Partners can see the benefits from just £10per connection, per month.
The Channel and many Service Providers are continuously failing to recognise that there is too often a single point of failure in the way networks are being designed; the interconnect between the Wholesale Ethernet Provider and Service Providers network. If this is interrupted, through a power outage or an issue with network equipment, then all traffic that uses that interconnect can come to a grinding halt. The impact of this can be disastrous for both the provider and the end their customers.
Shadow VLAN addresses this by instantly re-routing traffic to a secondary interconnect in the event of the primary one failing. Shockingly, over 90 percent of Wholesale Ethernet services are currently being ordered without this protection. This isn’t entirely their fault, some well-known providers do not even offer this business critical feature. This shows that there is still work to be done in terms of educating Service Providers and the wider Channel on the different types of resiliency available to them.
Pete Tomlinson, Commercial Director at TalkTalk Business said: “We all know the impact an outage can have in terms of disruption, cost and reputation, so it is simply wrong that so many people are leaving themselves vulnerable to this. Today marks the start of an educational campaign where we want to make this level of resilience between, network operators and Service Provider the norm. I am really proud of the work the teams have done to make this easy and affordable for the benefit of all our partners and their end customers.
Whilst Shadow VLAN needs to be ordered by Network Service Providers who consume our Ethernet connectivity through an interconnect, it is just as important to Resellers who take connectivity from Wholesalers. As without that resilience, their customers’ connectivity could be exposed to a single point of failure resulting in potential huge losses.