Following in AT&T’s (News - Alert) footsteps, Verizon has jumped aboard the virtual train with a new set of enterprise services that incorporate the principles of software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV). The Verizon (News - Alert) Virtual Network Services are defined and activated through software, enabling vast efficiencies as customers can scale and manage services in tandem with fluctuating demands and need.
The enterprise world is steadily embracing the SDN approach, particularly when it comes to wide area networks (WANs). IDC (News - Alert) expects the SD-WAN market to generate $6 billion in annual revenues by 2020 as geographically dispersed companies take advantage of its cost savings and efficiencies to quickly bring branch offices online.
Verizon’s virtual play follows AT&Ts recent partnership with Orange (News - Alert), producing its own set of SD services. Verizon’s offerings may be run at a customer’s site, in the cloud or through a hybrid combination of the two. The carrier is initially offering security, WAN optimization and of course SD-WAN services, incorporating technology from a variety of SDN players. These include Cisco, Juniper, Riverbed Technology, Palo Alto Networks, Viptela and Fortinet (News - Alert).
While AT&T is taking a white box approach to its SDN offerings, Verizon’s offerings have an added layer of intelligence over strictly white box hardware. In both cases, hardware is capable of running services from multiple vendors.
“The enterprise CIO tells us they want to worry less about the network itself and more about their customers’ experience,” said Victoria Lonker, director, product and new business, at Verizon. “This means they need solutions that offer an integrated management option all the way from the app to the cloud in a very simple way that hopefully reduces total cost of ownership.”
The new virtual services are slated for availability in 53 countries with 14 more to be added by the end of next month.
Edited by Maurice Nagle