MPLS VPN
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
Executive Summary
With over 18 years networking services experience, Internet Solutions (IS) is in a position to
provide complete network and infrastructure solutions. IS is Southern Africa’s most established
and experienced converged communications Servic e Provider.
Through the IS Multiple Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) Virtual Private Network (VPN)
customers can integrate their network with a trusted and resilient IP -enabled service that
supports all collaborative enterprise applications – Multi Media (voice and video) and data –
anywhere in the world. The IS MPLS VPN offers a secure foundation for increased operational
efficiency through quality of service mechanisms backed by measurable Service Level
Agreements (SLA’s).
With increased complexity of network management IS is in the best
position to provide an end to end managed network service.
IS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dimension Data and is certified as a level 2 contributer to
BEE (110% compliant). IS delivers converged communications network services to over 80%
of South Africa’s top businesses, small to medium sized enterprises, listed companies and
local and national Governments.
Overview
The IS MPLS VPN enables a secure end-to-end enterprise communication by utilising next
generation core MPLS technology. IS is in a position to offer medium and Telco agnostic
connectivity to the IS MPLS network via our strategic relationships with various Telco
providers.
This offering provides the customer with a choice of connection mediums and
enhances redundancy in order to maintain business continuity.
IS is also able to self
provision, having received an Electronic Communications Network Service (ECNS) license in
2009. This enables IS to deliver fully aggregated telecommunications services to the South
African market.
IS MPLS VPN network incorporates Quality of Service (QoS) built within the foundations of the
network. IS has deployed an MPLS VPN infrastructure which is AVVID (Architecture for Voice,
Video and Integrated Data) compliant.
This ensures the customer’s critical applications
receive the resources they demand by prioritising different types of data according to the level
of importance, thus ensuring no degradation in user experience.
The IS MPLS VPN solution meets the infrastructure needs of a customer’s network by
replacing expensive purchases and ongoing maintenance of a Wide Area Network (W AN)
infrastructure with a specialised, comprehensive service offering. Instead of relying on pointto-point circuits, the IS MPLS VPN solution makes it possible to take advantage of an any to
any, resilient, managed packet switching backbone, which supports a quality of service
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MPLS VPN
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
enabled network. Benefits include cost savings, improved ‘uptime’, insurance from obsolete
technology, reduced risk and a truly scalable infrastructure.
Network Descriptions
IS has grown swiftly from a supplier of internet access to a provider of next-generation
services. Using the IS SuperCore infrastructure as the backbone , IS is able to offer a range of
converged communications services on a global scale. Due to customer demand, IS expanded
the IS Local MPLS VPN Network coverage beyond South African borders in order to provide
Global Reach. The IS network footprint comprises of 14 Local, 5 International and 9 African
MPLS VPN Points of Presents (PoP’s), these all form part of our fully meshed and resilient
backbone. Through both the IS MPLS VPN local, international and African PoP’s together with
our strategic partners IS is able to offer an end to end MPLS VPN to anywhere in the world.

Local footprint
IS has MPLS VPN nodes in all the major metropolitan centres around South Africa.
Through this deployment, businesses, government agencies and other entities will
benefit by having a local PoP to connect to, thereby reduc ing last mile infrastructure
costs and increasing availability with sound business level agreements. Connectivity
from the IS MPLS nodes back to the SuperCore infrastructure will then terminate at
different points and will use diverse mediums to enhance re siliency. These locations
have primarily been based on customer demand and are located in: Johannesburg
(Rosebank, Bryanston, Melrose Arch), Cape Town (Bree Street, Pinelands), Port
Elizabeth, East London, Umhlanga, Richards Bay, Bloemfontein, Pretoria, Ge orge,
Nelspruit and Polokwane.

International reach
As far back as 2002 we began building the IS International MPLS VPN infrastructure to
accommodate our customers who had business requirements to connect sites in various
Global destinations. The IS International MPLS VPN is an extended service of the VPN
service and exists to provide extended Global reach for both South African customers
requiring extended reach to geographically diverse locations requiring VPN termination
in South Africa.
These locations are London (Telehouse East and Heathrow), New York - 25 Broadway,
Hong Kong - Wang Chain, and Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur. Further to this IS established
a Satellite Hub in Fuchstadt Germany to land customer Satellite links, predominantly
from Africa, and terminate these links into the IS MPLS VPN cloud in Europe.
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MPLS VPN
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

African reach
IS is embarking on an African expansion strategy with the aim of increasing the IS
MPLS VPN footprint to service our corporate and Multi-national customers with an
African presence. To date, network services have been provisioned through the use of
VSAT services out of our European and South African teleports. VSAT is still the
primary connectivity medium due to the lack of carrier grade wireless and terrestrial
services in commercially viable regions on the continent.
The greater strategy is one where IS extends its MPLS network on terrestrial circuits
where available with in-country PoP’s in regions where we are able to leverage the
SAT-3 cable and cross-border IPLC’s. To this end, IS has made significant progress in
our persuit of a cabled, pan-African network. All the IS MPLS PoP’s located in the
respective countries are provisioned through partnerships with the incumbent Telco’s
or licensed providers. Where possible, VSAT is utilised to provide redundancy for the
POP.
These locations include Namibia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana,
Zimbabwe, Kenya, Angola and Mozambique.
Network Performance
The IS SuperCore is the foundation on which the IS MPLS VPN network delivers secure
measurable services.
Through the use of IP QoS technology on the IS MPLS VPN network, IS is able to differentiate
types of traffic by class-of-service thereby differentiated in terms of four measurable
parameters that are committed to in a SLA:

Availability

Round Trip Time

Jitter

Packet Loss
Network Management
In
support
of
our
solutions
and
services
we
have
the
IS
Customer
Zone
(CZ)
http://www.is.co.za/, a unique secure web interface enabling customers to view statistical data,
receive outage notifications and subscribe to specific reporting of the services the customer
have contracted from IS. All information on these systems is monitored proactively via the
central monitoring system which is also integrated into our Global Service Centre (GSC),
providing our customers with most relevant information 24 hours a day all year round.
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MPLS VPN
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
MPLS VPN Value added services
IS is perfectly positioned to deliver a holistic service to customer’s due to the span of our
product offerings. Value-added services which might be required include:

Infoconnect
A number of information and application content service providers reside withing the
the IS corporate community. Many of these services, such as corporate banking,
credit vetting, financial feeds or direct supplier links, are c ritical to the daily operations
of a substantial portion of the IS customer base. The InfoConnect service was
designed to seamlessly provide connectivity from any of our corporate customers to
the service providers with whom they have, or wish to have, a w orking relationship.

GSS
The Granular Statistics Service (GSS) offers a clear and detailed view of the health
and performance of the customers MPLS network and the service is accessible via the
IS CZ.

Threshold Notification
The customer has the ability to be notified via mail and or sms regarding predefined
thresholds reached per line and or class of service currently configured.
Therefore
making management of the customer network evolve from a reactive to a pro-active
managed network.
Summary
IS continues to enjoy market leading positions across multiple vertical market segments,
through the company’s current product mix of Hosting, Access, Security, Virtual Private
Network (VPN), Mobile, VOIS, W ireless, Broadband and Application Services solutions. Rece nt
growth in the African economy has resulted in IS spreading its services across all parts of the
continent, as customer’s demand reliable and robust networking connectivity throughout Africa .
The combination of the skill set available within IS, our rel ationship with industry leading
vendors like Cisco Systems and the ability to leverage off Dimension Data’s resources and
relationships, allows IS to remain competitive and adaptable to the constantly changing
environment. Since launching the IS MPLS VPN in 2000, IS has a proven track record in the
provision of network services to many of South Africa’s top companies and this solution
ensures complete accountability and reliable 24x7 support.
IS formally adopted ITIL as a
process reference model for operations in 2004. Subsequently it adopted an approach of
continuous improvement and compliance to defined processes in Service management to instil
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MPLS VPN
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
a process-oriented culture. W ith this in mind, IS embarked on a programme to achieve its
ISO20000 certification by the 30th September 2010. The reason for this is to improve on its
Service Management quality and provide evidence of this through an independent and
internationally recognised assessment. Also, this demonstrates to customers that IS as a
service provider has its foundation on a good quality, integrated process approach to service
delivery and service support thereby meeting customers’ requirements. While ISO20000 as a
standard audits the minimum requirements to achieve certification, it is IS’ aim to im plement
the right processes, at the right quality to meet its business objectives.
For a more in depth description of the IS MPLS VPN Service or any of the IS service offerings,
please consult with your IS Account Manager or mailtoinfo@is.co.za
.
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Confidential and subject to IS terms and conditions