The SD-WAN offering will first launch in Spain and then expand into other European and Latin American markets
Telefónica Tech, Telefónica’s digital business unit, and Cisco announced at this year’s RSA Conference a strategic alliance and a new global managed service that includes integrated connectivity and security offers for both large companies and SMBs. The service is comprised of Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), security and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architectures and will help these businesses connect across data centers, branch offices and remote employee locations.
SD-WAN is a virtual WAN architecture that can work with different network transport services, including broadband. SD-WAN centralizes network control, management, provisioning and security, delivering improved agility and flexibility. In Cisco, Telefonica has secured an SD-WAN market leader, according to a 2021 report from Dell’Oro Group, which placed the company as the highest earner in this category, followed by Fortinet and VMware.
“The shift to hybrid work has accelerated the need for businesses to connect and protect employees and their devices anywhere,” commented Shailaja Shankar, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco Security Business Group. “Telefónica Tech’s new managed service will offer customers an innovative, managed service, combining Cisco’s SD-WAN and cloud security solutions in a way that simplifies connectivity and security for office workers and telecommuters. Cisco remains committed to digitalization through the CDA program, named ‘Digitaliza’ in Spain, promoting innovative services like this.”
In addition to Cisco’s SD-WAN solutions, the service will leverage the company’s Meraki cloud-managed platform and wireless solutions. On the security side, a cloud security module with Cisco Umbrella will be included, as well as advanced firewalls, anti-malware, intrusion protection and zero-trust access controls.
“In this way, the portfolio services based on Cisco SD-WAN capabilities will be complemented with cloud security functionalities easing and protecting the experience of employees when accessing the Internet or business applications, regardless of their location,” stated the companies.
The new service offering will first launch in Spain and then expand into other European and Latin American markets.
