AT&T brings NFV on-demand service to 76 countries, territories

AT&T (NYSE: T) has officially launched its NFV on demand service in 76 countries and territories, allowing multinational businesses to reduce network costs and service activation time.

The new service allows a business customer to deploy a single universal piece of equipment, choose virtualized functions and set them up in different countries.

A key benefit of AT&T's Network Functions on Demand service is that it simplifies the process of purchasing and adding new network functions. What used to take weeks can now take a few minutes.

The service also can cut hardware requirements, so businesses will have one less element to manage.

AT&T will offer the service across key countries in three regions -- the Americas, Asia Pacific and EMEA -- hitting the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, and others.  

Initially, AT&T Network Functions on Demand capabilities will include four main elements: Juniper Networks virtual routing, Cisco virtual router, Fortinet virtual security, and Riverbed virtual WAN optimization. The service provider plans to offer additional elements at a later date. 

Already, one of AT&T's customers -- Fisher & Paykel – has taken advantage of the new service.

Jon White, general manager of information technology for Fisher & Paykel Appliances, said that  the new service "will not only provide us with visibility and control to drive down IT and operations costs, but also help us quickly respond to evolving business needs."

News of this service should not be of a major surprise.

Ralph de la Vega, vice chairman of AT&T and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions and AT&T International, told investors in May that it was planning the launch of this on-demand service, but could not provide details about it at that time.

Leveraging its SDN network technology, Network Functions on Demand is the third service AT&T is rolling out on the platform.

Just last week, AT&T announced a network threat monitoring and management service dubbed Threat Intellect that will allow it to more quickly and easily identify and defend against network threats and hacking.

AT&T has continued to make progress with its SDN and NFV-based service platforms. The service provider's initial SDN-based service, Network on Demand, has attracted over 1,000 customers since AT&T first began offering the service in 2014.

By end of this year, AT&T said it is on track to virtualize 30 percent of its network functions with the ultimate goal of on its way to virtualizing 75 percent of its network by 2020. 

For more:
- see the release

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