Verizon today released a WAN optimization capability developed by Hitachi High Technologies America that joins nearly 30 other virtual network functions (VNFs) on the operator’s virtual network services platform. The ONEx technology uses a patented algorithm designed to improve the exchange and transmission of data across global enterprise networks.

“The world has gone mobile and the cloud has gone virtual,” Viraj Parekh, Verizon’s executive director of SDN and other managed services, told SDxCentral. With more applications residing in multicloud environments, bandwidth utilization and management has become increasingly complex, he explained.

“There are some real challenges we’re seeing with essential data movement across the network, and traditional WAN optimization technologies are partially solving the problem, but are becoming a lot more expensive and have some other challenges,” he said.

The ONEx network function, which is fully automated for provisioning on Verizon’s orchestration platform, can be deployed as a service chain with or without SD-WAN because Verizon’s virtual network services separate these into separate VNFs. Verizon offers other WAN optimization technologies, but ONEx has multiple points of differentiation, Parekh explained.

The technology relies on a one-sided deployment, which means ONEx does not need to be deployed in branch offices or as a client on enterprise devices. “You need this WAN optimization solution running where the data resides,” Parekh said.

That framework significantly reduces the cost of deployment and reduces complexities for IT by not requiring multiple points of installation, he added. “Today traditional WAN optimization solutions require us to decrypt the traffic, push it through the WAN optimization solution, and get re-encrypted again,” Parekh said. “With Hitachi, it doesn’t care whether it’s encrypted or decrypted traffic,” and that makes it easier for enterprises to service chain other VNFs to run alongside ONEx.

WAN Optimization with ONEx is exclusively available to Verizon’s virtual network services platform, according to Parekh. While the technology is more agile than other WAN optimization technologies, it does need to be deployed on Verizon’s white box platform, a universal CPE that incorporates end-to-end orchestration and makes almost 30 additional VNFs available to enterprises.

Parekh and his team expect ONEx to be most heavily adopted among global enterprises with multiple branch offices, banks, insurance firms, healthcare companies, and manufacturing plants.