1View will now come as a standard part of every Virtual1 network and, uniquely, we will also provide access to the end customer, meaning our Partners deliver all the advantages of a monitoring solution to their customers, with zero investment.

Key benefits include:

• End user login included under the 1View banner
• iPad, iPhone and Android apps available, for monitoring on the move
• For Partners who run their own NOC, 1View can display entire estate; under our whitelabel solution, this can incorporate networks not supplied by Virtual1
• Enhanced Traffic Application view shows the individual traffic flows and also the networks top talkers.

In addition, Virtual1’s monitoring allows greater depth of investigation of any faults through:

• Proactive alarms which can be updates to show the partner the status of the ticket
• Ability to turn on flows to see which traffic stream / device might be causing issues
• Ability to monitor CPU / memory usage and trigger alarms against them.

New Promotion – FREE iPAD!

To celebrate the launch, we have also launched a new promotion, offering a free iPad to any salesperson placing an MPLS order worth £50k per annum before 1^st July 2012.  Naturally, the iPad will include the 1View app, which allows you access to 1View, wherever you go.

For more information, please contact your account manager.

Tom O’Hagan, Managing Director at Virtual1, commented “Network monitoring is absolutely essential to the effective management of a network. It will allow you to analyse exactly what is happening on your network and answer critical questions – does your network have enough capacity, can it sustain the deployment of future applications, do you have too much capacity, is your network providing good value for your investment. It also allows you to monitor the effectiveness of any network upgrades. I believe it is essential that our Partners have access to this level of information, and that is why Virtual1 is providing this service for free.”

1View offers a wide range of insight and analysis to Partners and end customers, including the ability to drill down and access traffic flow by application and by end user, whilst for Partners who run their own NOC, 1View can display their entire estate – whether supplied by Virtual1 or not.  It also allows for a greater depth of investigation of, and responsiveness to, any network faults through the ability to set proactive alarms against criteria such as CPU and memory usage as well as the ability to turn on flows to see which traffic stream / device may be causing issues.

O’Hagan continued “This is about going beyond educated guesswork to deliver network solutions which truly answer the needs of the customer. By making 1View available to end customers, we are improving transparency and putting control of their network firmly in their hands.

I am delighted also delighted to announce that, to celebrate the launch, Virtual1 has launched a new promotion, offering a free iPad to any salesperson placing an MPLS order worth £50k per annum before 1^st July 2012.  Naturally, the iPad will include the 1View app, which allows you access to 1View, wherever you go.”

For more information about 1View, please contact your Account Manager.

Well, all I can promise is that I’ll do my very best not to break the unwritten rules of tradition and to that end I’m going to wheel out the Olympics in the form of these two chaps.

What you can see here is that there is simply too much athlete to fit through the available doorway.

Happily this puts me in mind of Quality of Service (or QOS for short) and I think keeps me well within the bounds of tradition.

QOS is something that we engineers spend a lot of time contemplating and building on our core and customer networks. It’s designed to prioritise one type of traffic over another and the most common use is to ensure applications like voice and video take priority over emails and web browsing. Why? Because voice and video are very latency and loss-sensitive:  all packets must arrive in a timely fashion, in the right order and without any delay or loss, or the communication will breakdown.

If it takes too long for packets to get from one phone to the other then conversations can fall apart and before you know it everyone has to suffix each sentence with “over”, over.

If some of the packets get lost or arrive out of order then our voice breaks up or starts sounding like a voice synthesiser as the phone desperately tries to work out what the packet should have looked like and come up with its own. Bzzzzzz.

So how does QOS help? QOS is – in its most basic form – a series of queues that are applied to both ends of the circuits which look at the traffic flowing through the pipe. In periods of congestion, it will queue up less important or latency tolerant traffic while allowing the higher priority or sensitive traffic first. This means that it may take a few more milliseconds for your webpage to load or your e-mail to arrive but you won’t notice because you’re currently on the phone to Bob from order admin about that massive deal you’ve just won.

Setting up QOS is often considered a bit of a dark art and to some extent it is, I’m afraid I cannot debunk a rumour that is largely true. There are a variety of “auto QOS” offerings out there and they do a reasonable job but they kind of miss the point, or the real benefit of QOS,  which is that you can choose which programmes have priority over each other, in order to give priority to the applications which are the most important to your/your customers’ business. So to make QOS really work for you and keep your customers happy, you need to work with both the end customer to understand their requirements and the provider to ensure they tailor their QOS offering to the customer’s traffic profile.

Over and out.

Tom O’Hagan, Managing Director at Virtual1, explained the drive behind the launch of the programme. “The Channel has seen a huge amount of change, even in just the last 12 months, and our Partners are looking to us for guidance and support more than ever. We wanted to create an Accreditation Programme that would allow us to continue to treat Partners as individuals, and that would give them the support they needed, when they needed it most.

“This programme has been designed in consultation with several of our Partners, who have advised on what would really help their business, and I believe it will genuinely provide every one of our Partners with the tools they need to win and retain more business successfully.”

Three entry levels – Accredited, Advanced and Elite – mean that the central benefits of the programme, specifically the training and support materials, can be accessed by all Partners, regardless of size.

O’Hagan went on to explain the significance of the Programme:  “This Programme is very important to me and to the whole Virtual1 team. Ensuring that we are a company with which it is easy to do business, that provides the right support for its Partners, that answers their needs and makes their businesses more successful – that is what Virtual1 is about, and this Accreditation Programme underpins everything that we stand for as a company.”

The launch took place at the Investec Spring Derby, where Virtual1 were joined in their private box by some of the leading names in the Channel.  As well as sales and product training, the Accreditation Programme will offer Partners access to dedicated resources, including service management and pre-sales; business development and marketing support; and invitations to a series of networking and hospitality events to be held by Virtual1 over the coming year.

O’Hagan concluded “I am delighted to be launching the Accreditation Programme to our Partners and look forward to finding new ways to add value and advantage to those businesses in the Channel who choose to work with Virtual1.”

In the networking world, we tend to over complicate things, so we especially benefit from an approach that helps us keep tabs on everything.

This is why I like our new 1View platform. At a glance from my desk, a few taps on the iPad or any old web browser, I can instantly view the state of the core network and all the devices my team manages on behalf of our Partners. When things go wrong, there are red flashing alarms and the overview (affectionately called “the big green doughnut”) points out who is affected. The Google map window even lets us see if a particular geography is affected.

So, I have to feel sorry for Dixon’s Retail Group this week with the news that their websites are all down, particularly because there are mixed messages as to the real cause. The latest – at time of typing – is that a fibre break is the underlying cause. But it took a bit of time, a dent in their reputation and I would have thought some red faces before they got as far as working that out.

It doesn’t help that there seems to be a lack of resilience in there too.

We have recently added a quick tech guide to the main approaches we take to deliver logical resilience.  It covers a lot of the basics, such as running more than one router, which is pretty much an essential part of any resilient solution. Ask your account manager if you want a copy. Combine that with access to multiple carriers (one of the key advantages of using a Virtual1 network) or our ability to build a network using one tail provider with inherent resilience built in, and you’ll see why Virtual1 is leading the way in delivering highly resilient networks.

We rely on Juniper and Cisco routers for our customer networks. You could of course take a wires-only solution and get your own device but if you plan to get one from PC World, you won’t be able to buy it online today.

I’ll be seeing you…

James

“Many businesses are still working with low capacity networks; this causes inevitable delays at peak times and, with a network already strained, businesses are unable to justify investment in new applications that could add more value to remote workers,” explained Steve Haworth, CEO for TeleWare Plc.  “This new partnership means that customers can gain more value from the trunks in which they invest. It will speed up email for home workers and the increased bandwidth can be cost offset by moving to IP. The business gets greater bandwidth, has access to value added services and can give home workers improved services, all at a comparable cost to moving from ISDN to IP. This is illustrated byTechTarget’s 2012 IT Priorities Survey which stated that Wireless networks and IP telephony are set to be the most common networking initiatives implemented by UK users in 2012,” added Haworth.

Tom O’Hagan, Managing Director at Virtual1, agrees. “SIP is a growing market. We’ve seen an uptake of over 300% in the amount of SIP traffic running over our network, with customers demanding more capabilities from the end solution. So by having access to the wide portfolio of TeleWare solutions – many of which are unique in the marketplace – as part of the SIP Exchange, we can help our Partners move the sales message to a discussion of business benefits and value rather than competing on increasingly slim margins,” said O’Hagan.

TeleWare’s SIP is now a standard option on Virtual1’s online pricing tool, 1Portal, giving Virtual1 Partners access to enhanced SIP applications which include call recording for mobiles and mobile phone integration with business call handling systems.

Haworth concluded, “Moving to IP interconnects is a natural first step to convergence and unified communications, and these applications invariably lead to customers increasing their capacity requirements substantially over the term of a contract. Being able to source the IP connection, the resilience, the privacy and the applications all from a single provider makes it many times more likely that the business will remain with their incumbent network supplier.”

For more information, please visit the Virtual1 website at www.Virtual1.com, or the TeleWare website at www.TeleWare.com

About TeleWare

TeleWare is the leading UK supplier of communications solutions for the mobile business. TeleWare’s applications are delivered as software services, on-premise equipment or managed services to all sizes of business.  TeleWare customers include over 20% of the FTSE 100 and approaching 21% of the top 1000 blue chip national and multinational companies.

This is in addition to the free router and free installation which we are already offering as standard on all our Ethernet services, so a great deal! Please note the deal is for Ethernet and does not include EFM installations.

And don’t forget that both the February and March offers are still running:

March – 100Mb bandwidth for the price of 50Mb with every Co-location solution sold – available until end of May

February – Free ADSL 2+ backup  with every Ethernet solution sold with the new SRX110 router – available until the end of April.

More information is available from your account manager, so if you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Happy selling

Simon

Virtual1 is one of the country’s leading Ethernet providers, boasting a footprint which covers the whole of the UK. Furthermore, the company already offers significant discounts for its Partners on its Ethernet product, including providing free installation and a free router on all Ethernet installations as a standard part of its service offering.

Tom O’Hagan, Managing Director at Virtual1, commented “When a business invests in its network, cost is one of the key considerations. Installation is one of the most expensive parts of any solution – and often the part which has the most upfront costs. This offer is designed to help reduce the costs for our customers.”

Channel Partners are also still able to take advantage of the Virtual1 March promotion, which offers 100Mb bandwidth for the price of 50Mb with every Co-location solution sold.

The offer does not apply to EFM orders.

Whilst spectators, athletes and politicians are looking ahead with delight, the small business owners in and around London are beginning to get a bit concerned as to how exactly the Olympics will affect them. There are a lot of resources available to help predict the impact on the general logistics but it is important to remember that these are only  predictions, not guides…

Experts have been consulted on how previous city infrastructure held-up and what key lessons could be learnt but, unlike previous hosts, we have a Capital with primarily Roman foundation and shaped by the Victorian clamour for social change.  Higgledy piggledy would be an understatement.

Mostly, the events will be happening in Stratford or in large spaces adapted to accommodate the high number of temporary visitors but when everyone is arriving, leaving or moving about, travel around the Capital will be hampered either by volume or by measures taken to ensure the smooth running of the events themselves – road closures, re-routing being some of the measures already announced.

There are also the Olympic Route Network and Paralympic Route Network, named the ORN and PRN which must at all times be kept clear for transport of athletes, officials and other VIPs.

For the telecoms world, we have a few things to keep in the forefront of our minds. Firstly, no new fibre services can be installed or existing ones repaired if they require civil engineering (ie. holes being dug) along any of the key routes in London and certainly not on the ORN or PRN. The ORN also runs close to the main Telehousing and Internet exchange sites in Docklands. For these reasons, repairing broken circuits may take a lot longer than usual whilst the engineers sit anxiously beside the road, pick-axe in hand, waiting for the athletes to get out of the way.

More general considerations  include noting that changes to the road network mean deliveries will take longer and travel at peaks times may be severely impacted. The restrictions on civils work will also delay repairs to other utilities such as power and water. The increased visitor numbers will increase the stress of the daily commute. In some cases, access to key buildings may be blocked to all but foot traffic. And of course, streaming live events over the Internet will be a popular activity for desk-bound fans – making the internet slower for everyone else…

So what can you do to make life easier?

• Put the events on a big screen in your office so you only use the bandwidth once

• Apply QoS to prioritise your important applications

• Get your remote working policy defined and tested

• Check your bandwidth to make sure you’ll have enough for all those remote users

• Order any new circuits well in advance

• Stockpile any equipment or spares you regularly use

• Consider the effect of your key technical workers being unable to reach any particular site

• Put multiple circuits at key sites in case a failure on one circuit takes longer than expected to restore

• Look at working from another office, away from the affected locations

• Consider putting some services in a co-location space in case for example, power fails at your main site for several hours

We’ve put a full document of advice together: Olympics 2012 – Planning Ahead – and of course we are always on call here if you want to chat through any specific cases.

You may in the end, find yourself in London and at risk of missing that important meeting. Of course, you can always join in the spirit of the games and do a bit of walking or get your running shoes on!

I’ll be seeing you…

James

The networking world is similar. I don’t mean we all run around saving the planet, but I do mean that things are a hell of a lot easier when there is more than one of the key active component needed to save the day.

Lots of things can cause a circuit to fail. As hard as we all try to keep them working, an ill-judged swing of a pick-axe, an NTU with a sudden desire to self-immolate or a thieving toe-rag snipping their way to a copper-based get rich quick scheme are just some of the things that can ruin your day.

When it all goes wrong, sometimes just a little bit of connectivity to get that urgent report out or to make sure you can still reach your customers to let them know you are struggling can give a large dollop of peace of mind. So, what does it take to be prepared? Not a lot really.

We have been delighted by the arrival of the wonderfully named SRX 110H-VA. OK. It won’t win any awards for what it sounds like. In fact, to look at it, you’d be forgiven for thinking the little grey box is lacking in looks. But it makes up for all that with the little socket in the back that means as well as running an Ethernet circuit, much like its smaller cousin, the SRX100B, it can also run a broadband connection. In one ugly little grey box, you have the super hero and the sidekick.

For a few pounds a month on a broadband connection, you can be sure that when your main link fails, you still have options.  For smaller sites, one router, two circuits covers the most common failure causes (other than local power or somebody just switching it off!)

When you need something a little more robust, put two routers in. That way you have removed another potential single point of failure. SPoF is such a nice sound so long as it is proceeded with “we have removed any obvious “.

At Virtual1 we have some typical builds around active-passive BGP, floating-static and even some active-active options for when you have a few different services over multiple circuits. Ask your account manager why he doesn’t think your sites are important enough to be selling you at least two circuits at each one.

Be your own networking super hero.