IIJ Group to Launch Global VPN Service

March 6, 2002 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Internet Initiative Japan, Inc. (iij.ad.jp), a leading Japanese Internet access and solution provider targeting high-end corporate customers, announced on Tuesday that the company, and its 90.3 percent subsidiary IIJ America Inc. (iij-america.com), will begin providing the IIJ Global VPN Service on April 1, 2002 in 50 countries around the world.

The VPN offering, says the company, will allow Japan-based business and organizations to establish secure communications among the 50 countries worldwide via the Internet.

IIJ says its Global VPN Service is offered in partnership with Genuity Inc. (genuity.com), a leading US-based provider of Internet infrastructure services. The companies initiated a trial service between Japan and the US in September 2001. The service range will be substantially expanded with the official launch.

The service uses Nortel Networks Contivity VPN switch family, allowing it to scale up to a maximum of 5,000 VPN tunnels per switch over the Internet. The solution employs Contivity 600 and Contivity 600 Branch Office for small scale connections.

IIJ says its VPN service includes 24-hour security monitoring and management, hardware and software maintenance, customer support and incident response services, all of which are designed to ensure reliable global VPN communications.

The topology of the service, says IIJ, is built flexible to allow for a range of network configurations and cables, enabling controllable access to each IP address for increased security. The company says it is also offering Japanese-language support in the US and payment in yen for Japanese companies located internationally.

"We anticipate an increasing need over the next few years for global networking by our high-end corporate customers in the Japanese marketplace," said Koichi Suzuki, President and CEO of IIJ and chairman of IIJ America.

In addition to its Global VPN Service, the IIJ Group offers a VPN service in Asia through the company’s affiliate Asia Internet Holding. IIJ also recently launched Omnibus, its service for the management of corporate networks including VPN, Internet and LAN, in February 2002.