Hybrid WAN FEATURED ARTICLE

Nuage Networks this week provided an update on some of its recent SD-WAN wins. That includes deals with BT (News - Alert), China Telecom, Telefonica, Telia, and TELUS – which just yesterday announced its selection of Nuage Networks technology to power its new Network as a Service solution.

The Nuage Networks SD-WAN solution is called Virtualized Network Services. It automates and optimizes IT processes and WAN environments so organizations can more easily and efficiently access cloud services and data centers, and connect their branch offices.

This solution also can enable value-added services by deploying third-party virtual network functions at enterprise branch locations on top of open, virtualized branch-in-the box platforms. And Nuage’s complementary network analytics and performance monitoring, and software-defined security solutions bring insight and remediation capabilities to the table.

SD-WAN has become a hot area of adoption. Results of a recent IDC (News - Alert) survey of enterprises showed that 70 percent of respondents expect to have evaluated or deployed SD-WAN by the end of this year. And the research firm estimates this space will be worth more than $6 billion in 2020. That’s up from about $575 million last year. 

In some cases, SD-WAN vendors sell direct to enterprise customers. But, increasingly, SD-WAN is delivered by carriers as a managed service. IDC reports that 40 percent of enterprise respondents to its survey indicated that they plan to implement SD-WAN solutions provided by communications service providers.

Speaking of SD-WAN and CSPs, the MEF recently announced its intention to play a leadership role in defining this technology and its use cases, and providing APIs to connect SD-WAN orchestrators with carrier billing and support systems. MEF (News - Alert) has published a white paper that provides its definition of SD-WAN and discusses use cases for the technology. And the group expects to make its Preso AIs available to SD-WAN solution suppliers and back office infrastructure companies later this year.