With the growing interest in MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) services for business's WANs, it's a good idea to ask yourself whether this technology is right for your company.

First of all, it's important to know that MPLS is a technology, not a service. MPLS acts as the backbone for your network, running underneath services such as Frame Relay, wide-area Ethernet, native IP and ATM. While the advantages of an MPLS service are mainly to the carrier, businesses using this technology can expect to see a cost savings (especially when utilizing voice and data), better control over their networks as well as QoS (quality of service). QoS is the main advantage of (and reason IT executives purchase) MPLS services, especially for companies utilizing voice and video.

When deciding if MPLS technology is right for your business, consider the following:

* Your business generates lots of any-to-any traffic. While most companies don't fall in this category, those that take part in a convergence project such as voice and video can see dramatic cost-savings when compared to using Frame Relay or ATM.
* Your business is planning a convergence project. Organizations will see an immediate cost-savings of 25% or more when voice and video traffic is blended with the MPLS WAN. When combining the video traffic with a MPLS data network, which usually requires an expensive ISDN circuit when used with Frame Relay or ATM, you can see how the any-to-any applications can save businesses big money.
* You business utilizes or is planning on utilizing a next-generation computing infrastructure such as Web services, peer-to-peer or grid computing. These applications generate the any-to-any traffic patterns and require QoS capabilities. For some financial institutions, grid computing is the primary driver behind MPLS.

If any of the above mentioned situations are how your business is run or is the direction you're planning to go, you'll want to look into MPLS-based services. It's important to consider all network options before making such a purchase for your business. First determine if MPLS can help or hinder your business before taking the plunge. If this technology will help, then go for it!




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