Building on the work they've done across SD-WAN, Orange Business Services is teaming up with Cisco on software-defined LAN for enterprises.
Cisco and Orange Business Services will tailor software-defined local area network (SD-LAN) in Orange's Open Labs program. Using a mix of physical and virtual resources, Open Labs addresses customers' business challenges and use cases by tapping into network automation, analytics and security.
“Through our innovative partnership with Cisco and a commitment to our Open Lab environment, we look forward to working together to harness the agility and scalability of SD-LAN. Leveraging our proven success with Flexible SD-WAN, we aim to create an end-to-end networking journey in an optimized, adaptable enterprise network environment,” said Pierre-Louis Biaggi, vice president, connectivity solutions for Orange Business Services, in a statement.
By walking customers through the steps of their SD-WAN deployments, 80% of the enterprises that took part in Open Labs for an SD-WAN proof of concept moved on to roll out SD-WAN pilots with Orange Business Services.
The continued explosive growth of devices, mobile apps and data usage are putting a strain on traditional networks while also making them more complex across the various access technologies. Using SD-LAN creates a centrally managed wired and wireless network architecture, which Orange says is easier to integrate and run. Other benefits for SD-LAN users include faster development times, improved security across devices and better user experiences.
Across campus Wi-Fi networks, SD-LAN can fix and address deployment and visibility issues while also monitoring services, access and usage. It also anticipates when upgrades are necessary to the network. SD-LAN is able to securely define the users and devices that can access a network. For example, by working at a granular level, access can be granted or revoked when setting up Wi-Fi user groups.
With the increased deployments of IoT services and applications coupled with the growing number of devices, being able to monitor usage and access is key for enterprise customers. SD-LAN enables segmentation based on the connected device, which Orange said makes it easier to segment user groups and departments.
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Orange Business Services' initial SD-WAN offering was launched with vendor partner Viptela—prior to its acquisition by Cisco—two years ago. Orange Business Services launched its Flexible SD-WAN by Orange offering last year, again partnering with Cisco/Viptela. With its global footprint, Flexible SD-WAN is Orange Business Services' flagship product in the space.
Orange Business Services also has hybrid SD-WAN offerings in play by working with Juniper Networks, Riverbed and Infovista.
With Cisco, Orange Business Services is looking to bring end-to-end agility, cost savings and scalability to enterprises with SD-LAN.
“With the exponential growth of users and devices in a highly mobile world connecting to applications and data in multiple cloud environments, enterprises are looking to deliver security and optimal application experiences while reducing costs,” said Cisco's Sachin Gupta, senior vice president, product management, Enterprise Networking, in a statement. “Building on our collaboration with Orange around intent-based networking, we are now expanding from SD-WAN to SD-LAN.”
Orange Business Services also delivers connectivity locally in 220 countries, with direct sourcing to more than 170 ISPs representing 120 countries. It has 400 points of presence (PoPs) in 220 countries and territories worldwide, including 120 PoPs with data center co-location.