- BT describes Global Fabric as a new network
- The telco says it will feature an “underlay” that will serve as an AI-powered digital orchestration layer
One of the big reasons companies are reluctant to move to a multi-cloud environment is the fear that it will add complexity to what is already a complicated process. But U.K. operator BT believes it has found a way to help companies simplify their multi-cloud strategy. The answer is Global Fabric, which BT unveiled as a network-as-a-service (NaaS) model to make it easier for companies to manage their multiple clouds and applications, as well as better protect their data.
BT describes Global Fabric as a new network and says it will feature an “underlay” that will serve as an AI-powered digital orchestration layer. Global Fabric customers will be able to select application and workload paths and move these workloads around between clouds and end users.
Although many companies are starting to debut products that they say will make multi-cloud easier, BT says the one thing that sets Global Fabric apart is that it allows customers to manage costs by offering a ‘pay-as-you-go’ model as opposed to requiring them to sign a fixed-term contract that requires a certain amount of bandwidth or a specific type of connectivity.
According to Colin Bannon, CTO of Business at BT, this type of payment flexibility allows customers to scale their bandwidth as they need it as well as optimize their application workloads. For example, an enterprise can easily change the type of connectivity they are using and move from the less expensive options such as business Internet to more expensive options such as Ethernet or MPLS depending upon their application.
Bannon also said that customers may want to use the pay-as-you-go option to move workloads on-prem or into the public cloud.
“It’s easy to spin up very high bandwidth paths on demand to enable the migration, then tear them down, or reduce bandwidth to business-as-usual levels afterwards,” Bannon said.
Not only does this model allow customers to manage their connectivity and reduce their costs, BT also said that it believes customers will be able to improve their application performance and address any regulatory requirements for data.
BT said that Global Fabric is already pre-integrated with more than 630 digital service providers. When asked for examples of the types of service providers, BT said this includes public cloud providers such as Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS), as well as private clouds, ISPs, software-as-a-service (SaaS) firms and secure access service edge (SASE) solutions.
Global Fabric also is pre-integrated with more than 700 data centers and is connected to Digital Reality’s and Equinix’s data centers.
Making multi-cloud green
Not only is BT claiming its Global Fabric will reduce connectivity costs, it also says it believes it can help companies save on electricity and meet their sustainability goals. For example, BT estimates that when in use, Global Fabric will consume just 8,326 Milliwatts per year vs. current usage by international networks, which is around 39,890 Milliwatts per year.
Batton said that because Global Fabric uses the latest hardware coupled with its digital orchestration layer, it can significantly reduce electricity as compared to many existing networks that use older, less efficient hardware.
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