Broadcom is now offering communication service providers a more comprehensive connectivity management platform that will allow them to connect most of the prominent converged access technologies into a single offering.

The VeloSky platform integrates control of fiber, cellular, and satellite connectivity into a single appliance. It also uses Broadcom’s underlying artificial intelligence (AI)-infused VeloRAIN platform to support traffic prioritization, bandwidth management, and firewall services managed through a simplified interface.

Sanjay Uppal, VP and GM of Broadcom’s Software-Defined Edge division, explained in a press briefing that the VeloSky product is targeted at a “much larger market” than traditional SD-WAN services, and more importantly allow those service providers to charge a premium.

“It is a solution that is meant for telcos to deploy for enterprises and can converge all of their access lines technologically so that they can provide a much better quality of service on an application-by-application basis, and we believe charge more for it as well,” Uppal said.

Uppal noted that the platform can be targeted by service providers at enterprise customers that need “rock solid connectivity, where the underlays tend to be quite variable.” The exec cited verticals like pop-up retail, health care, clinics, and manufacturing, adding that it can also serve those verticals that are increasing their use of AI and generative AI (genAI).

“From a convert standpoint, it's actually folks from the finance vertical, the insurance vertical, that people would want rock-solid connectivity,” Uppal said. “They have lots of genAI applications and they want to make sure that those genAI applications actually work. They're willing to throw fiber and whatever connectivity is available, but then they want insurance that they think this thing really works.”

Those service providers can offer the service either branded as VeloSky or they can white-label it. “But I would say that I've not found anyone who has extremely strong allergic reaction to not having the VeloSky or VeloCloud brand, whether on the box itself or in the in the in the software,” Uppal added.

The platform is also targeted at operators that are increasingly tapping fixed-wireless access (FWA) services to serve enterprise use cases. “You can actually segment the market out and take a slice of that market going in, and then you can look at satellite too,” Uppal said.

VeloSky active with AI The VeloSky product’s AI abilities tap into the recently unveiled VeloRAIN platform. That platform taps AI and machine learning (ML) to help improve the performance and security of distributed AI workloads that would normally be edge workloads that run across VMware’s VeloCloud SD-WAN platform.

VeloRAIN also introduced channel estimation intelligence to monitor and optimize connections over wireless links like cellular and satellite communications. This ties into the DABS system to feed the VeloRAIN platform’s ability to manage service quality.

Uppal noted that VeloRAIN software architecture underpins all of the VeloCloud SD-WAN products. The initial VeloRAIN release hit the market earlier this year.

VeloRAIN itself is built on Broadcom’s VMware edge AI updates announced earlier last year. Those updates included new edge connectivity appliances, an integrated secure access service edge (SASE) product, and updates to its Edge Compute Stack (ECS) platform.

Gartner last year ranked VeloCloud as one of the SD-WAN market’s leading platforms alongside rivals Fortinet and Cisco. VeloCloud was lauded for its deep product capabilities, strong market share, and strong market understanding.

However, Gartner did caution on Broadcom’s customer experience, product roadmap that was more catchup than market leading, and concerns over Broadcom’s future SD-WAN plans tied to the VMware integration.

How does VeloSky compare? VeloSky is also hitting an increasingly competitive market that includes services from vendors like Cisco and Ericsson’s Cradlepoint division. Uppal noted that VeloSky was application-based, which is “really what enterprises would like,” offered “packet-by-packet” convergence across different connectivity paths, and leaned on AI to differentiate VeloSky from rivals.

“It's not just you have, ‘oh, here I recognize that this is complexity.’ Now it's actually, ‘how is the complexity working? What is the agentic interaction going on? How do you set up the network and the security for it?’” Uppal said. “I don't find that the current incumbents are really going about it from that perspective.”

Service providers can access the VeloSky product through Broadcom’s Titan partner program, which recently replaced the legacy VMware VeloCloud Partner Program. The new program includes three program tiers with labels – Pinnacle, Premier, Registered – that Broadcom has been layering across the altered VMware partner program landscape, and also follows Broadcom’s stated push of simplified licensing portability.

“Previously, what we would say is, if you’re a partner then you have to identify which end enterprise that you’re providing these licenses to,” Uppal previously explained. “With the new Titan partner program, that’s going to be simplified so you can actually port licenses from one to another, not across geographies, but in the same geography.”

VeloSky pricing was not announced, but the product is available in all of the VeloCloud regions.