The Software Defined Wider Area Network combines dedicated data connections with low-cost broadband links in their WAN in order to help business users cope with future network requirements.
It is delivered as a Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) service with on-demand elasticity and multi-tenancy built-in. IT combines SD-WAN software with general purpose server hardware on the customer’s premises.
The countries Colt has rolled out the SD-WAN service to are: the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Switzerland and Ireland.
Colt director of network portfolio Peter Coppens said: “Putting it simply, the customer wants secure, guaranteed delivery with quality of service for their data network. But they don’t want increasing data capacity requirements to mean more expensive bandwidth circuits.
“The solution is to use the public internet for those apps which are not latency critical like email or web surfing, while reserving your data networks for the mission critical, high bandwidth applications. Data over the internet is still secured by using IPSec tunnels; and the customer is free to use their existing Internet Service Provider (ISP) if they so wish.”
According to Coppens, 70% of EU based enterprises outsource the delivery and management of their WAN to a Network Service Provider.
Gartner predicts that by the end of 2019, 30% of all enterprises will use SD-WAN products across sites. The figure is currently below 1%, according to the analysts.
The expansion will be based on platform elements provided by Versa Networks, as part of an 18 month project aimed at developing new NFV-based WAN services.
Kumar Mehta, CEO and co-founder of Versa, said: “We are excited to continue our joint innovation as Colt launches its cutting edge, software-based, managed SD-WAN service across Europe.”
