SD-WAN FEATURED ARTICLE
Telefonica Takes Minority Stake in Open Source SD-WAN Startup
The second wave of SD-WAN solution is upon us, and they are…Open? That’s right, last summer we saw flexiWAN cross the threshold with the general availability of the flexiWAN open architecture and open source SD-WAN software leading the industry toward a new day in the WAN.
This week, Telefónica’s investment arm, Wayra Germany invested in flexiWAN giving the service provider a minority stake in the open source SD-WAN startup.
“Our work with flexiWAN so far is the seed for more ambitious plans in the following months. We envision flexiWAN as the tech base to strengthen our B2B networking portfolio with differential products,” said Juan Campillo, Connectivity Innovation Director at Telefónica.
For Telefónica, the flexiWAN architecture enables the integration of new third party applications over the open source architecture, improving the value proposition the service provider brings to market.
“With this contribution, we want to support flexiWAN´s journey through Telefónica and also continue to ensure our global corporation remain close to the key technologies that will allow us to provide customized high-quality solutions to our customers. We believe, that flexiWAN has an experienced and strong team that will define the new standards in the open source SD-WAN space,” added Alberto Pérez Arranz, Head of Investments at Wayra Germany.
As a leading supporter of open source, Telefónica is working toward implementing this vision across the entire network, delivering the ability to assemble networks from interchangeable components. The B2B networking ecosystem will see TCO drop; growth in innovation thanks to SDK and open interfaces and enhance the CPE supply chain with more options (manufacturers/hardware acrhitectures).
“We are encouraged by this investment and view it as a sign of confidence in our strategy and capacity to execute in both technology and business domains, we thank the team at Wayra Germany and Telefónica for their support of our mission to democratize the SD-WAN market.” Commented Amir Zmora, CEO and Co-founder of flexiWAN. “flexiWAN continues to work globally with service providers, enterprises and Sis of all sizes in order to realize our mission. We join the call of Telefonica (News - Alert) to these companies to join this journey.”
Is their open vision of the future bold? Yes. But as we’ve learned time and time again, fortune favors the bold.
SD-WAN Expo 2020 saw market leadership converge in South Florida to unpack the SD-WAN opportunity. Maybe Telefónica “open” minds in Miami 2021…
Edited by Maurice Nagle