Speaking on a panel discussion on “wholesale and enterprise”, AT&T Partner Solutions VP of global wholesale solutions Brendan Floyd said everyone is asking about software defined wide area networks for enterprise, which is why AT&T has begun developing a solution.
“SD-WAN is something that has been getting a lot more attention over the last few years,” he explained. “A lot of our partners have been saying ‘when are you going to bring us an SD-WAN?’”
“We’re going to be doing it through a virtualised software defined platform that will be integrated with our cloud platform that we have around the world. So we’ll have the virtual network function of SD-WAN available for enterprise clients next year.”
The SD-WAN platform will be developed as part of a collaboration with VeloCloud that was announced in October. It is part of AT&T’s strategy to incorporate software-centric technologies into its integrated solutions that deliver flexibility and agility for enterprises on a global basis, the US carrier announced at the time.
Floyd went on to explain that the advent of technology such as SD-WAN means that carriers such as AT&T must adapt their sales and development strategies to suit customer needs.
“If I look at the majority of what we do, we provide ubiquity within our footprint across the United States. With the advent of SD-WAN, the market will start changing and we will follow. We’ll go with our customers.
“If that means I’m not going to sell a private network with a 10Mb Ethernet connection, but sell a layer three, low-cost internet access, to facilitate that, I’ll call it an SD-WAN virtual network. The product set we offer will still be components, but it will accommodate that hybrid networking environment.”
