Since the use of software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs) is on the rise in several areas, new products focusing on this growing market are likewise coming into play. Beyond that, however, there's also a growing demand to secure the traffic and functions that take place on an SD-WAN. CenturyLink is no different here, and is offering a complete managed SD-WAN and SD-Security service for those looking to harness the SD-WAN. CenturyLink's offering is now nearly ready to go thanks to one last component from Versa Networks.
Versa Networks will be supplying the Versa FlexVNF software to complete CenturyLink's offering, which provides the complete benefits of an SD-WAN—low costs, rapid delivery of services, high-grade performance and so on—by drawing on a series of network functions virtualization (NFV) systems to bring it all together in one package.
This isn't the first time that CenturyLink has called on Versa's systems to complete its own offerings, reports suggest, as Versa's “software-based instances of networking functions” were brought into play in providing the benefits an SD-WAN can offer to begin with. Now, with CenturyLink going back to the Versa well, it can augment these offerings still further with enhanced, software-defined security as well. Plus, with Versa's tools on hand, CenturyLink can offer provisioning that takes much less time than normal, allowing a process that may have taken months to be greatly reduced. There's also a vast reduction in the amount of hardware required to get a similar effect, which is a reduction to capital expenditure and a savings for the company that uses it.
CenturyLink's director of network products, Eric Barnett, commented “As CenturyLink began researching the SD-WAN market, we saw the opportunity to innovate beyond purely networking technology and fundamentally design a new type of managed service. Versa Networks continues to innovate the way managed services are built, offering a broad set of benefits using a highly flexible NFV-based approach.”
There's no shortage of value in having the kind of functions an SD-WAN can offer available more readily and more rapidly, with less expense besides, but there's also a clear call to make sure that the produce of said systems is protected sufficiently. Security for such systems thus becomes a vital part of operations, and CenturyLink—thanks to Versa's toolset—can provide that as well. It's made itself a complete value provider, start to finish, and companies that want a single-vendor solution for both SD-WAN and security should find just what's needed in CenturyLink.
CenturyLink has established its value in the field, thanks in some part to Versa Networks. It's a package that should pull its share of attention, and allow CenturyLink a better chance at growth in a growing market.
Edited by
Stefania Viscusi
