Innovative network technologies to give more choice to customers for their digital transformation
BT has announced it is accelerating its investment in dynamic network services by integrating a range of new technologies that will make it easier, faster and safer for organisations to move towards a cloud-based IT consumption model and succeed in their ambitious digital transformation journeys. Those services will leverage technology, systems and tools from BT and its best-of-breed ecosystem of partners. They will combine with the existing portfolio of network services to reinforce BT’s ability to be the leading global cloud services integrator for its multinational customers by covering areas such as self-service VPNs, flexible bandwidth, virtual services and more.
As part of that investment, BT has selected Nuage Networks from Nokia to contribute technology for its future software defined WAN service.
As large organisations in the UK and around the world rapidly increase their use of cloud services and seek to maximise the opportunities of their digital future, they want to be able to access specific network services with maximum flexibility and agility, while maintaining the highest degree of security. BT’s ongoing investments in dynamic network services respond to that demand through the development of innovative sets of capabilities, based on new programmable technology that leverages Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Software Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN). Those investments add to BT’s network services portfolio and execute on BT’s strategic vision of delivering the broadest possible range of network services to customers to meet their diverse connectivity needs.
Chet Patel, president of global portfolio & marketing, BT, said: “We aim to be the leading global cloud of clouds services integrator for our customers. As part of that strategy, we are now leveraging our expertise in SDN and NFV technology and using the breadth and depth of our global network infrastructure to enhance further our portfolio of dynamic network services. To offer more choice to our customers, we are constantly reinforcing an ecosystem of world-class partners. We are therefore happy to announce that we will integrate the technology of Nuage Networks from Nokia into our SD-WAN offering. This is an important stage in a journey that will ultimately give BT customers unparalleled choice, security, resilience, service, and agility in the roll out of high performance networks designed for the age of the cloud.”
The announcement follows the recent launch of BT Connect Intelligence IWAN, an innovative managed service that enables organisations to automatically route and optimise network traffic and gain visibility of applications performance without spending more on bandwidth.
The initial launch of BT’s SD-WAN service incorporating Nuage Networks technology from Nokia is planned for early 2017. It is specifically being developed to serve global organisations using a cloud-based IT consumption model and will complement BT’s existing IP and Ethernet VPN offering.
In the coming months, BT will unveil further details of its roadmap for other software-defined services, aligning to the SDN capabilities that are being introduced in BT’s cloud-service nodes. These will enable organisations to control both their network connectivity and hosted applications from a single SDN-automated infrastructure.
Organisations will also be able to choose how they take this control. Their options will include a portal-based self-service or centralised account-driven service management.
Also coming, BT’s SD-WAN services will integrate with new virtual services that will include ‘try before you buy’ capabilities and be consumed on a utility basis. Virtual Customer Premises Equipment (vCPE) capabilities will provide integrated ‘branch in a box’ services, using the centralised automation of SD-WAN. And, with this, customers will be able to simultaneously control their on-premise and network applications.
Details about BT’s ‘Cloud of Clouds’ portfolio strategy and Dynamic Network Services capabilities can be found here.
About Nuage Networks from Nokia
Nu-âhj: From French, meaning ‘cloud’. Nuage Networks from Nokia brings a combination of technologies and networking expertise to the enterprise and telecommunications industries. The Silicon Valley-based business has applied new thinking to the problem of delivering massively scalable and highly programmable SDN solutions within and across the datacenter and out to the wide area network with the security and availability required by business-critical environments. Nuage Networks, backed by the rapidly growing IP/Optical Networks business of Nokia has the pedigree to serve the needs of the world’s biggest clouds. The cloud has made promises – the mission of Nuage Networks is to help you realize them.
For more information, visit Nuage Networks on: www.nuagenetworks.net, read the latest posts on the Nuage Networks blog http://www.nuagenetworks.net/blog/ and follow the company on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nuagenetworks.
About BT
BT’s purpose is to use the power of communications to make a better world. It is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in 180 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed-mobile products and services. BT consists of six customer-facing lines of business: Global Services, Business and Public Sector, Consumer, EE, Wholesale and Ventures, and Openreach.
For the year ended 31 March 2016, BT Group’s reported revenue was £19,042m with reported profit before taxation of £3,029m.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.
For more information, visit www.btplc.com
