Wholesale comms provider Entanet has witnessed a sustained period of demand for Private WANs (PWANs) and the signs are that this trend will continue over the long-term, according to Head of Sales Stephen Barclay.
Entanet's PWAN pipeline has quadrupled in a year and its most active partners in this lucrative market have seen demand grow by over 50 per cent. "PWANs represent an expanding market for resellers and now, when they are becoming more widely recognised by customers, it's the best time for them to start taking advantage," said Barclay. "Because PWAN solutions are scalable every company with multiple sites is an opportunity. If a customer has more than one site there is the beginning of a network that can grow with the end user as they expand, usually with great simplicity. We find that companies in every sector are attracted by this solution, particularly those that require high levels of resilience such as hospitals, health care and care homes to ensure continuity and privacy. And for more sensitive data such as governments, banks, councils and organisations that would use networks for secure EPOS transactions, a PWAN is ideal."
One of the greatest benefits of this solution for resellers is how sticky a customer becomes, resulting in repeat business that's likely to grow. "Resellers should recognise that they're not just selling customer's access to the Internet but rather their own private corporate network," added Barclay. "There's a real added value in that. Typically the margin that a partner is able to achieve in a PWAN sale is higher than on any regular DIA (Direct Internet Access) line, even considering that access costs have come down. PWANs are in great demand and that demand is increasing every year."
The widespread adoption of PWANs comes at a time when opportunities for resellers in the SME market for connectivity services are growing in general, thanks to technology advancements and price competitiveness that's brought erstwhile high cost solutions within affordable reach (GEA, EFM, leased lines), while the performance of broadband has increased thanks to the rollout of fibre. "Chief among these opportunities are IP VPNs, or PWANs as Entanet calls them," noted Barclay.
He pointed out that all PWANs are different. For example, IP VPNs deliver a bespoke network which caters directly to the specific needs of every customer individually. "There are a host of benefits with an excellent level of security for the client owing to it being a completely separate network to the Internet," added Barclay. "A customer's data is entirely controlled by themselves across any number of affordable connection options."
When it comes to selling this solution to customers, resellers need to consider what sort of data will be transferred within the network. Is it sensitive? What are the bandwidth requirements? Is the data delay sensitive, such as voice or video? "Simply put, PWANs can benefit a multi-site company regardless of size, budget, geographical spread and all other factors," stated Barclay. "In Entanet's case, our pre-sales consultants work closely with a partner to ensure a solution is designed around those aspects and shaped into an efficient and easily explained model that puts the customer at ease and shows them the truly great benefits on offer."
In terms of resilience PWANs are one of the best options, believes Barclay. Being self-contained and able to operate without Internet access there is considerably less risk of interruption to the connectivity. "Customers can choose from many tiers of resilience from a single ADSL backup line that reroutes traffic if the main line becomes unavailable, to providing dual routers and two separate leased lines from diverse suppliers at different PoPs," he explained. "With continuity being a crucial part of any business, having a wide variety of options to suit the customer's needs is invaluable."
PWANs typically operate through a single managed firewall to the Internet. The advantages to a customer of having this solution for their network rather than a firewall for each individual site are cost and resource savings. Meanwhile, consolidating all data across the network travelling to the Internet through one point of access provides complete control over everything that comes and goes through the PWAN. "This gives customers the ability to manage the type of traffic allowed across their entire network, from a particular site or to an individual within a site," commented Barclay. •