VMware is the latest SD-WAN vendor to berth in Megaport’s Virtual Edge (MVE) service, which the companies claim will expedite branch-to-cloud and branch-to-branch communications.

Announced in late 2020, MVE enables companies to host virtual-network functions (VNFs) — like SD-WAN — on Megaport’s global SDN, which spans more than 700 connected data centers, service providers, and cloud on ramps.

By hosting its SD-WAN platform on MVE, VMware says customers can improve network reliability and performance by reducing the time SD-WAN traffic traverses the open internet.

The service “offers customers more choice for simplifying WAN operations, reliable network performance for business-critical applications, and easier adoption of hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud, while reducing latency to cloud workloads,” Craig Connors, VP and GM of VMware’s SASE business, said in a statement.

The service can also be used as an alternative to MPLS for inter-branch communications.

Support for MVE has grown steadily in year since its launch with several large SD-WANs extending support for the platform.

The service, which went live this spring, launched alongside an integration with Cisco’s Viptela SD-WAN.

“The internet offers only best-effort connectivity with inconsistent network quality, which can significantly impact application performance, while direct cloud interconnects require customers to plan for capacity and global reach upfront, which can lead to underutilization and spiraling costs,” Jean-Luc Valente, VP and product manager for Cisco’s enterprise routing and SD-WAN division, said at the time.

And in May, Fortinet also extended support for the service.

The announcements underscore growing demand for middle-mile connectivity as customers look for ways to cut costs associated with MPLS connectivity.

Private networks are often substantially faster and more reliable than the internet, Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research, told SDxCentral in a recent interview.

MVE isn’t without its competitors. Earlier this month, AWS launched Cloud WAN, a managed WAN service that streamlines the process of connecting on-premises data centers and branch offices to the cloud provider’s global backbone network.

The launch mirrored capabilities offered by competing cloud vendors Google and Microsoft with Network Connectivity Center and Azure vWAN respectively.

To date, VMware and its two largest competitors Cisco and Fortinet have announced support for all three platforms.