UUNET RESILIENCE PROVIDES FULLY 'BACKED-UP' SERVICE TO DEDICATED ACCESS INTERNET CONNECTIONS

Utilising CISCO Technology, UNNET Offers A Service That Overcomes Third Party Failure

UUNET, the Internet services division of MCI WorldCom and a global leader in Internet communications solutions, has announced UUNET Resilience. Combining CISCO's advanced Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) technology with the inherent resilience and capacity of the UUNET Internet backbone, the automated service overcomes the failure of third party hardware, telecommunications technology and reliability.

The service provides leased line customers who have a business-critical reliance on continuity of their Internet connection, such as online traders and call centres (web or "real"), with an added guarantee that complements UUNET's existing Service Level Agreements (SLAs). These provide 100 percent assurance for its own services ­ including backbone, latency, proactive outage notification and installation dates - backed by penalties.

However, third party accident - such as street work or maintenance damage ­ can still 'out' connections to the customer's premises. UUNET Resilience provides customers with two 2500 CISCO routers and two leased lines installed at their site. The CISCO HSRP enables Internet traffic to switch seemlessly between the two routes. Should an outage occur on one of these routes, all Internet traffic will be immediately re-routed until normal operating conditions return. Border Gateway Technology (BGT) simultaneously changes UUNET's routing to match that of the customer's.

There are two variants of the resiliency option:

• UUNET High Resiliency offers the dual-router configuration, routing the secondary leased line into the same UUNET PoP as the first. Extra resiliency is ensured because the second line doesn't hit the same infrastructure within the PoP.
• UUNET Ultra Resiliency again offers the dual-router solution, but geographically routes the secondary leased line into a different UUNET PoP. In addition, while the primary line is an MCI WorldCom circuit, the secondary line is sourced from a different telecommunications provider. This service overcomes the risk of street work damage.

Andrew Spence, product manager, UUNET, said: "UUNET Resilience is a very specialised service. It allows us to go beyond the traditional boundaries of our network, by also embracing the external factors that could affect the continuity of a customer's Internet connection. The increasing criticality of Internet services to business makes this level of resilience an essential feature for some of the leading enterprises in Europe."

Sharon Connell, EMEA product marketing SPLOB, CISCO, added: "We are very pleased to be working with the leading business Internet Service Provider to deliver the business advantage of the latest CISCO technology. As a CISCO-powered network, UUNET has consistently led the provision of corporate Internet services."