What does SD-WAN mean for Telco’s?

There have been more than a few punters whom have boldly claimed that SD WAN spells the rebuke of large Telcos through its migration away from MPLS in favour of the internet.

However, with as much as 58% of customers estimated to maintain an on-premises environment over the next 3-5 years, the need for private, secure and highly available network connectivity isn’t going away any time soon. Which says to us that MPLS and SD WAN will likely form a solid part of the future.

So what CAN we reasonably expect?

Expect to see SD WAN integrated into the Telco’s core product stack, alongside their MPLS and internet offerings. Service providers aren’t going to go so quietly into the night and throw away years of investments in their infrastructure. Telstra, for one, is pushing forward with a new service that enables them to deliver a multitude of internet and MPLS services down a single connection, vastly simplifying network deployment and commercials whilst opening the door for SD WAN.

Prices will be driven down as the demand for internet increases and the availability of NBN and 5G services become  increasingly common place – spelling good news for consumers everywhere.

Moreover, I would expect an increase in customisability; with simple on-ramps to major cloud providers alongside native integration with third party security and service providers.

Telco’s will achieve this through their partnerships with the biggest software vendors to deliver the best experience when accessing these platforms. You need look no further than the extensive work Telstra did with Microsoft in bringing Teams Calling to market as an example of how a Telco can leverage their network to improve a third party service offering.

The bottom line is that Telco’s are here to stay but that you can expect is cheaper and better services with flexible commercial terms, all the while getting the advantages of high speed, low latency connectivity.

Sounds good to us!

Get ahead now!

If you would like to learn more about SD-WAN and how it is a response to changing times, read our free white paper, The Wan you want. The paper includes architecture diagrams, explanations and a customer case study to ensure you have all you need to better understand SD-WAN’s future in your business.

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