AT&T is acquiring the Vyatta network operating system and related assets from Brocade, a move that will expand the telco’s SD-WAN and white box capabilities for business customers.
Brocade’s Vyatta platform includes the vRouter product line.
As part of the deal, AT&T said it intends to hire certain Brocade employees associated with the Vyatta business.
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After meeting closing conditions and prior to Broadcom completing its acquisition of all of Brocade, the acquisition is expected to be completed early this summer.
AT&T and Brocade did not reveal financial terms of the purchase.
A key benefit that AT&T will get from the Vyatta platform is it will help further the telco’s network transformation from hardware to software. The service provider set a goal earlier this year to virtualize and software-control 75% of its network by 2020. It plans to hit 55% by the end of 2017.
When the deal closes, AT&T will own the Vyatta network operating system, including its virtual network functions (VNFs) and distributed services platform, software under development as part of its unreleased roadmap, existing software licenses, and related patents and patent applications. The Brocade employees expected to join AT&T are mostly located in California and the United Kingdom.
The Vyatta acquisition will also bolster AT&T’s ability to deliver cloud or premises-based virtual network functions (VNFs), starting with its previously announced SD-WAN cloud service with VeloCloud.
The Vyatta acquisition will also expand AT&T's white box platform capabilities. In late March, AT&T completed a trial with a number of companies and industry groups to design and build its own white box switches to manage data traffic more efficiently across its network.