Juniper's Infranet Initiative Gets Backing of Cisco, Others

The IPSphere group has begun to define standardized interfaces for client networks and between carrier MPLS networks, which will make it possible for customers to get service guarantees that span multiple carriers. Enterprises may one day be able to use the public Internet for functions that currently require private networks and still maintain high security and performance levels for critical applications and latency-sensitive traffic such as VoIP.

Ultimately, if IPSphere is successful, a user could get the same performance and security guarantees across multiple carriers' networks that are now limited to a single private network. It's an ambitious undertaking, and it could be years before we'll see realization of that potential, but we'll be watching--and hoping.