Australia's Virtutel Embracing the New IP with Brocade SDN Solution

Australia's wholesale data and voice service provider Virtutel has become the latest player in the Australian telecom market to turn to Brocade for networking infrastructure to support the New IP.

The company, managing the demands of triple-digit growth and international expansion, will deploy Brocade® SDN-ready switches and routers to deliver its services through system integrators, IT consultants, and managed service providers.

The Virtutel Network provides private network, Internet, colocation, and voice services for business, enterprise, and government segments as part of its "Global Network" strategy. The company services Asia from its Singapore presence and North America and Europe via its United States presence. Its implementation of Brocade solutions underpins this growth.

Since the beginning of 2014, Virtutel has entered the New Zealand market, opened a second office in Sydney, and established a Point-of-Presence (PoP) site in Los Angeles. In January 2015, it also went live with a Singapore PoP. Within Australia the company is looking to meet customer needs in non-traditional rollout cities, such as Darwin and Hobart, while its international growth plans include Hong Kong, India, and potentially the United Kingdom.

"With ever-greater demand for and dependence on cloud-based applications, we're seeing customers' bandwidth requirements doubling every six months, which is not something we could sustain much longer with our existing infrastructure," said David Allen, managing director, Virtutel Pty Ltd. "At the same time, we need to be much more dynamic in terms of service fulfilment so software-defined networking is the way to go. Brocade solutions provide us with the cost-effective capability and flexibility we need to stay ahead of customer demand and continue on our fast growth trajectory. We are also building a Tier 1 Voice Network and the Brocade solutions are underpinning the data transmission for this as well."

Virtutel has started its migration by deploying Brocade ICX® Ethernet switches and Brocade NetIron® CER 2000 routers to provide network access and IP/MPLS backbone connectivity at its PoP sites, as part of a phased implementation plan. When business growth demands it, Virtutel will deploy Brocade MLX® routers, enabling a seamless operational model.

Across-the-board support for the OpenFlow 1.3 Software-Defined Networking (SDN) protocol was a key element in Virtutel's decision to migrate to the Brocade solutions. Allen said the company is focused on remaining cloud-neutral, enabling customers to host their applications wherever they want, by leveraging OpenFlow's standard-based integration (via an SDN controller) with OpenStack cloud computing platforms. The company is also developing an SDN-enabled network service provisioning portal to enable customers to sign-up and configure networks on the fly.

As businesses continue their journey to the New IP, they are relying on a modern approach to networking that is based on four essential attributes: a network that is:
•Built to be open with a purpose

•Innovation-centric and software-enabled

•Ecosystem-driven with users at the center

•Defined on a customer's terms

"IT used to be the drivers of corporate innovation and value, and every IT department wants to meet the changing and growing needs of users. They want to deliver a platform for fast innovation on which to build a competitive digital business, just as the cloud providers do today. The same aspiration holds true for traditional service providers. Unfortunately, the reliance on legacy network architectures makes this difficult. Many even say that the old architecture is what is holding them back," said Gary Denman, Senior Director, Australia and New Zealand for Brocade.

"The New IP enables organizations to transform their infrastructure and business to achieve revolutionary results. It is the dramatic change that is needed, ensuring that networks are reimagined for a modern world and meet the needs of cloud, social, and Big Data. This move to Brocade will provide a much more agile network for Virtutel," he concluded.

Since its initial implementation of the Brocade solution set, Virtutel has already noticed the benefits, according to Allen. Establishing virtual leased line over MPLS is a smoother process while overall management of the network is simpler.

Local partner, ASI Solutions, was responsible for the provision of Brocade networking offerings for Virtutel.