Orange Business Services today announced a collaboration with Dell Technologies and software vendor Ekinops to develop a new line of universal CPE appliances and NFV services. Dell with build the appliances in a variety of form factors, and they will run multiple virtualized network functions (VNFs) using Ekinops software.

"We plan to offer virtualization of network functions at the edge, with a portfolio covering routing, SD-WAN, security, and WAN optimization," said Laurent Perrin, director of product management for application-driven networks at Orange, in an email to SDxCentral.

Orange claims these devices are ideally suited for edge computing applications like video, artificial intelligence (AI), and IoT. These uCPE-based services target mid-market and large-enterprise customers.

According to Perrin, Orange is taking something of a "co-innovation" approach to ensure the service provider can effectively meet enterprise's emerging edge requirements, which he said, "may be specific to various verticals, such as retail or manufacturing."

At launch, Orange's uCPE-based services will support more than 30 third-party VNFs, certified to work with Ekinop's orchestrator. These services are expected the reach the market later this year.

Vendors and service providers alike have gravitated toward uCPE thanks to the technology's ability to mix and match software to better meet customer demand.

Last week United Kingdom-based operator BT announced it would build its next generation of managed services using Dell's uCPE hardware.

Meanwhile, in the SD-WAN space uCPE is gaining ground. While a recent Gartner report found that black-box SD-WAN appliances will continue to dominate the market through 2021, vendors are beginning to diversify their offerings.

Perrin said while back boxes are still an essential part of Orange's strategy, especially where SD-WAN is concerned, edge computing is driving uCPE adoption.

"We believe that with the growth of edge computing requirements strongly driven by the IoT explosion in the next three-to-five years, our customers will require a future-proof platform in their branch locations," he said. "This is why we also provide a uCPE solution for our customers."

Meanwhile, Silver Peak and FatPipe have both announced uCPE partnerships with Ciena. Two software vendors also aim to help Ciena develop new delivery models for communications service providers.