AT&T has tapped its ongoing push into software-defined networking solutions to launch an on-demand service designed to allow enterprise customers to provision services in “near real time.”
AT&T said the Network on Demand platform will allow enterprise users to control contracting and ordering of network services; instantly scale their bandwidth needs; and provision new communications ports in “days compared to weeks.”
The carrier claims its AT&T Network on Demand offering is the first SDN solution available in the United States, and is part of its User Defined Network Cloud program, which the company has been building throughout the year. AT&T said it has been operating a Network on Demand pilot at the University of Texas at Austin, with commercial rollout plans to businesses in the Austin area by the end of the year. Further deployments are expected to begin in 2015.
The UDNC platform was initially announced earlier this year, building off the carrier’s Domain 2.0 initiative. That program, which was launched in late 2013, was an update of its initial Domain 1.0 program announced in 2009, with 2.0 bringing an increased reliance on cloud-based architecture that the company said would “reduce the time required to pivot to this target architecture while accelerating time-to-market with technologically advanced products and services.”
Juniper Networks, which is part of AT&T’s Domain 2.0 program, released a report earlier this year that found two camps in terms of the adoption of SDN technology: those that plan to adopt SDN and those that don’t. The company said its report found a near split between businesses surveyed in their plans to implement SDN, with slightly more than half of the 400 IT decision makers saying they do plan on adopting SDN, while just under half saying they had no plans. The survey was conducted in July by Wakefield Research.
For those that do plan on adopting SDN, Juniper’s survey noted that 74% plan on doing so within the next year, with 30% saying they are going to make the move in the next month. One-fourth of those that plan on adopting SDN said they expect the biggest benefit from the technology to come from improved network performance and efficiency; with 19% expecting simplified network operations; and 13% expecting cost savings on operations will be the biggest benefit.
As for challenges, the survey found cost was a concern for half of decision-makers; 35% cited integration concerns; 34% potential security issues; and 28% were concerned about a lack of skills from existing employees.
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