Vanguard: Network Protector

The services, called Careguard, include professional consulting for network evaluations; network design including network audits and transition planning; network integration and implementation; and network monitoring and management.

The managed services offer "four nines" network availability, which translates into 53 minutes of downtime per year, for mission-critical environments, and "three nines" network availability, or 8 hours and 50 minutes of downtime per year, for less critical environments.

Partners said Careguard's predictive network management capability helps Vanguard, based here, stand apart from peers. Realtime fault monitoring identifies degradation in services with troubleshooting conducted every 20 seconds. The service finds the problem and automates a trouble ticket to Vanguard or the partner.

"Their [Careguard service isn't about fixing things when they are already broken, but finding potential problems before they become one," said Chip Sulser, executive vice president of data and networking communications at solution provider DataMart, Wellesley, Mass. "They're taking us to the next level by adding more and more preventative layers."

When customers use Vanguard's managed services, only 2 percent of problems result in a field technician dispatch, said Laura Whitcher, director of services marketing for Vanguard. When customers don't use the MSP's managed services, a field technician is dispatched in 27 percent of the cases.