Tata Communications launches IZO SDWAN

Underpinned by Tata Communications’ global network, IZO™ ecosystem, and partnerships with the world’s biggest cloud companies, IZO™ SDWAN boosts agility and flexibility for organisations. By enabling the instant deployment of branch office networks anywhere in the world, the new service helps organisations to expand and introduce new products and services faster, and adapt to rapidly changing market conditions.

Essilor, a world leader in ophthalmic optics is one of the beta customers of IZO™ SDWAN. The company is using the new service to facilitate its expansion into new geographies. “Given the crucial role that different cloud applications play in our business globally, the agility, flexibility and reliability of our network is paramount,” Marc Tanguy, Director, IT Technology Services in Asia-Pacific, Middle-East, Russia and Africa, Essilor, said. “Essilor’s mission of improving lives by improving sight, for people everywhere in the world, means it is vital for us to have the right solutions that help us to smoothly expand into new geographies, including the fast-growing markets of APAC and Africa. A next-generation, software-defined hybrid network will enable us to connect new locations in an instant, making us more agile, and empowering us to improve the lives of many more people through improved access to quality vision care products.  We are happy with the proof of concept and look to a new dimension of digital transformation with IZO™ SDWAN.”

IZO™ SDWAN is a fully managed and modular overlay service that is tightly integrated with the underlay – the world’s largest and most advanced IP network. That is why it is quick, easy and risk-free to integrate into organisations’ existing network set-up – be it the public Internet, a hybrid network or a private WAN – boosting the efficiency of bandwidth use while reducing OPEX. By providing employees with faultless, secure access to applications and data, and empowering them to collaborate securely and seamlessly wherever in the world they are, IZO™ SDWAN enables organisations to drive further efficiencies, boost productivity and improve the bottom line.

“A new kind of platform economy is emerging, paving the way for innovative co-created services and business models that transform entire industries,” says Genius Wong, President, Global Network Services, Cloud and Data Centre Services at Tata Communications. “But the management of a multitude of applications, clouds and connections which power the platform economy can be hugely challenging for organisations. Our IZO™ cloud enablement platform and its latest addition, IZO™ SDWAN, harness our unparalleled global reach and our partnerships to tackle these challenges and enable organisations to unleash the growth potential that new markets, geographies and business models bring through a scalable, borderless and easy-to-manage network.”

Joel Stradling, Research Director, Current Analysis says, “The expansion of Tata Communications’ IZO™ portfolio with an SDWAN service strengthens the company’s offering with new capabilities that allow enterprises to take advantage of greater service agility and automated provisioning.  Tata Communications’ IZO™ SDWAN proposal is wide, addressing a sliding scale of business requirements, and telling a compelling story built around the company’s global network footprint.”

Tata Communications has developed multiple variants of IZO™ SDWAN to suit its customers’ different business and technology requirements. These variants consist of its own patent-pending technology, and one that builds on technology supplied by Versa Networks, a Gartner ‘Cool Vendor’. This ensures maximum choice and flexibility for organisations.

To meet its customers’ constantly growing needs for cloud connectivity, Tata Communications is deploying 20 new cloud gateways for IZO™ SDWAN, with several more in the pipeline. These gateways, the IZO™ ecosystem offering secure, reliable connectivity to the clouds of Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Salesforce, and a single-pane-of-glass management portal, enable organisations to virtualise their network with scale, while ensuring the CIO has full visibility and control over the network. Through the use of edge virtualisation, which enables the deployment of multiple virtual networking functions (VNFs) within the same equipment, enterprises are able to reduce the volume of equipment at their branch locations, accelerating the roll-out of new applications and services.

Fujitsu Consulting India is also a beta customer of IZO™ SDWAN, using the new solution as part of its next-generation hybrid network to enhance service delivery and corporate IT services access. Mohammed Shahed Khan, Group Head, IT Infrastructure & CISO, Fujitsu Consulting India, said: “Given the multitude of IT projects we undertake for our customers, the flexibility, scalability and reliability of our network is paramount. That is why we are currently deploying a next-generation hybrid network – it will enable us to accelerate service delivery and connect new applications and devices in an instant. A software-defined WAN will make us more agile, and empower us to continue to stay ahead of the competition, effortlessly.”