As the digital transformation (DX) spreads and the number of enterprises moving into cloud increases, networks are becoming more complex than ever before and there is a huge demand within the channel for a solution that can add greater flexibility and control to support this.
It is for this reason that the software-defined networking (SDN) market, which will witness a CAGR of 37.4% during the forecast period 2016–2022, is booming – but how exactly does it help and, more importantly, how can it help partners to sell?
To answer this, we got in touch with the UK’s most advanced wholesale carrier network, Virtual1, and asked their Product & Marketing Manager, Neil Wilson, to tell us more about what SDN can do to add value to a proposition.
To begin with, we thought it would be good start with a discussion on how SDN has changed the marketplace and what new opportunities it has created for partners looking to get ahead in the market and ensure their customers are happy with the service they receive.
In response, Wilson first wanted to make it clear that Virtual1 are not selling SDN as a defined product package to the channel, and they don’t expect their partners to package it in that way.
SDN, then, is perhaps better defined as an enabler that allows partners to sell an enhanced service proposition that challenges those big types of traditional SLAs and legacy carriers where, for example, it might typically take as long as five days to complete a change request for the customer.
With SDN, however, that five-day period can be reduced to as little as five minutes and, as a result, we can clearly see how software defined networking gives partners a great opportunity to differentiate themselves from other competitors in the market by delivering services more efficiently and at a much lower cost.
“We can provide you a faster, more responsive service, we can control your service experience, we can adapt your solution in a far more timely and responsive way than ever before.”
Another benefit offered to Virtual1 customers is the flexible bandwidth capability which means they can now go to highly seasonal organisations and say:
“We can give you maximum connectivity and capacity at a time you need it and take it down again when you don’t.”
In comparison traditional networking, SDN means that Virtual1 channel partners now have a whole different proposition to take to market that enables them to add much more scale to their value and meet the demands of customers who require greater flexibility within their network.
Given that Virtual1 currently holds the prestigious title of the largest wholesale network in the UK, we wanted to know exactly how much of their network has been migrated over to SDN. When we asked Wilson about this, he told us:
“We are a purely business-focused network that has no consumer traffic running across and because we’re relatively new and we don’t have the technology hangover that some of the big incumbents have, we made sure before we expanded that we had the SDN platform in place.”
What makes them really stand out, however, is that, unlike those big carriers who know what they want but aren’t sure how to get it, Virtual1 have already managed to seize that opportunity, meaning they can now easily roll out across the UK without needing the large-scale headcount that the traditional carriers need when expanding.
Similarly, what’s unique about Virtual1 is that their SDN proposition is not just in the core but delivers right to the router, meaning they can apply configuration changes directly to individual circuits rather than just automating the more central functions of network builds.
Depending on their relationship, any partner whose circuit is part of Virtual1’s network is SDN enabled by default and those features can be accessed immediately. However, for partners whose network is off net, Virtual1 can make changes to the router but are limited when it comes to making changes to the network itself.
In terms of resilience and QoS features, the next logical step for Virtual1 after building their automation was to make that automation live for their partners through the 1Portal to give them as much freedom to control their network independently and with complete authority.
“What I always wanted back when I was a channel customer was the independence to control my own fate and my own service experience and I brought that ‘the more independent we can make our partners, the happier they will be’ mentality with me when I moved to Virtual1.”
In a recent case study, Wilson informed us how one of Virtual1’s partners took some of their APIs from quoting and ordering, leveraged them into their own application and developed their own unique value on top of it.
From a long-term sales process perspective, though portals are powerful and effective, they ultimately have a shelf life and as we progress further into the future the demand for APIs that enable customers to provide an experience natively within their own system without having to log on to a portal to place an order is likely to increase.
Though this demand currently tends to come from the larger enterprise who have the resources and in-house expertise that the smaller companies may not have access to,
Wilson seems adamant that APIs will be the future of portal and Virtual1’s support for this is a great incentive for channel partners to sell it.
Unlike traditional resellers who take the SLAs they are provided with, with Virtual1 SDN, partners are able to add even more value to their proposition by offering increased or even customised SLAs to their customers.
In terms of pricing, purchasing SDN enabled services is very much a business as usual process and Wilson informed us that Virtual1 have not changed their wholesale position for partners wanting to take a circuit that is SDN ready.
To close the interview, we ask Wilson if he could give any advice to Virtual1 partners on how to identify SDN opportunities either within their existing base or in vertical markets. In response, he told us:
“Anyone that is looking for a highly flexible network that enables them to administer and make changes on a frequent basis, or any business that is highly seasonal and needs different tiers of bandwidth support for different periods throughout the year would be the obvious ones to look out for. As well as this, any service provider that wants to disrupt the market in terms of levels of service and SLA i.e. selling the idea that they can make network changes in hours rather than days, would also be very interested in SDN.”
With this in mind, given that the success in the modern market is not just about acquisition but about customer retention, the added value SDN offers puts channel partners at a huge advantage and enables them to keep hold of their customers as their needs change in the future.
What is key for partners, however, is to understand the needs of their customer first then try to determine where they can apply the value of SDN after. In a sense, we could think of SDN as a toolkit that can be used by channel partners to differentiate a proposition and deploy services in a way that benefits each individual customer.
SDN Series
Over the last few months we have been running our biweekly Virtual1 sponsored SDN Series where readers can learn about what Software Defined Networking is, why it is currently experiencing huge growth and how it can help improve business communications on a number of different levels.
In our next article we will conclude the series by taking a look at where SDN will go from here and how it will continue to add value to propositions and improve business performance in the future.
