What is Singtel current enterprise offering in terms of Managed SD-WAN?
Singtel offers Managed SD-WAN Service for its enterprise customers since 2015. As a managed service, Singtel brings to the table the know-how of and rich experience in operating the technology globally.
Managed technology migration: For a customer who is ready to adopt the SD-WAN technology on its network, Singtel can offer the design and consultancy service to re-architect the customer WAN network. The managed SD-WAN service includes full turnkey migration for the customer as they enable SD-WAN in their network, offering a peace of mind to the IT manager.
Fully integrated one-stop-shop service: The Singtel Managed SD-WAN service is fully integrated with the “Underlay” network including Singtel’s Global MPLS services and Global Internet Services, offering an integrated Service Level Offering to the customer. Singtel’s LIPortal, a Single Service Portal, offers the enterprise customer a single integrated view of its overlay (SD-WAN) and underlay (MPLS and Global Internet) networks.
Ecosystems of services: Singtel hosts geo-redundant carrier grade controller for its managed SD-WAN customers and offers more than 20 gateways globally to facilitate the interchange of traffic between SD-WAN and MPLS networks. The Managed SD-WAN service also brings cloud-on-ramp features to optimize SaaS performance into the public clouds
What activities has Singtel been involved in recently in this space?
Singtel has been one of the first service provider to operationalise Managed SD-WAN service in the Asia Pacific region and globally. It has offered service to customers, mainly in the Fortune 500 segment, in various sectors including manufacturing and retail.
Singtel’s software-defined capabilities has received global recognitions through its wins in:
Asia Communication Awards 2018 - Best Enterprise Service – Singtel Software-Defined Hybrid Network Network Services
Telco Cloud Forum Awards 2017 - Best Telco Cloud SDN/NFV Project
World Communication Awards 2016 - Best Enterprise Service - ConnectPlus Software-Defined Wide Area Network Network Services
World Communication Awards 2015 - Best Enterprise Service - Managed Hybrid Network Network Services
On 10th Oct 2018 , Singtel has launched the “Liquid Infrastructure”, which is the intelligent, data-driven next generation software defined platform and cloud-centric services and network toolkits service suites. The key building blocks of “Liquid Infrastructure” are “Liquid Core” and “ Liquid Edge”. SD-WAN service is one of the key offering under “ Liquid Edge”.
Is Singtel seeing a growing demand from customers for SD-WAN adoption? If so, how is it supporting this transition?
Yes, we see much higher demand of SD-WAN service this year, with over 100% increase in deployment base compared to previous year. Within Singtel, to support this transition, Singtel has made an effort to integrate SD-Wan service closer to existing product lines, e.g. building new SD-WAN gateways to enable overlay & underlay interconnection. At the same time, Singtel has developed a Taskforce team to support SD-WAN operations with network experts trained in SD-WAN technology.
What role does security play in the shift to SD-WAN?
With the increase in use of public cloud and Internet for enterprise networking, customers has started to appreciate the value of Internet breakout from local branch offices instead of centralized Internet access. SD-WAN can be a most suitable tool to enable local Internet breakout, but security is becoming more critical since the branch is exposed to Internet. In Singtel’s service suite, managed security service can be offered together with SD-WAN to make sure the branch office is protected. Once of the most popular use cases is to bundle the “Web Security as a Service” to SD-WAN.
Can you tell us about any recent enterprise deployments you’ve been involved in?
200 sites global deployment with 20 sites already deployed across 3 regions – APAC, EMEA and NA
Fully meshed network design for UC traffic
Unified provisioning template applied to Internet branches
Performance based routing for certain application through regional hub sites with hybrid connectivity
Integration with web security service
What opportunity does the enterprise market present to an operator of Singtel’s size?
Singtel has been recognised by IDC as a market leader for enterprise networking in Asia Pacific since 2008. With SD-WAN managed service, Singtel can support its existing customer with a better integrated network service for both overlay and underlay network. At the same time, with our experience as an early adopter of the SD-WAN technology, the managed SD-WAN space also opens the window of opportunity for Singtel to manage the complete overlay network across different underlay networks from various providers.
What areas are you operating in geographically?
Singtel is able to operate SD-WAN globally (except US embargo countries) with the 24x7 round-the-clock operation support.
What future developments do you expect to see in the enterprise space?
SDN and NFV will continue to be the driving force of innovation in enterprise networking in the next 2 years, while “cloud friendly” and “security first” are always the top consideration that every enterprise and service provider has to take into consideration when they build the networks. Singtel is also investing in data analytics and AI to further optimize network performance and customer experience.
Source is: “IDC MarketScape: Asia/Pacific Next-Generation Telcos: Telecom Services 2018 Vendor Assessment”
