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Virtual Server

Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should
be able to do the following
 Discuss about the virtual server concepts.

 Describe the evolution of ISP.

 Describe quality of service.

 Describe about ISP backbone.

 Describe the value added services.

Snap Shot

In this session we discuss about virtual server and ISP backbone.The virtual server uses the
idea of sharing a server and a high-speed Internet connection with other companies and,
therefore significantly reducing the cost of establishing an Internet presence. Most companies
that have high-speed connections do not use the full potential bandwidth of their Internet
connection continuously.

Virtual Server

A virtual server allows you to establish an Internet presence with a high-speed connection at
a fraction of the cost. With a virtual server you get the Internet services you wan without the
worries and costs of an Internet connection, and your customers and uses will not be able to
tell the difference.

The virtual server uses the idea of sharing a server and a high-speed Internet connection with
other companies and, therefore significantly reducing the cost of establishing an Internet
presence. Most companies that have high-speed connections do not use the full potential
bandwidth of their Internet connection continuously. However, to avoid delays to their
customers, they will purchase the fastest Internet connection they can afford. For smaller
companies this is usually a 56Kbps or fractional T1 frame-relay (time-shared) connection.
With a virtual server and your customers will not be able to tell the difference.

The virtual server might not be for everyone. It allows a company to establish a high-speed
Internet presence or test the potential of Internet marketing without incurring the high costs
of bringing a high-speed connection and server to the office. In other words, it allows a
company to test the Internet waters before committing high startup costs. If your company,
after a period of time of being on a virtual server, has developed a very popular Web page,
you will want to consider getting your own Internet connection and/or server to better
support your customers’ needs.

Evaluation of ISP

ISPs come in all sizes and orientations, and making the best selection require some analysis.
Remember that this is a communication service that will carry critical information to your
 business, so choose accordingly. The following sections describe some of the factors to
consider when making your decision.
Orientation

Many Internet providers target their services at consumers and individual users rather than
at commercial use. Be sure to seek a provider focused on the needs of businesses. These needs
include many of the criteria that follow.

Point of presence

The closer a network’s point of presence is to your site the less expensive it will be to connect
to the network from your site. Thus, it is advantages to use a provider with a large national
even international base of POPs.

It is important to look at how a given Internet provider is connected to other components of

the net. A provider that is directly connected to the high-speed Internet backbone circuits will
offer better service, lower delays, and probably a lower cost than a provider that relies on
other ISPs to reach a backbone access point. It makes sense to look for a provider with several
direct connections to national and international components of the internet.

Network topology

A high-priority criterion to consider is the topology of the ISP’s network. You will need to be
familiar with network concepts to make a reasonable assessment of the topology. What you
are interested in are weak spots in their network and what capacity is left at peak loading
periods. The ISP should have no problem with showing you maps of its network. Just be sure
the maps are of their physical network and not a virtual network. Virtual networks are
created by the router switching and can use physical paths that are not owned by the ISP in
question. An ISP that can explain to you how its network is physically configured in terms
that are understandable is one worth considering closely.

Quality of Service
The Internet will carry your business’s mission-critical traffic. It must be reliable and
available, and deliver high performance. Let’s look at each of these requirements in a bit more
detail:
  Reliability – Recall that the Internet consists of multiple networks connected together.
Your Internet provider is actually one component of the whole, but it is the component
through which all your traffic will ride. Therefore, the level of reliability built into your
provider’s piece of the network is of direct relevance to you. Look for a provider with
redundant equipment at all major switching hubs, and redundant backbone links so
that no single failure will isolate part of the network. Since the NOC is such a critical
element in any provider’s network reliability, it should be backed up with an
interruptible power supply (UPS), including a self contained (gas or diesel) generator.

 Availability – This is a measure of the percentage of time you can actually get to the
network and get your information through. Getting to the network is easy if you have a
dedicated connection, such as a leased line or a frame relay link. If you are dialing in,
you wouldn’t want to get a busy signal very often. There is an actual measurement that
describes this phenomenon: p-grade of service. You should only consider networks with
a p-grade of no more than p.05 – meaning that no more than 5 out of 100 calls result in a
busy signal. Be sure to ask about it.

 Performance – Your customers, employees, dealers, and business partners will be

communicating with via your Internet link. The last thing you want is a service with
delays and low throughput. You can determine the degree of performance a given
network will deliver by carefully examining a network diagram. Things to look for
include the speed of the backbone, the speed at which large nodes connect to the
backbone, and the speed at which smaller nodes connect to the backbone. A high-speed,
high-capacity back-bone ensures a service with minimal delays and the ability to
transmit bandwidth-hungry multimedia information with ease.

ISP Backbone

Depending on the size of your provider, it may or may not have a backbone, but it must have
access to a backbone. Backbone speeds that are based on fiber-optic cable range from OC-1 at
52Mbps to OC-48 at 2500Mbps. There are four NAPs, or network access points, in North
America. Network access points are the National Science Foundation – supported backbone
Internet. The national ISPs like AT&T, MCI, and Sprint typically connect to all four NAPs.
What about the ISP you are evaluating? You should be knowledgeable about network
classifications and how they relate to the speed in bits per second. Your connection to the ISP
 could be offered as a T3 at 45Mbps, but its connection to a backbone could only be a T1, or
1.54Mbps. Your connection to the backbone national Internet will be no better than the T1
speed although you may be paying for a T3 speed up front. The better ISP will have many
connections to the backbone that will result in enhanced reliability for your.
If the ISP says it has a backbone, check to make sure it is running at backbone speed now or if
it plans to run at backbone speed. For instance, if glass fiber is the backbone, it is capable of
virtually any speed of data throughput that you can think of up to the speed of light, and that
is pretty fast. What limits the data throughput on glass is that electronics take data and
convert it to light and put the general practice is to pull in glass fiber with gobs of capability
and start out with just enough electronics to meet the need for a short period into the future.
One reason for this is the cost of the electronics is decreasing and the quality and speed is
increasing with time.

Value-Added Services

While a flexible set of access options is essential, businesses often require additional services
to enable the Internet to be more friendly, useful, or secure. These are called value-added
capabilities, and they tend to fall into five categories:

 Security options – Choose a provider who can accommodate your security needs,
whatever they may be. Some applications require no security at all, while others may
need a firewall, encryption, authorization, or some combination of these. You don’t want
to have to shop around for these options; a single vendor should be able to provide them
to you, along with a consulting service for needs assessment and security policy
development.

 Turnkey Web services – A Web site be an invaluable tool to your business. If you have
no experience with the Web, or even if you do, you will want to select a provider who
can build and / or host a high-impact site using raw information you provide.

 Domain names – Your company will be identified on the Internet by its address, or
domain name. Make sure your provider can give you a domain name that is business
oriented and reflects your corporate identity, rather than one that is cryptic, technology
oriented, or associated with your provider’s identity rather than your own.
  Network operation center – In case anything goes wrong, your provider of choice
should operate a network operation center that is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
every day of the year. A courteous and responsive customer service staff must be
available to respond to your calls. If you are a business user, you’ll also want to make
sure those representatives aren’t the same ones tending to the high-volume time-
intensive needs of consumer users. In case you desire training or specialized consulting
services, those services should be available as well.

 Experience – How long has the provider you’re considering been in the Internet services
business? Is it the provider’s main business, or a side element? How large is its customer
base, and are those customers happy? The answers to these questions will help you
separate those providers with real expertise from those just beginning in the complex
world of providing Internet services.

Short Summary

Whether you are an individual who has an interest in connecting to the Internet or
representing a 10,000-employee organization with a multi-megabit connection requirement,
you are faced with the same decision; which Internet service provider? One thing is fairly
certain. Once you have an Internet connection, no matter which you represent, it will be
difficult to give it up. You will become dependent on the Internet to move your data just you
depend on your automobile to move you about.

The Internet has become a new business tool that enables communications, especially inter-
enterprise communications, to be used as a strategic competitive weapon. As they say,
information is power, and when you know how to obtain and to use your Internet
connection, you are heading for more power.

Brain Storm

1. Explain the virtual server concepts.

2. How to evaluate an ISP.
3. Explain the value added services.
4. Explain ISP Backbone.
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