Optus announces SDN Cloud-N offering for wholesale customers

Optus Wholesale has launched its wholesale pay-as-you-go software-defined networking (SDN) solution, Cloud-N, which allows customers to scale services to suit demand on an hourly basis through a self-serve online portal.

Optus Cloud-N also enables customers to resell services under their own branding, with the service now available in Equinix datacentres in Sydney and Melbourne.

"Optus Cloud-N is a 'white label' solution, and allows partners to rebrand the SDN service as their own and resell it using their retail rates. The portal can be accessed from any device via the internet," said John Castro, Optus Wholesale head of Marketing and Strategy.

"The service combines our 100Gbps network capability together with the investments Optus has made in datacentre infrastructure, and is in response to customers asking for pay-as-you-go services."

According to Castro, Optus is offering its SDN service in response to customers needing flexible, secure, and cost-efficient solutions for dealing with demand for cloud-based services.

"This flexibility and security is all about supporting private, public, and hybrid cloud service connectivity and enablement, delivering improved economics because customers are only using what they need, when they need it," he said.

"Optus Cloud-N uses SDN architecture which provides service agility to launch and turn down services more rapidly and efficiently than supported on traditional networks. Optus Cloud-N users can now turn the service up and down as required."

Optus said the SDN service will be brought to other major datacentres later in 2016.

Rival telecommunications provider Telstra in March similarly announced three SDN and network function virtualisation (NFV) products alongside Cisco in March to improve cloud security and global datacentre interconnection: Cloud Gateway Protection, Internet Virtual Private Network, and Data Centre Interconnect.

On Monday, Optus Business also announced that it will invest a joint AU$10 million alongside Macquarie University to establish a cybersecurity centre to enable further research, degrees, short courses for executives and businesses, recruitment opportunities, and public and private consultancy services.

"While cyber attacks are increasing in frequency and sophistication, most organisations lack the right expertise and skills across their business to identify and manage these attacks," Optus Business managing director John Paitaridis said on Monday.

"As organisations adopt more online and digital channels, they also need to have a fully integrated approach to cybersecurity involving all staff training, management buy-in, effective technology solutions, and knowledge of today's cyber threats."

Optus explained that its joint initiative flags the company's support for the Australian government's recently announced AU$240 million cybersecurity strategy, which focuses on closer collaboration between government and business.

Telstra last week also emphasised the importance in securing datacentre and multi-cloud services by entering a partnership with hybrid cloud security startup vArmour, which was kicked off by Telstra investing between $5 million and $10 million in vArmour's $41 million series D funding round.

The strategic partnership with vArmour follows several big plays in the multi-cloud area by Telstra; last month, Telstra unveiled a business multi-cloud connecting solution to support the use of hybrid cloud services including those from Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), VMware, and IBM. The solution, called Cloud Gateway, allows customers to connect directly to multiple public cloud environments via Telstra's IP network.

Telstra in January also acquired APAC cloud services company Kloud and invested in Chinese cloud company Qiniu.