Silver is a higher-quality service that offers some guarantees on latency. This service will typically be used for VPN data traffic. The Gold service offers still higher quality for transaction-processing traffic. The Platinum level is designed for applications with real-time traffic such as voice or videoconferencing. The QoS-based VPN services are available now.
Pricing depends on the number of sites, bandwidth to each site and other factors.
Meanwhile, Savvis said its ProLink VPN services, which were launched in the United States in June, are now available inter-nationally. Savvis delivers ProLink using its global network and equipment from Check Point Software Technologies. International availability of VPNs is becoming important for IT managers. Usually, there is not a compelling economic reason to swap out an existing frame relay connection for a VPN if you are talking about sites that are in the same region of the country, said Benjamin Anderson, vice president of IS at Windham Foods. But internationally, we're looking at VPNs because the cost savings can be substantial.