CenturyLink’s Managed Hybrid SD-WAN eases transition to next-generation networks
CenturyLink launched its Managed Hybrid Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) Tuesday, a set of WAN packages that improve traffic flow across both broadband internet connection and private multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) networks.
SD-WAN is a software-defined networking technology used by businesses to optimize WAN connections over large geographical distances. It determines the best path to direct traffic flow based upon application requirements and network latency.
The manager hybrid SD-WAN can help companies accelerate their transition to next-generation networks, addressing some of the hurdles attached to the development of WAN environments, including integration and performance management. The aim of CenturyLink’s Managed Hybrid SD-WAN is to enable companies to leverage existing investments, like MPLS, and integrate those network connections with next-generation network capabilities.
“We’ve learned a lot of customers want to keep their existing pipeline or MPLS connection, but they also want to add much more cost effective bandwidth,” said Troy Trenchard, vice president of product management at Centurylink, in an interview with RCR Wireless News. “What we’ve done is simplified it for our customers by creating some hybrid bundles using the same SD-WAN service we had, but now offer bundles that include the broadband and MPLS connection to make it easier for them to purchase and use the solution.”
CenturyLink offers core infrastructure, security, transport and provider management in addition to centralized monitoring and management. Moreover, a central portal equipped with encryption, segmentation and security policy can secure traffic at company branches. It is ideal for customers that need less traffic across their private network and more traffic across the internet.
“In that the scenario, the customer says ‘look, given the nature of traffic, it makes sense for us to add this broadband connection and set it up using SD-WAN in a way that I can low balance my traffic, redirect all my internet bound traffic through the broadband connection, and also use VPN across that into my network,” said Trenchard.
The company currently offers three bundle packages: the bronze, silver and gold package. The bronze package is an add on to an existing MPLS connection, such as a broadband connection of SD-WAN overlay. The silver package is for customers who want CenturyLink specifically to provide both the MPLS and broadband connection. The gold package is the same as the silver package, but provides higher availability with two SD-WAN devices at the remote site.
CenturyLink isn’t the only service provider jumping on board the SD-WAN bandwagon. Just last week, Telus and Nuage Networks launched Telus Network as a Service (NaaS), an SD-WAN platform. CenturyLink originally dipped its toe into the SD-WAN market after introducing a standalone managed SD-WAN service in June 2016.
“We our SD-WAN solution in the market for over a year; SD-WAN is an evolving technology,” said Trenchard. “We expect this to continue to evolve; we expect customer understanding and the use cases they bring to continue to evolve. As we grow our business around this, we will continue to look at how it evolves to better serve customer needs. And the SD-WAN bundles are an example of that.”
