With so many companies seeing cloud-based services like Office 365 as their next step, getting the right internet connectivity in place is high on the IT agenda.

In fact, many want to make the move as soon as possible. For smaller branches particularly, this makes a lot of sense.

But for those with medium to large sites, or business-critical sites, it’s not such a straightforward decision. Organisations are reluctant to give up the inherent predictability and security of MPLS – yet they recognise their need for high-quality internet connectivity for SaaS and cloud-hosted applications. They end up running separate MPLS and internet services, which is often an inefficient way to use total bandwidth.

When businesses add an internet service to sit alongside their MPLS network, it adds an extra complexity to their infrastructure – with extra ports, access circuits and routers specifically for the internet service. There’s also the need to create a new relationship with an Internet Service Provider (ISP). This brings a wait for installation, uncertainty around service quality and assurance, and issues over how to secure this new entrance to the organisation.

This route also involves making critical decisions that don’t allow much flexibility. How much internet capacity should you buy when you can’t order one speed and then downgrade to another later? How much traffic should you move from MPLS to the internet? How much MPLS should you keep?

It’s difficult to make decisions today that will meet the unknown needs of the future, particularly as you can be financially locked into your decisions for at least 12 months. As a result, some organisations find their digital transformation plans slow down.

Companies are looking for a better way that doesn’t involve running MPLS and internet services side-by-side. How can they get the best of both worlds?

What if you could simply allocate part of your MPLS bandwidth to get high-quality business internet for no extra cost, by reusing your existing MPLS access and Customer Premises Equipments (CPE)?

We understand that you might not be ready to decommission your MPLS, but you still need to add dedicated internet access during your MPLS contract. Our Multi-Service Access solution lets you try the internet for free.

It provides a dedicated, uncontended, high-performance internet service that allows bi-directional traffic and supports all the same features you would get with a separate connection.

Multi-Service Access means you’re not doubling up on access circuits or routers, and your traffic takes a more direct route, which can reduce MPLS and internet bandwidth at your datacentres – all leading to potential cost savings. Your traffic will break out to the internet more locally and in-country, so you’ll get better latency and faster response times. And you can use embedded, router-based security or a separate firewall to protect your traffic.

Multi-Service Access lets you check out the impact of improved performance on your business-critical apps, while keeping the security and performance of MPLS. It’s a highly flexible approach: you can share the bandwidth between MPLS and the internet, and you aren’t locked into MPLS technology. Multi-Service Access is also an ideal stepping stone on your migration journey from MPLS to the internet, letting you go at a pace that suits your business needs.

If you’d like to see how Multi-Service Access could work in your organisation, we can run a pilot at one of your existing sites. You could allocate your unused backup MPLS circuit to direct internet access or try running MPLS and internet traffic on a primary or a secondary MPLS leg. It’s your choice.

You can divert some of your traffic, measure how it performs and then use it as a blueprint for rolling out Multi-Service Access. You’ll be able to provide your users with better access to cloud and local internet services and test out the differences without the commitments of fixed contracts.