PCCW Global expands SD-WAN services with uCPE, NFV

Aiming to offer support to companies that plan to take advantage of the benefits of digital transformation and cloud-based services, international telecommunications service provider PCCW Global has expanded its advanced software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) services to include both universal customer premise equipment (uCPE) and network function virtualisation (NFV) technologies.

The Hong Kong-based operator has a network footprint reaching more than 3,000 cities in more than 160 countries across five continents linking Africa, the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East, and its network supports a portfolio of integrated communications services including connectivity, applications, and tailored solutions integrated and orchestrated by the company’s Console Connect on-demand digital software-defined interconnection platform, said to be one of the first global platforms to fully automate switching and routing of all communications for seamless interconnection.

Explaining its decision to expand its SD-WAN, the operator said businesses around the world have been migrating from traditional WAN networks that connect regional offices to the more advanced SD-WAN infrastructure to improves user experience by avoiding backhaul traffic and simplifying management with a centralised single portal to manage branch connectivity.

In addition, dynamic SD-WAN network technology is able to integrate and serve multiple types of connectivity, including traditional MPLS, standard internet and mobile networks. As a result, it said, SD-WAN networks are also more cost-effective – fully integrating available links and offloading non-mission-critical applications to internet-based connections.

The company now believes that by including uCPE and NFV technologies in its SD-WAN it can bring a new level of user experience through inherent advantages such as enhanced security, automation and simplified management.

The uCPE hardware provides additional advanced networking options and the hosting of related NFV technologies that are able to replace physical devices, such as firewalls and routers.

In addition, the services are said to have the potential to greatly improve provisioning lead times as well as the reduction of logistical costs. Moreover, users are able to avoid the expensive up-front investment in their own complicated hardware infrastructure.

The uCPE and NFV combinations offered by PCCW Global are also designed to address customer challenges during SD-WAN deployment and are available for customer procurement: these include uCPE with SD-WAN; uCPE with SD-WAN and virtual router; uCPE with SD-WAN and virtual firewall. An option to provide uCPE with SD-WAN network functionality, where customers choose and supplies their own NFV service, will be made available later in 2021.

Users are also able to leverage PCCW Global’s SD-WAN gateway, which is hosted in a fully managed digital solutions platform and is linked to the company’s Tier 1 international MPLS and global internet network. As a result, users also benefit from better reliability and performance to both cloud and remote service sites across a true end-to-end managed global SD-WAN solution.

To support the technology, PCCW Global also has on offer a dedicated team to support customers throughout their digital transformation journey, both before and after network migration, enabling them to focus on their core business.