Verizon enterprise customers will now be able to jump on board the virtualization train thanks to the carrier’s launch of Virtual Network Services.
According to Verizon, the new offering will allow enterprises to shift their current hardware to a virtual infrastructure model.
“The way in which network services are delivered is going through an unprecedented shift—the biggest we’ve seen since the broad adoption of MPLS,” Verizon vice president of networking and innovation Shawn Hakl said. “Today the network is transitioning to a virtualized model using similar technology that drove the disruption in the data center market. With our new solution set, enterprises will be able to balance agility, performance, cost and security necessitated by the growth of mobile-to-cloud applications and the Internet of Things.”
Verizon said it will initially offer enterprises Virtual Security, WAN Optimization, and SD WAN services. Partners include Cisco, Fortinet, Juniper Networks and Palo Alto Networks for vSecurity; Cisco and Riverbed for vWAN Optimization; Cisco and Viptela for SD-WAN; and Cisco and Juniper Networks for uCPE.
Verizon representatives said these functions were chosen because they are the most mature applications and the ones customers expressed the most interest in.
According to Verizon director of networking Vickie Lonker, the virtual services will give businesses much more flexibility and scalability to meet growing consumer demands.
“The networks that supported customer needs were previously static, not very changeable,” Lonker explained. “But today customers consume and use applications much differently. Their users are on the move and their networks are on the move, so the demand on all of these networks is always changing. So, we have to meet that demand for our enterprise customers.”
The carrier said its new virtual services will be offered in three models of deployment, including premises-based universal customer premises equipment (CPE), cloud-based virtual CPE services (available Fall 2016) and hybrid services where clients can mix premises-based and cloud-based deployment models to meet their individual needs.
Verizon’s announcement comes just two days after AT&T announced a similar suite of virtualized functions for its enterprise customers.
Like Verizon, AT&T is initially only offering a handful of services, including virtual routing from Juniper Networks, a virtual router from Cisco, virtual security from Fortinet and virtual wide area network optimization from Riverbed.
Filed Under: Infrastructure
