AT&T Adds SD-WAN to Offerings

Software is serving far more transformational than many expected. Outside of Marc Andreessen, the potential for this nascent arena was tepid but optimistic. Today, we are fully submerged in a software revolution, accessing every aspect of the enterprise – from the data center to the conference center and beyond. A technology garnering growing attention in recent times is SD-WAN, as it provides firms with the flexibility, agility and efficiency for the network to support the ever-growing demands it is saddled with.

With projections being placed in the billions for this burgeoning technology, it was only a matter of time before the “big boys” began partnering with the vendors in the space – most being startups. This week, we saw Sprint partner with VeloCloud, not long after AT&T did the same – not surprising, considering VeloCloud is part of the AT&T Integrated Cloud ecosystem focusing on SD-WAN.

“Businesses need to satisfy increasing bandwidth demands while reducing costs. That means network needs are evolving, too,” explained Rick

Hubbard, senior vice president, AT&T Network Product Management. “This initiative is part of our software-centric strategy that gives our customers more flexibility and control of their networking services.”

The solution suite will provide a network-based solution, which joins hybrid networking with various types of network access, and will be available at the start of 2017.

Recognizing a software shift, AT&T includes this announcement under the umbrella of its focus delivering flexible and agile solutions that can easily be integrated into its existing solutions.

“Businesses need to satisfy increasing bandwidth demands while reducing costs. That means network needs are evolving, too,” saidRick Hubbard, senior vice president, AT&T Network Product Management. “This initiative is part of our software-centric strategy that gives our customers more flexibility and control of their networking services.”

While SD-WAN certainly didn’t need the major players to justify the astronomical market predictions, it certainly does not hurt.

SD-WAN is a key cog in the transformation of network infrastructure, a major step in the direction of reinventing architecture to achieve the level of performance required in today’s always-on, always plugged-in Saas-based world.

Edited by Alicia Young