By Susan Campbell

Service providers today are finding that enterprise customers are seeking to minimize costs, reduce complexity and improve overall service quality while adding new functionalities. At the same time, this customer group is asking for help in meeting growing bandwidth needs, as well as reach and reliability requirements as they strive to embrace the increased voice, data and video traffic.

The good news for these service providers is that Alcatel-Lucent offers a full line of Business Networking Services that enable service providers to meet all of these needs, while also driving additional revenue streams and sustaining profitable growth. The company’s IP/MPLS solution is designed to support the needs service providers seek to meet with IP transformation projects.

As service providers are evolving to packet-based network architectures with converged IP data, voice and video running over Layer 2 and/or Layer 3 business VPNs, Alcatel-Lucent is helping these players to tailor the business VPN service offerings to be sure they meet each enterprise customer’s unique requirements. A focus on healthy evolution to this platform ensures service providers not only deliver the demanded applications, but also drive healthy revenue growth.

With the Alcatel-Lucent service router and service switch IP/MPLS portfolio, service providers gain access to an IP VPN, which is a multipoint Layer 3 VPN to support multi-site IP networking. The company’s application-assurance features strive to avoid VPN commoditization to ensure service providers can offer enterprise customers greater visibility, reporting and control at the application level.

The portfolio also offers carrier Ethernet VPNs, which include virtual private LAN service (VPLS) and multipoint Carrier Ethernet VPN, as well as a Virtual Leaded Line (VLL), or point-to-point carrier Ethernet VPN. Each of these VPNs also includes Alcatel-Lucent’s application assurance features, and the IPSec VPN offers secure extension of the corporate VPN over controlled private and public networks.

With the IP/MPLS-based business services solution, which includes the VPN Consultative Marketing Program, service providers gain access to the tools they need to offer enterprise customers the choice of secure, flexible, scalable and always-on managed business VPN services that meet their communications requirements in a way that is both efficient and cost-effective.

Service providers each have unique needs and serve a diverse customer base with specific requirements. The VCM program from Alcatel-Lucent offers business networking services that allow service providers to choose the type and duration of their consultation so they can more easily and readily address the multiple issues they are facing in meeting the needs of the enterprise customer base.