For years our Bank has been using traditional point to point t-1 circuits to connect our branches.

To allow for any to any connectivity, VOip, on-net DR and cost savings we are looking to move to MPLS.

Does anyone know if we do this do I need to encrypt the data between my sites? The vendor has assured me we'll be on on our own VPN tunnel on a non-public network. Will anyone fill me in on their experience and if they are on MPLS? Thanks!

Bankman,
I recently went thru a change in our connectivity due to price. MPLS was to expensive, but I still wish I could have gone that route ($8K per month).

An MPLS should be your private network, but since its being provided by someone other then you it can get foggy.
My standing is that if its not a point to point, and I could pull it off budget wise, I would encrypt it.

I spoke with our FDIC friends and their IT guru told me as along as I did my "due diligence" in getting assurance from the vendor that it was secure, then I did not have to encrypt the data as far as they were concerned.

I think from a security standpoint 3Des it and sleep well. But then again, these are my opinions only.