Windstream's managed SD-WAN service got a data analytics booster shot today with the launch of the WE Connect Insights Engine. The new feature is designed to gather and evaluate data from all customer locations, create a historic record, and aggregate that data to deliver greater visibility and reporting capabilities to customers.

“Visualizing the trends in applications, circuits, and devices provides customers with deeper insights into how their network is performing and changing over time as well as how bandwidth is being consumed by the applications and devices,” said Mike Frane, VP of product at Windstream Enterprise, in a statement.

According to Frane, WE Connect Insights will allow businesses to make better decisions about application prioritization, bandwidth allocations, and upgrades. "Our own teams also use these insights to provide our white glove concierge service to our customers,” he said.

These features feed into the company's SD-WAN report center to provide customers with more granular network visibility across the WAN.

Windstream joins a growing number of SD-WAN service providers and vendors that have turned to data analytics and AIOps to provide customers with better network visibility and enhanced troubleshooting tools. In the past month, two secure access service edge (SASE) vendors have purchased AIOps providers, with VMware picking up Nyansa and Open Systems snapping up Swiss vendor Sqooba.

On the service provider side, Masergy rolled out its own AIOps platform in September, and rolled out a new Shadow IT Discovery feature in mid-January.

Last week, Windstream announced it had added more than 1,000 miles to its long-haul fiber-optic network with the help of Infinera's FlexILS line system. The newly laid route runs from Salt Lake City, to Portland, Oregon, and Seattle.

According to Joe Scattareggia, EVP of Windstream Wholesale, the new route was a response to increased customer demand for bandwidth. “These ongoing initiatives pave the way for Windstream Wholesale to meet customers’ needs for high-quality, low-latency services across our most popular routes for years to come,” he said in a statement.

Alongside the announcement, Windstream also increased the capacity of several of its major routes to 48 Tb/s.