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Zayo SD-WAN available as a managed or on-premises product

Zayo Group has launched an SD-WAN product. The Zayo SD-WAN is available as an on-premises or managed product. Zayo is a bandwidth infrastructure provider in the U.S. and Europe.

Antone Gonsalves
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Published: 04 Jan 2018

Zayo Group Holdings Inc., a bandwidth infrastructure provider in the U.S. and Europe, is offering SD-WAN as a managed or do-it-yourself product.

The technology, launched this week, lets companies distribute network traffic across MPLS, broadband and Long Term Evolution connections. The offering is an extension of Zayo's fiber-based IP/MPLS backbone offerings for enterprises. Zayo will sell SD-WAN products from Versa Networks and other vendors.

Zayo, based in Boulder, Colo., provides an online portal that companies can use to monitor and modify traffic flows down to the application level. Customers have the option of outsourcing network management to Zayo.

In general, SD-WAN uses software-defined networking concepts to automatically determine the most cost-effective route to and from branch offices, data centers and cloud-based applications. Network operators manage the SD-WAN through a centralized controller.

Zayo's metro networks

Zayo has a 126,000-mile network that provides metro connectivity to buildings and data centers. The company offers high-capacity dark fiber, Ethernet and other connectivity options, as well as carrier-neutral colocation and cloud infrastructure services in its data centers.

Zayo's latest product launch was expected. Last November, the company told financial analysts it planned to launch an SD-WAN offering in the first quarter of 2018, according to transcripts from the business site Seeking Alpha.

Zayo is entering a consolidating market of more than 40 vendors. Last year, VMware acquired SD-WAN vendor VeloCloud and Cisco bought Viptela for $610 million.

The market for SD-WAN technology, infrastructure and services will reach $6 billion by 2020, according to IDC. The research firm expects service providers to account for more than half of the market.

Most of Zayo's network is located in North America. The company, however, has increased its footprint in the United Kingdom and Europe. In 2014, Zayo acquired Geo Networks, based in London, for an undisclosed sum. Geo provided dark fiber and open-access networks.

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