Network Backbones – A question of security

SASE Secure Access Service Edge

When procuring an MPLS network for mission critical applications, many people tend to focus on Service Level Agreements.  SLA’s address compensation for performance shortcomings.  But take a serious look at the network provider’s backbone.

The network backbone is critical to performance.  The best performance will come from a dedicated MPLS backbone with a minimal number of AS numbers.

Some carriers will share a variety of network services on a single backbone to get a better return on their investment.  For instance, using VLANs, a carrier can run their internet network on the same backbone as their MPLS network.  Everything is segregated and the MPLS network is secure from any internet traffic.  Guess what happens if their router receives a Denial of Service Attack from the Internet?  You guessed it!  Your MPLS network performance can go to a crawl.  So while the MPLS network is secure, it’s performance might not be.

Ask the hard questions and understand what you are dealing with.  Or, just give us a call!

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