Windstream’s Kinetic Business SD-WAN aims to bring benefits of the new architecture to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Kinetic Business SD-WAN is built on VeloCloud from VMware’s technology. SD-WANs are more flexible and less costly than previous technology. In many cases, SD-WANs allow use of now nearly ubiquitous broadband instead of more expensive MPLS connectivity.
Enterprises have been embracing SD-WAN and it now has the attention of the cloud ecosystem as well. As more applications move to the edge from the cloud, SD-WAN’s utility only grows. SMBs will be accessing those cloud applications at the edge as well, and Windstream’s Kinetic SD-WAN moves aim to get in front of these trends.
“Our customers are increasing their network complexity with multiple WiFi networks and cloud applications,” Joe Johnson, vice president of Kinetic Product Development and Management, said in a press release. “We already deliver an excellent broadband product over our robust fiber network. Our customers have asked for greater simplicity and control over their networks, and with this partnership, we are delivering an industry-leading solution easily managed from a web interface or a mobile device.”
The SD-WAN category has been gaining traction for a few years. In most cases, it is large firms, with the funding to experiment and play the long game, that take the lead.
There are signs that the category – which traditionally is a bit chaotic – is stabilizing. Last month, Vertical Systems Group said that its Leaderboard was mostly stable at the end of last year. Companies with at least 2% of installed and billable carrier-managed customer sites in the U.S. market were AT&T, Hughes, Verizon, CenturyLink, Windstream, Aryaka and Comcast.
The progress of the segment is illustrated in a couple of other ways in addition to Windstream’s Kinetic SD-WAN news. Last October, IHS Markit said that the replacement of legacy routers with SD-WAN led to a 23% jump in the technology during the second quarter of last year. In November, the MEF made SD-WAN a central focus of its conference in Los Angeles. The standards body aims to do to SD-WAN what it has done with metro ethernet – contribute to a global SD-WAN standardization process that eventually hopes to enable inter-carrier federation of SD-WAN service.
Four carriers recently achieved MEF 3.0 standardization, including Comcast, Charter, PCCW Global and Telia Company.
