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BT is taking a bigger bite out of the SD-WAN apple with a new offering that is slated to launch early next year.
In January, BT announced its first SD-WAN service, called Connect Intelligence IWAN, which was based on Cisco's IWAN technology. Monday's SD-WAN announcement added Nokia-owned Nuage Networks to BT's SD-WAN mix.
Cisco's IWAN technology allowed BT to offer businesses the ability to reduce costs by interconnecting remote sites via various network options, including MPLS VPNs, private and public Internet and mobile technologies. (See BT Enters SD-WAN Fray With Cisco.)
While Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) has taken a core routing approach to its SD-WAN, BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA) will be using Nuage's Virtualized Network Services (VNS) for its "future software defined WAN service." With VNS, BT will be able to serve its UK and global customers applications using a cloud-based IT consumption model.
BT will blend the Nuage SD-WAN offering into its existing portfolio of network services in order to help enterprises create self-service VPNs, on-demand bandwidth and additional virtual services.
"This is an important stage in a journey that will ultimately give BT customers unparalleled choice, security, resilience, service and agility in the rollout of high performance networks designed for the age of the cloud," said BT's Chet Patel, president of global portfolio & marketing, in a statement.
BT said it would be announcing more details on additional SDN-based services over the coming months, including "try before you buy" capabilities that can be consumed on a utility basis.
— Mike Robuck, Editor, Telco Transformation
