Verizon Teams with Ericsson to Strengthen Virtualization and SD-WAN

Verizon Communications‘ Enterprise Solutions division has built on its network virtualization partnership with Ericsson, noting that the vendor will provide enabling technology for the operator’s virtualized global Managed Network Services platform. These enabling technologies include Ericsson’s Cloud Manager and Order Care to support model-driven configuration management and provide the orchestration engine, with the vendor’s VNF Factory platform supporting onboarding and validation of virtual network functions into Verizon’s ecosystem. Ericsson is also providing closed loop service assurance, VNF testing, and system integration services.

Verizon also mentioned that the updated platform is equipped with software defined wide area networking services as part of the greater plan to broaden customer control over ordering, configuration, end-to-end automation, and payment models for enterprise services. The communications giant noted that the self-service offering also allows for dynamic control over virtualized security packages, WAN optimization and data center load balancing.

Earlier this year, the wireless carrier announced a partnership with SevOne to increase its visibility into SD-WAN deployments for enterprise customers. A recent report from IDC expects the SD-WAN space to reach $6 billion in technology and service sales by 2020, with a CAGR of more than 90% over the next five years. The company is also set to use other Ericsson solutions abd services to stimulate a partner ecosystem for enterprise focused VNFs with the ability for third parties to provide VNFs that can be tested and onboarded to the carrier’s catalog for “bundling by Verizon and selection by its enterprise customers.”

“This project grew out of Verizon’s long-standing relationship with Ericsson and builds on the successful launch of our mobile offering that leverages Ericsson’s cloud orchestration solutions to provide VPN capabilities for mobile devices,” explained Shawn Hakl, VP of networking and security solutions at Verizon. “We are jointly developing on Ericsson’s innovative and comprehensive platform to enable a wide range of secure virtual networking services to our enterprise customers.”

Looking to the future, it seems that Verizon’s efforts are directed at support for 5G technology with some indicators that the company is “looking at aligning NFV/SDN to fulfill 5G requirements and planning to move its wireless network services closer to the edge of the network using NFV.”

Shawn Hakl, Vice President of Networking and Security Solutions, Verizon, says: “This project grew out of Verizon’s long-standing relationship with Ericsson and builds on the successful launch of our mobile offering that leverages Ericsson’s cloud orchestration solutions to provide VPN capabilities for mobile devices. We are jointly developing on Ericsson’s innovative and comprehensive platform to enable a wide range of secure virtual networking services to our enterprise customers.”