Hybrid WAN FEATURED ARTICLE

The software-defined era is upon us; look at a burgeoning technology like SD-WAN, which is in the midst of a meteoric rise. Projections place the SD-WAN space to settle in the billions in coming years. And with this value proposition service providers far and wide are diligently seeking SD-WAN providers to partner with.

This week, Fujitsu (News - Alert) unveiled its SD-WAN-as-a-Service, developed for service providers to offer enterprise customers, which combines Fujitsu’s SDN/NFV Consulting Service and Managed Network Service with the SilverPeak Unity EdgeConnect SD-WAN. The newly launched product adds an arrow in a service provider’s quiver, as it can offer rapid deployment, and spend more time working on customer acquisition and revenue generation.

“As SD-WAN continues to gain momentum among geographically distributed enterprises, SD-WAN-as-a-Service is proving well suited for organizations that prefer a turnkey service in contrast to a DIY approach. The new partnership between Fujitsu and Silver Peak (News - Alert) provides service providers with a path to fast-track the delivery of SD-WAN services, enabling service providers to quickly capitalize on the escalating demand,” Roopa Honnachari, industry director, business communication services and cloud computing, Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert).

Once selected, the SD-WAN-as-a-Service leverages existing WAN connectivity, is service provider agnostic and offers a number of delivery options – wired or wireless WAN including MPLS VPNS, Carrier Ethernet, Wi-Fi and LTE (News - Alert). The new offering also supports WAN optimization and zero-touch provisioning. Accompanying the deployment is Fujitsu’s Network Operations Center 24/7/365 lifecycle management in addition to multi-tenant subscriber management via Silver Peak’s Unity Orchestrator.

“Together with Fujitsu, we can liberate service providers from the quagmire of having to evaluate a myriad of SD-WAN vendors and offerings to arrive at a solution that addresses their immediate and longer term requirements for robust SD-WAN service offerings,” noted Shayne Stubbs, vice president service provider and cloud, Silver Peak.

Digital transformation is in full swing, leading the charge are software-defined solutions. SD-WAN is enjoying its time in the sun, and I’d expect that to not end any time soon.

What type of WAN are you working with?