AT&T (NYSE: T) has named Brocade Communications Systems, Ciena and Cisco as the latest members to join its growing Domain 2.0 supplier program that's charged with driving the telco toward more of a cloud and software-driven network architecture.
The Domain 2.0 initiative ties into AT&T's user-defined network cloud concept that it launched in February. This concept is designed to give customers more control and the ability to add services on demand.
Among the benefits of the Domain 2.0 program will be the accelerated delivery of products and services.
To date, AT&T has named 10 vendors in the program. These three new vendors join the likes of Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Amdocs, Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC), Tail-F Systems AB and Metaswitch Networks LTD. Interestingly, Cisco had previously gained entry into the Domain 2.0 program when it purchased Tail-F Systems in June.
Two of the key pieces of the Domain 2.0 program will be the implementation of software-defined networks (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV).
During the UBS 42nd Annual Global Media and Communications Conference, John Stephens, CFO of AT&T, said that the company's movement to software-based capabilities will not only help control costs but also provide new capabilities for customers.
"Part of what we're seeing in the capex is the acceleration of the savings in software-defined networks, but there's still room to grow," Stephens said. "You're seeing some of our announcements with our vendors signing up and joining us to do more in the software-defined network area."
Already, AT&T is demonstrating the capabilities of a software-driven network in its Austin market, where it has applied the SDN-based on-demand capabilities to its Ethernet service suite. The service provider plans to make available the new capability to allow business customers to provision other services such as Internet VPN and VoIP at a later date.
For more:
- see the release
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