The service, Verizon claims, is an enterprise-focused platform, designed to support the migration toward a virtual infrastructure model, available to companies worldwide through an “as-a-service” model. Companies will be able to track locations, staff requirements, network services and bandwidth requirements.
This move could potentially further Verizon’s SDN (Software-Defined Networking) and NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) digital strategy with claims like end-to-end management via a web portal and on-demand, pay-as-you-go pricing.
Initially the company is rolling out three subscription-based deployment models: on-premise customer premises equipment (CPE); cloud-based virtual CPE services, available from autumn and a hybrid model, which enables customers to mix premises-based and cloud-based offerings.
Shawn Hakl, Vice President, Networking and Innovation, Verizon, 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 (IoT).
“The way in which network services are delivered is going through an unprecedented shift, the biggest we’ve seen since the broad adoption of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS),” Hakl added.
The first set of services include security, WAN optimization and SD-WAN. The services will be available in 53 countries starting this month and 67 by the end of August, according to Verizon. It already boats of 112.6 million retail connections nationwide.
About Verizon’s release, Yvette Kanouff, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cisco, said:
“Innovative service providers such as Verizon are leveraging technology to virtualize, automate, secure and scale their networks to meet growing customer demand and drive profitable business outcomes. We believe our open network architecture delivers a unified approach to network virtualization, automation and orchestration and ultimately helps Verizon continue to lead in creating new opportunities for their clients.”
Although it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Verizon’s Virtual Network Services announcement is following suit after AT&T released a similar offering, it calls “Network Functions on Demand,” only a few days ago. According to reports, both companies give customer the ability to load a Cisco or Juniper router onto generic customer premises equipment, a service Verizon calls “uCPE,” and works on SDN and NFV deployments.
