Sprint to enter the SD-WAN fray in partnership with VeloCloud.

Iain Morris, International Editor

October 13, 2016

2 Min Read
Sprint Plans Global SD-WAN Launch for 2017

US telco Sprint is plotting a global launch of an SD-WAN service in partnership with VeloCloud early next year.

The service is designed to help enterprise customers more efficiently manage corporate networks and improve performance, said the operator in a statement. Sprint plans to carry out customer trials with VeloCloud between January and March.

The announcement reflects growing momentum in the SD-WAN market and comes shortly after Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) rival AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) launched its own SD-WAN offering with VeloCloud Networks Inc. . (See AT&T Bets on Integrating SD-WANs, MPLS.)

Having recently flagged deals with two of the top four US operators, VeloCloud seems to have quickly emerged as the partner of choice in the SD-WAN field.

The California-based company is also collaborating on SD-WANs with Japan's NTT Group (NYSE: NTT) and Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT).

Want to know more about the emerging SDN market? Check out our dedicated SDN content channel here on Light Reading.

Sprint's move comes only months after the operator launched a global wireline business unit to address the all-IP needs of enterprise organizations.

"Sprint SD-WAN will transform the way our business customers use their network," said Mike Fitz, the vice president of the new unit, in a company statement. "SD-WAN enables enterprises to lower their network costs while dynamically supporting converged services such as SIP trunking, cloud services and hosted applications."

For connectivity purposes, Sprint said enterprises would be able to use its own MPLS or broadband Internet connectivity as well as broadband services from other providers, promising to manage the SD-WAN service across different transport vendors.

— Iain Morris, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profile, News Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Iain Morris

International Editor, Light Reading

Iain Morris joined Light Reading as News Editor at the start of 2015 -- and we mean, right at the start. His friends and family were still singing Auld Lang Syne as Iain started sourcing New Year's Eve UK mobile network congestion statistics. Prior to boosting Light Reading's UK-based editorial team numbers (he is based in London, south of the river), Iain was a successful freelance writer and editor who had been covering the telecoms sector for the past 15 years. His work has appeared in publications including The Economist (classy!) and The Observer, besides a variety of trade and business journals. He was previously the lead telecoms analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, and before that worked as a features editor at Telecommunications magazine. Iain started out in telecoms as an editor at consulting and market-research company Analysys (now Analysys Mason).

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