CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) has chosen Nuage Networks' SDN technology to serve various networking functions for its Programmable Services Backbone (PSB) network architecture.
As an open, software-enabled platform that delivers dedicated services based on NFV technology to CenturyLink's enterprise and SMB customers, PSB places applications and services close to the network edge so they can be deployed, modified and scaled rapidly as business demands change.
By implementing virtual functions into its network, CenturyLink is able to give business customers the ability to turn up and turn down bandwidth as needed. This would include a series of virtual gateways and virtual routing services, something that it plans to debut early next year.
"Where I see the experience changing for the customer is this kind of rich service on-demand capability," said James Feger, vice president of network strategy and development for CenturyLink, in an interview with FierceTelecom. "It's basic routed, basic switched or something on top of that like a security service or WAN acceleration and that's where we start seeing the power of the virtual network at the edge."
Working with Nuage will enable CenturyLink to move forward with its plans to begin deploying a range of virtualized data and voice infrastructure services, including customer premises endpoints.
By implementing Nuage Networks' Virtualized Services Platform (VSP) overlay, CenturyLink said its PSB will be able to deliver three main functions: cloud control, improved operating efficiency, and security.
By unifying or federating new virtualized services, CenturyLink can offer VPN, co-location and existing cloud services as a single entity that it says will make the services available regardless of the end-user's location. CenturyLink will gain control of the unified cloud and the ability to program its global network from the customer premises to the public cloud.
Efficiency is also a key element here.
The VSP will integrate and interoperate with the Open Source cloud platforms to coordinate compute, storage and networking needs, while automating network provisioning across the entire federated cloud. In addition, Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Assurance Platform (VSAP) provides CenturyLink the capability to detect, debug and resolve problems quickly through a real-time inventory of virtual services, physical connectivity and the correlation between them.
As more of its customers move to virtual services, the VSP's micro-segmentation capabilities protect against internal and external security breaches. It also addresses key security gaps in virtual machine and Docker container environments.
Virtualization overall has been a big priority for CenturyLink. The service provider has continued to progress with its SDN and NFV transition, equipping over 36 locations in multiple geographies with its virtual network services (VNS).
For more:
- see the release
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