The key to successfully implementing managed LAN services over a wide variety of locations, Pazour explains, is to make sure you have identical network layouts, even at remote locations. Once you've standardized the network layout, you can go to the managed LAN vendor and ask for specific models of routers and switches that can be deployed identically throughout all branch locations, he says. John Buxton, who serves as the IT director at National American University, says that this cookie-cutter approach has been a big help in integrating voice, data and video applications, because strategies for deploying them at one location will work at the other locations as well.

"We've reduced cost, we've increased uptime and we've decreased the amount of labor we need," he says. "It really was a win-win situation."

As companies increasingly rely upon geographically dispersed locations, many of them also are turning more toward wireless LANs (WLAN) to deliver services to their workers. Wilkey notes that the advent of WLANs is sparking more demand for managed LAN services, because wireless systems require greater attention to security measures than wireline systems do. Additionally, she says that wireless networks present much different design changes than wireline networks, which means that many companies may feel more comfortable consulting with an established carrier or service provider to design, implement and manage their WLANs than with their own in-house operations.

"The biggest challenge comes from physical barriers that exist within your environment. If you're in a government building that was constructed with a lot of cinderblock, for instance, then designing the network properly becomes critical to controlling costs," he says.

Potential drawbacks