Wazzup Pilipinas!
ePLDT, an industry-leading provider of digital business solutions
to enterprises in the Philippines, recently announced that it has deployed
best-in-class Software Defined Networking
(SDN) technology in its network of data centers. This is part of the
company’s drive to elevate customer experience as SDN enables quick adoption to
changing business trends and efficiency in controlling network resources.
“Businesses are looking for smarter and more agile infrastructure to
support their digital transformation initiatives. This demand is obviously
brought by emerging trends such as cloud computing, mobile technology, Big Data
analytics, and the rise of the Internet of Things. All these have transformed
the IT paradigm and accelerated the need for infrastructure that can support
rapid shifts in demand. With the backdraft of natural and man-made disasters,
we have also seen growth for geo-resiliency among enterprises which will need
rapid network configuration and deployment. SDN will simplify configuration,
control and management of enterprise networks," said Nerisse Ramos, ePLDT Group Chief
Operating Officer. “By enabling our VITRO Data Centers with SDN, our
entire infrastructure can address these needs with enhanced efficiency,
flexibility, and security.”
Traditionally, data center networks are comprised of a large
number of switches and routers that direct traffic based on the limited view of
each device. This feature makes data centers independent from one another.
Managing configurations and the protocols associated with it must therefore be
done in various places which can be time-consuming and expensive.
SDN is an approach to networking in which control of network
policies and resources are decoupled through a single SDN controller. Because
of the open-source nature of the controller, organizations can utilize
commodity hardware from multiple vendors without compromising performance.
“With this approach, traffic flow is managed through software, allowing
optimization and tuning which is not available in traditional or
locally-managed switches and routers. Clients who demand certain changes and
updates to their subscribed service can now receive them immediately and in an
efficient manner,” explained Nico Alcoseba, PLDT/ePLDT Head of Disruptive
Business.
Scalable connectivity and secure delivery at a
faster pace
Through SDN, a single management console with better visibility
into network resources simplifies planning, and the setting up of networks,
whether real or virtual. Policies can be changed quickly and easily to manage
traffic loads, automatically reallocate network resources, and add devices. As
a result, SDN provides organizations with the flexibility and agility to
respond to market conditions and customer needs while dramatically improving
management efficiency.
Faster service delivery is achieved through SDN as services such
as load balancers, firewalls, and Intrusion Detection Systems are placed
appropriately on the traffic path, thereby allowing users to customize their
own services based on their actual needs. Security is also assured as SDNs can
handle increasing security demands that are not possible with hard-wired
networks.
“With SDN, we can provide our services to clients faster,” said Dave
Simon, ePLDT Group Chief Technology Officer. “Our previous provisioning
standard to our clients may range anywhere between 5 and 15 days depending on
the scope but now with SDN, our standard services can be provisioned to
customers in a matter of hours.”
Change for the future
For the country’s leading data center services provider in the
country—with 10 data centers by 2018—this shift to SDN technology is just one
of the company’s many innovations in its effort to provide high-quality service
and superior customer experience.
This shift also makes ePLDT at pace with the latest global trends.
According to a study by the International Data Corporation, the worldwide data
center SDN market is expected to reach $12.5 billion by 2020, with a compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 53.9% from 2014 to 2020.
“With its benefits, we believe that SDN is the future when it
comes to networking,” said Ramos. “As a pacesetter in data center management,
we ensure that our facilities and systems are up-to-date. In this way, our
clients are assured of service at par with global technology standards.”
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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