xSP: Rolta’s Connectivity Services
Rolta's helping hand to businesses

Rolta India Limited's ISP, IDC, and security services can give enterprises a helping hand to carry out their businesses. by Soutiman Das Gupta

Rolta India Limited (RIL) is a multinational organization headquartered in Mumbai which offers a number of services like IDC, ISP, e-business, e-security, and applications development. It is also well-equipped to provide engineering IT solutions and services to companies worldwide.

We look at RIL's ISP service called RoltaDirect, server co-location services, and security services. These can help enterprises in Mumbai set up its e-business infrastructures.

ISP services
RoltaDirect offers high-speed, dedicated Internet connectivity directly to an enterprise over specialized dedicated lines. It promises to do away with worries like poor connectivity speed and frequent downtime. The company offers special packages and rates to match each organization's requirements. The connectivity links offer speeds like 64K, 128K, 256K and are scalable till 2 Mbps. The company has established a large telecom infrastructure, which has backbone connections through VSNL, Teleglobe, GlobalX, and a number of dedicated fiber optic links from exchanges.

RIL's connectivity solutions promise the following benefits:

• The ability to host your own e-mail server. The reliable always-on nature of the connection can enable an enterprise to run and manage services like mail, Intranet, and extranet. An organization can also run its corporate Website on its premises.
• An enterprise does not need to install dedicated telephone lines, modems, routers, and switches in its premises. Rolta deploys a switch, which is placed geographically near the customer premises. This switch distributes bandwidth to the customer's proxy server or firewall.
• Since extra equipment is generally not necessary at the customer end, an enterprise does not have to update the equipment as its need grows.
• Connection speeds can be scaled up with the help of a software switch at the IDC.
• The connection is switched and point-to-point. RIL can also program VLANs (Virtual LANs) to add security.
• A 24x7 help desk handles queries from trained and experienced engineers.

Hosting needs
RoltaNet aims to provide secure and reliable hosting services and offers enterprises the dedicated services of experienced and qualified Internet Engineers. The IDC has world-class facilities, reliable Internet bandwidth and a complete suite of management and monitoring services. RIL can set up its customers' servers, maintain and connect them to the Internet with minimum delay.
A customer can choose the level of hosting service that meets its operational needs. The services offered include:

• Management of the OS environments.
• Servers with high uptime of 99.9 percent. Backup servers with 100 percent uptime.
• Network and server management with tools like CA's Unicenter.
• Antivirus protection.
• Scheduled, automated, incremental, and full data backup with Robotic Jukebox using high capacity DLT tapes.
• Network security consulting and ongoing security audit services.
• Traffic distribution and failover solutions including traffic distribution, site replication, site acceleration and load balancing.

Data center features
The IDC has features like:

• Dust-free and anti-static environment.
• Smoke detectors and fire-fighting systems.
• Microprocessor-controlled redundant air-conditioning which maintains temperature between 18 and 24 degrees Centigrade and acceptable humidity levels.
• Redundant n+1 UPSs with network monitoring systems.
• Backed by autostart dual DG sets.
• Certified AT&T cabling on a gigabit Ethernet backbone.
• Switched 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet.
• SAN infrastructure.
• Only authorized representatives are allowed physical access to customer equipment.
• Secure access control.
• A 42-inch plasma screen for proactive visual alerts.
• Programmable desktop network alerts and audio alarms.

Benefits
RIL says that an enterprise can reduce costs by outsourcing mission critical Web servers. It also offers benefits like:

• Quick time to market.
• Low Internet start-up cost.
• 24 x 7 management and monitoring services.
• An SLA which promises 99.9 percent uptime.
• Robust network connectivity.
• Performance scaling.
• Technical environment engineered for e-business.
• Secure Internet access with redundant sub-systems.

Server co-location
RIL offers standard services and additional services for servers, which run on Intel and non-Intel platforms.

Standard hosting services include:

• Basic setup procedures. Installing customer severs in the IDC racks and connecting to the Internet.
• Enabling hosting services.
• Allocating a static IP address and broadcasting it through primary and secondary name servers.

Each co-located server is connected to two dedicated 100 Mbps switch ports. It connects to a n x E1 backbone with access to multiple gateways. A bandwidth management policy can ensure additional bandwidth for scalable needs. Online daily Internet traffic reports are available to the customer.

Additional services
The company provides a number of additional services. Some of them are:

• Server on demand - Customers can use pre-configured Web servers in the IDC for purchase or lease.
• Staging zone - Customers can bring in pre-configured servers to a special area in the IDC. Here, the server can be staged prior to installation in the IDC.
• Server performance reports - includes CPU utilization, memory statistics, and disk drive utilization.
• Server hardening - Fine tuning servers for optimum security and performance.

Security services
RIL offers a range of e-security consultancy and solutions. They broadly cover:

• Risk assessment and policy design services
• Products and solutions
• Portal services
• Quality certification

Risk assessment and policy design services can help an enterprise understand and analyze current and future security and privacy requirements. It can make a self-assessment survey to evaluate security controls against a set of best practices.

These services cover the following areas:

• Network
• Router, firewall, and RAS
• WAN
• Enterprise security
• Disaster recovery planning

Products and solutions
RIL offers security optimized products and solutions which include hardware, software, networking, training, support, and maintenance.

Some of the products are VPN server, firewall server, intrusion detection server, PKI server, SMTP server, messaging server, and network monitor server.

Portal services
These services can help an enterprise identify and solve real-time security risks by using a continuous management process. The company runs a 24x7 Security Operations Center and offers services like e-security advisory alert, Internet policy design, and vulnerability assessment service.

Soutiman Das Gupta can be reached at soutimand@networkmagazineindia.com