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.
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Virtual1 Product & Marketing Manager, Neil Wilson.[/caption]
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.
