Now that cloud has become the standard delivery model for IT consumption, the demand for connectivity has been fundamentally changed. Business topics such as greater agility in deployment of network services, optimal application performance, and better connectivity to cloud services have become key elements in Wide Area Network services. Innovation takes shape because service providers implement different variants of network virtualization to meet this customer demand better. As has happened with other IT infrastructure services before, these new on demand networking services are very popular with customer organizations.
This whitepaper has been established in cooperation with the following companies.
Facilitating agility
Providers embrace software defined networking to better meet demand in the WAN market. High expectations concerning agility can be better met by introducing a software layer in the network which separates management from the physical hardware nodes. In addition, optimal support for application performance and transparency is better facilitated. Cost reduction plays a secondary role.
A WAN from the cloud
Cloud will play a much bigger role in WAN services. Customer organizations demand for better connections to cloud services. They find this in cloud connects and gateways to the public cloud, supplied from carrier-neutral data centers. A standard local loop connection suffices to unlock customer locations. A new delivery model for network services has come to life.
Of strategic importance
The crucial role of WAN and the corporate network is often overlooked as organizations make strategic cloud plans on board level. The reason for this is that the responsibility for corporate networks is often delegated deeply in organizations or outsourced to external providers. Organizations need a new strategic vision on sourcing and critical capabilities for connectivity.