7.2 Integrated Network Services

Network service providers (NSPs) have long pontificated about the need to build high-bandwidth, scalable networks delivering many classes of traffic. In fact, the concept of bundled services has fueled both vendor product development and current service provider growth and acquisition strategies over the last decade .

It is no wonder , then, that providing storage capacity as a service tied to service provider offerings is an important revenue stream for the current crop of local and national providers. More importantly, these providers are bundling together an assortment of services that add significant value to organizations. An IT organization can now turn to a single provider for geographically dispersed computing capabilities through collocation services, interconnect network solutions, inbound Internet access, voice services, and now storage services along with a multitude of ancillary offerings.

As we discuss the specific offerings, it is important to understand that the solutions are delivered exclusively as fully managed services. To this extent, the core value created for the IT organization will be similar to that of the complete outsourced model within the SSP framework. Thus, these services provide the most utility when the complexity outpaces the expertise of the staff or when the provider can offer the solution at a lower cost than the IT staff could deliver on its own. However, the integrated network solutions have some very specific and important nuances that create uniqueness in their application. Most notable are the possibilities present in the bundled strategy.

7.2.1 Storage and Networking Services

IP and storage convergence open opportunities and applications for delivering storage services via network connections. Once storage devices are freed from captive server connections, the networked storage infrastructure delivers greater flexibility and manageability. The ability for this traffic to flow across the ubiquitous IP networking infrastructure enables NSPs to offer storage services to their existing customers. The existing nature of these relationships and extensive reach of the service providers creates a win for the IT organization in the form of increased value creation, while the service provider increases utilization across the network, building incremental revenue streams.

Some of the services offered by NSPs include

• Remote SAN

• Remote NAS

• Remote tape backup and restore

• Combined collocation and storage

There is true value to the IT organization in this one-stop shop, which has the expertise necessary to design and deploy the appropriate solutions. All too often, overburdened IT professionals piece together a solution that could be effective, but the staff lacks the clarity to put together the right pieces of the puzzle. For example, an enterprise IT organization building a robust remote tape backup solution a few years ago had the right pieces at its disposal. The backup software was designed to be distance-independent, the hosts had Ethernet connections, the internal IP network connected the hosts together, many vendors offered wide-area interconnects, IP bandwidth was readily available, and the library infrastructure was in place. However, the cost and complexity of putting together the complete solution retarded deployment except for in the largest companies. Now, NSPs can bundle these solutions at an internal cost much lower than that of the single IT group , and these providers can offer a simple connection at an affordable rate to a multitude of end users.

7.2.2 Content Delivery, Capacity Distribution

The NSPs also possess the unique ability to offer a capacity distribution service that effectively creates storage solutions for IT organizations in need of boundaryless computing that spans the globe. The most prevalent instances of this need are Web-based applications for business, Web-based media outlets, and large enterprises with remote offices.

In this solution, the IT organization creates, owns, and manages the primary storage infrastructure. Then, the primary storage connects to the service provider network to take advantage of its national or global facilities' reach for distribution or replication closer to the end users. Companies are not forced to build the internal expertise, construct the remote facilities, or bundle the network services together, and therefore reduce complexity and cost. This heavily repeated theme of this chapter represents the critical decision point whether or not to contract these services and generate the requisite operational agility to win in today's hyper-competitive market.