SBC Expands Managed Hosted Services, Plans New VPN Services

SBC Communications SBC E-Services

SBC E-Services now offers a hosted SAN solution based on Sun Microsystems and Hitachi technology. The solution will be offered as pay-as-you-go service per gigabyte, said John Malzahn, director of product marketing at SBC E-Services.

"The idea is to let customers buy a limited amount at a time and scale as they grow, without a lot of investment in infrastructure, " Malzahn said.

SBC also plans to roll out an enhanced managed-security offering that will include intrusion detection and professional services, he said, adding that additional monitoring and reporting capabilities are planned as well.

This summer, SBC also is slated to launch a software-based VPN. The software resides on the customer's server, and remote users gain access via client software.

"The advantage of a software-based VPN is that small companies can enter the VPN environment without having to buy specific VPN hardware," said John Nordberg, executive director of dedicated Internet access and IP VPNs at SBC. "It's much more cost-effective because this is a monthly per-user cost, with no up-front hardware purchase necessary." The cost will be about $20 to $30 a month per user, he said.

A VPN based on the Cisco VPN 3000 Concentrator series also is due out from SBC this summer and will offer managed site-to-site and remote-access VPNs, according to SBC. A third network-based VPN also is in development, and SBC is testing several vendors' products on the network, Malzahn said.