Vodafone Idea Business Services, Nokia join hands to help enterprises deploy SD-WAN

New Delhi: Vodafone Idea Business Services (VIBS) - the enterprise arm of Vodafone Idea - on Tuesday said it has partnered with Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia to roll out software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) services for startups and enterprises in India.

"Through SD-WAN deployment, VIBS will offer advanced networking and connectivity solutions and enable enterprises to dramatically increase the speed of deployment, flexibility and control. It is a software-defined network for digital business to securely access applications in a multi-cloud environment," Vodafone Idea Business Services Chief Enterprise Business Officer Nick Gliddon told reporters here at the India Mobile Congress 2019.

Software-defined networking in wide area network (SD-WAN) simplifies the management and operation of the enterprise's network. While the SD-WAN market is still at a nascent stage, it is expected to become a USD 10 billion opportunity globally by 2023 as per industry reports. The growth of SD-WAN market is expected to be fuelled by enterprises looking for traffic management to optimise bandwidth and reduce costs as they replace WAN with broadband network, without compromising on security. Gliddon said the Vodafone Idea's SD-WAN service will offer opex-based pricing for managed SD-WAN network as well as a centralised, automated control of network policies.

"The services will be offered in partnership with Nokia and is built on Nokia's Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Platform (VSP) that will provide enterprises with an application-driven network that seamlessly and constantly adapts to the real-time demands of cloud computing, mobility and digitisation," he explained. This will further allow connections across the business, and cloud to be intelligently and dynamically programmed from a centralised location. By using centralised software to manage the network, it becomes easier to control, more agile and ready to adapt to future connectivity requirements.

Gliddon said the offering will benefit clients in sectors like banking, manufacturing and retail. "This partnership allows Vodafone to offer advanced networking and connectivity solutions, as well as enabling their customers to optimize business and cloud services. With the Virtualised Services Platform, Vodafone Idea gives control of the network back to the customer, making them more agile, adaptable and flexible," Nitin Dahiya, Account Director at Nokia India, said.