Digitization yes, but not without networking

For a long time there was only one Queen among networks in companies.

An expert comment by Claus Haiden, Vice President telecommunications, T-Systems Austria. MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) as Internet-based technology, widely used in wide area networks (WAN) due to the high, guaranteed transmission performance and security. Today these classic networks face new challenges. On the other hand, the amount of data in company networks increases, each application places different demands on the network and being without Internet is not possible anymore.

Cloud computing, networked machines and products as well as digital collaboration lead to more and more data transfers via company networks. If companies still want the same network quality as before, they need to book bandwidth - and that costs. At the same time, the variety of applications and data transfer requirements is growing with Voice over IP (VoIP), Cloud services and mobile network access. In parallel, the data for the voice transmission via VoIP in the WAN require low latency times.

The future belongs to hybrid networks
Virtual private networks (VPNs) are advancing through the Internet. They network machines, vehicles and products, connect public clouds and mobile users to the corporate network, are available almost everywhere, and cost less than MPLS connections. However, they are far from achieving their quality because they do not allow traffic prioritization. A high network utilization can slow down transmission, especially internationally. Factors such as line length and their technology, copper or glass fibre have a greater impact on MPLS.
Neither a pure MPLS network nor an Internet VPN really meet all the requirements of companies, so corporate networks of the future need a hybrid approach. The MPLS network is also used as a backbone and Internet VPNs provide an alternative, mostly on secured tunnels (IP-Sec). Depending on the requirement or availability, the type of connection is different: only via MPLS, only via Internet or both. In a recent study, market researchers from Radiant Insights point out that the use of MPLS-IP-VPN services is expected to increase by combining video, voice and data on a platform, and the ability to provide scalable bandwidths.