PacketFabric's NaaS hitches a ride on Colt's On Demand platform

PacketFabric has extended the reach of its network-as-a-service (NaaS) offering by teaming up with Colt Technology Services' On Demand platform.

Colt and PacketFabric are meeting up at the "middle mile" via a software-defined interconnection that is provisioned by an API that meets MEF's standards. With the interconnection, PacketFabric's customers can spin up real-time network connectivity in 108 data centers across Europe.

By teaming up with Colt, PacketFabric’s global customer base can now create private, secure, low-latency hybrid cloud and backbone connectivity in minutes. PacketFabric offers enterprises on-demand networking-as-a-service (Naas) provisioning, coupled with consumption-driven business models.

Using its SDN-based architecture, Culver City, Calif.-based PacketFabric competes against Alkira, Aviatrix, Megaport, and Pureport in helping enterprise IT teams build their own networks by using existing cloud infrastructure.

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Colt’s On Demand platform is underpinned by the Colt IQ Network, which spans more than 29,000 on net buildings and 900 data centers globally, all of which significantly increases the reach of PacketFabric’s NaaS platform throughout Europe. Through this integration, PacketFabric’s enterprise customers will be able to benefit from a SDN experience, which enables services being delivered in real-time via a portal.

When the coronavirus pandemic started to ramp up last year, enterprises and service providers that had embraced software-defined networking were better able to shift their resources into key new areas, such as work-from-home connectivity and improved security beyond office locations.

PacketFabric Chief Commercial Officer and co-founder Jezzibell Gilmore said in an email to FierceTelecom that the NaaS service with Colt has been in the works for about a year with active development over the past six months. Gilmore, who co-founded PacketFabric with senior vice president of engineering Anna Claiborne in 2015, said the hope was to expand the service with Colt going forward after the initial deployment.

“Structure Research’s Global Data Center and Colocation Report reported that EU interconnection will continue to populate and expand, and the market will see significant expansion which bodes well for our partnership and joint enterprise customers,” said Claiborne, in a statement.

Gilmore said PacketFabric works with over 35 communications service providers, but the launch with Colt was particularly notable.

"We can't share which CSPs, but yes, we have partnerships with other CSPs," she said. "However, this one is large and important with a very large and impactful footprint at launch."

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