I have been looking into metro Ethernet lately and talking with a number of Ethernet service providers about their services, and I was reminded of the confusing use of virtual private network and secure WAN pipes.

Metro Ethernet is a WAN technology for forwarding Ethernet frames across the wide area, often preserving VLAN and prioritization. Your LAN basically gets extended across a city, nationally, or around the world. Service providers will at times describe these virtual networks as secure, but smart shoppers will insist on making them define just what they mean by secure.

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