Nortel DM1401041 Contivity 1500 Extranet Switch

The economics of the Internet are compelling. Lower telecommunications costs and new, highly leveraged, Web-enabled business models have made the Internet a strategic necessity for most companies. The ubiquity of the Web has made possible a dramatic reduction in networking costs, as well as rapid growth in supply chain integration. Businesses can now cost-effectively create an alternative to the traditional, dedicated network, creating what's commonly known as a Virtual Private Network (VPN). There are several ways for a company to leverage the advantages of a VPN. The most common is to reduce remote access costs. The typical solution for remote access to corporate network resources used modem banks and remote access servers to support users dialing in via the public switched telephone network (PSTN). This model is expensive in terms of equipment, support costs, and the cost of the telecommunications service itself.