Layer 3 Monitoring Keeps Service Providers Accountable

Layer 3 MPLS VPN problems can impact application delivery and increase costs due to lost productivity. MPLS WAN Explorer monitors and alerts on VPN routing and reachability problems that otherwise go undetected, including:

• Loss of site-to-site IP prefix reachability, such as when a key data center resource becomes unreachable from remote sites
• Routing instabilities or loss of IP peering between a site and the Service Provider network, even though the connection is still reported as “up” by traditional network management systems
• Failover of sites from primary to backup VPN connections and the resulting loss of redundancy
• Policy violations, such as when branch offices are directly connected over a VPN rather than through a specified hub-and-spoke architecture
• Compromised security resulting from route leakage between separate VPNs due to misconfigurations in the Service Provider network

Real-time monitoring and historical reports on site to site reachability allow engineers to understand the performance of MPLS VPN Service Providers and know when a provider is not meeting their SLA