The Spanish service provider Telefonica selected software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) technology from Nokia's Nuage Networks.

Telefonica will use Nuage's Virtualized Network Services (VNS) to connect users to users, as well as users to applications, at any location, said Sunil Khandekar, CEO of Nuage. The transformation will start with the provider’s largest deployment locations in Spain and will be followed by its other global locations.

“A lot of our competitors only focus on automation in the data center and have nothing when it comes to connecting branches to the data center,” Khandekar said. “We allow for users in any branch location of any type to securely connect to any application that might be in their own enterprise data center or in any public or SaaS [software-as-a-service] cloud.”

Leveraging Nuage’s VNS, Telefonica will be able to augment its existing MPLS infrastructure, which alone didn't have the reach it needed for its growing customer base. Having both technologies deployed side-by-side allows Telefonica to select the best network link for applications at any time.

With VNS’ SD-WAN capabilities, Telefonica will be able to connect its enterprise customers at any location. It also allows Telefonica to bring up new customers very quickly because it won’t be dependent on specialized routers, but rather a box that can be dropped at any customer location, Khandekar said.

VNS also has a policy engine and embedded analytics that Telefonica can use to create new services for its customers.

The deal is also significant for Nuage in terms of expanding its global footprint. Telefonica has nearly 350 million customers globally, with a dominant presence in Latin America and other locations in Europe.

Nuage is helping its parent company gain enterprise business, Khandekar said.

“Nuage for the first time allows for Nokia to address enterprise customers,” he said. “As things are changing for enterprise customers who now have global networks themselves, the routing and optical technology that Nokia has is something that we can address with those enterprise customers.” 

Nuage has announced several big-name customer wins in the past 12 months with companies including BT, China Mobile, Vodafone, and Sonera.