SDWAN and NFV customization targeting enterprise customers
Enterprise markets remain a significant target for telecom operators as organizations typically include a large number of very loyal customers … and bills are more often paid on time. One potential downside in targeting the enterprise space are that many of these organizations have robust financial departments eager to barter pricing in against a growing number of communication providers.
One way to battle this cost conundrum is by the use of virtualization technology, and more specifically software-defined networking and network functions virtualization. These technology platforms are designed to allow telecom providers to lower the cost of supporting services and increase the speed in which new services can be launched, both important considerations when dealing with enterprise customers.
On this week’s NFV/SDN Reality Check we spoke with Cahit “Jay” Akin, CEO at Mushroom Networks on how the vendor is using SDN and NFV to provide enterprises with more flexibility and control over their communication needs. One of those service offerings Mushroom Networks is currently focused on is network bonding, or the ability for a company to tie together network services into a potential greater whole than the sum of its parts in terms of an enterprise’s WAN environment.
“I think on the wide area networking side there is a bigger potential where you can go beyond and take advantage of certain specialized NFVs to enhance end-user experience,” Akin explained. “If you compare wide area networks, which are more resource limited than local area networks, which is the framework of a data center vs. a branch office, the speciality NFVs all of a sudden become more valuable for specific applications.”
Mushroom Networks recently announced an agreement with Netformx to embed its SDWAN management product in Netformx’ KnowledgeBase platform, including Mushroom’s PortaBella broadband bonding device that supports temporary mobile broadband services.
Make sure to join us on Oct. 23 for our next episode of NFV/SDN Reality Check when we speak with Dirk Trossen, principal scientist at InterDigital, on the role of NFV and SDN in 5G.
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