Orange Business Services showcased the next push of its global SD-WAN
portfolio with the first onboarding of a Cisco SD-WAN virtual network
function (VNF) on the Cisco Enterprise Network Compute System (ENCS).
This platform, which delivers a fully functional virtualized solution
for network services, is part of the Orange universal customer premise
equipment (uCPE) offer. This new approach is in addition to existing
appliance or cloud-based deployment options. It further strengthens the
SD-WAN by Orange offering, and is part of its strategy to move to
software-defined networks (SDN) and intent-based networking.
Orange is using SD-WAN technology to build secure, hybrid connectivity for
enterprises over any transport network, including MPLS, internet and
satellite, with real-time centralized management of network functions,
application policy setting and application visibility. SD-WAN allows
enterprises to meet their ever increasing cloud, bandwidth and internet
demands effectively and securely. It also improves application performance,
irrespective of whether it is delivered from the cloud or the enterprise
data center.
In addition, thanks to uCPE central orchestration, Orange can provide
automated Cisco SD-WAN deployment, based on Viptela technology, in minutes
on all enterprise sites, wherever they are located. The uCPE can run
multiple additional functions, such as security, which can be orchestrated
centrally and chained as required. This means that enterprises can
dynamically adapt the branch office configuration to optimize user
experience.
“This work strengthens our long-standing partnership with Cisco. Together we
are bringing innovations in SD-WAN and the wider network to our customers
worldwide. These developments will help realize the promise of intent-based
networking, which will use artificial intelligence to automatically
orchestrate networks based on predicted user demand. This will help improve
application performance, security and business continuity,” said
Pierre-Louis Biaggi, vice president, Connectivity, Orange Business Services.
“SD-WAN provides the essential foundation for Service Providers to transform
their network services,” said Sachin Gupta, senior vice president, product
management for Cisco Enterprise Networking. “One of the truly global
providers, we are excited Orange is accelerating the adoption of SD-WAN
technology leveraging Cisco’s ENCS platform. Our partnership will accelerate
customers’ transformation to cloud and digital while delivering new-age
capability for simplified operations, application visibility and
performance.”
By orchestrating simple and unified end to end solutions through virtualized
solutions like SD-WAN from Cisco, Orange is able to provide enterprises with
the agility, reliability and cost effectiveness they need to speed their
digital transformation.