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MPLS and VPN
Should I use MPLS or VPN or both?
Many IT professionals are faced with this question at some point in their network deployment plan.
The Answer IS: IT DEPENDS!
There are several variables that must be considered before one can effectively answer this question:
What are the company's WAN objectives?
- Do we simply need to connect remote offices to a central location for server resource access?
- Are there any critical applications such as voice that must run across the WAN?
- Is cost a primary decision factor?
- How much bandwidth do I really need?
If you can answer all of these questions on the first pass you are ahead of the game. For those that need some guidance here are some pointers.
VPN
If your primary objectives include inter-site connectivity to access common resources such as File Servers, Email Servers and the like, and you are working on a budget, then VPN is the solution you should consider. VPN is the method of using public networks like the Internet to establish private, encrypted links between sites. Hence the name Virtual Private Network, since we are establishing encrypted tunnels between sites using the public Internet as a medium to connect our sites. VPN is by far the most cost effective way to establish a private wide area network.
MPLS
If you have Quality of Service (QoS) sensitive applications running across your WAN then you should consider MPLS. MPLS is a private networking technology similar to the concept of Frame Relay in that it is delivered in the "cloud". The primary difference with MPLS is that you can purchase quality of service for applications across your WAN. During the provisioning process the carrier will interview you in order to determine which applications are important to your business; they will then build a QoS template to service these applications on your WAN. These applications will be given priority over all other traffic in times of peak load. MPLS is by far the most costly solution between Frame Relay, VPN and MPLS but is the only technology that will support QoS.
