Open source SD-WAN vendor flexiWAN today announced it had joined Prodapt's Open Virtual Exchange (OpenVX). The test-bed serves as a framework for the development, testing, and integration of virtual edge services such as SD-WAN.

Under the partnership, Prodapt will offer flexiWAN's open source SD-WAN technology through its OpenVX vendor marketplace. Here, vendors can take advantage of Prodapt's unique testing methodologies, network bots, and analytics accelerators to develop and test SD-WAN offerings built on the flexiWAN platform.

“This partnership would drive a service-ready Open-SDWAN solution framework with underlying best-of-breed uCPE vendors and service orchestrators in OpenVX ecosystem,” said Rajiv Papneja, SVP and global head of network services at Prodapt, in a statement.

According to flexiWAN CEO Amir Zmora, by partnering with Prodapt service providers now have a place to quickly and cost effectively develop and deploy SD-WAN offerings based on the company's software. More importantly, the service can help service providers differentiate their SD-WAN offerings in meaningful ways, Zmora said.

“A major concern of service providers is lack of differentiation when reselling SD-WAN solutions. flexiWAN offers an Application Framework that enables service providers' to differentiate their SD-WAN services by dynamically loading specific networking applications that run in the flexiEdge data flow or in flexiManage,” he said in a statement.

In a recent webinar, Zmora and TechVision Research analyst Sorell Slaymaker discussed how an open source SD-WAN like flexiWAN could address some of the technology's biggest pain points.

According to Zmora, the first problem with the current crop of SD-WAN platforms is they can't talk to each other. There is no interoperability. The second challenge is most SD-WAN platforms are part of a larger package that leaves service providers with little room to differentiate their managed SD-WAN service from the next.

Zmora explained that an open source SD-WAN platform could address both challenges by providing a standard means of communication, and by providing an open framework on which service providers can develop their own distinct offerings tailored to the customer's needs.

Since announcing plans to join the SD-WAN space with an open architecture early last year, flexiWAN has steadily gained traction, especially among service providers.

In December 2019, the company announced a partnership with Telefónica to develop a proof-of-concept SD-WAN service designed to run on white-box consumer premises equipment.

Shortly after, flexiWAN announced the general availability of its first stable release through hardware partners Lanner, Advantech, and Silicom.