In this case study

Challenge

Flexibility and agility will be critical for service providers moving forward to meet the increasingly fluid demands of enterprise customers operating in a 5G world.

A flexible and agile network will enable operators to quickly roll out innovative, next-generation services to business clients, positioning the service provider as a critical component of the end customer's value chain.

WWT is equipped to help service providers flex that muscle in delivering industry-leading services to customers faster than ever before.

One of the biggest North American MSOs, under intense pressure from their CEO's commitment to Wall Street to launch a new managed SD-WAN offering in 2018, needed to act swiftly to speed their design and deployment of the service.

Missing the deadline would risk the customer falling behind competitors in this category and potentially lead to losing market share, thus unsettling investors. The customer's executives deemed the platform pivotal in generating future revenue and pressured its team to deliver a network that could support 10,000 users.

The customer turned to WWT and Cisco to finish the design, testing and rack builds just a month and a half ahead of the looming deadline to produce a best–of–breed solution — 14 SD-WAN sites in all that would comprise the backbone of the platform.

Solution

Our solution was unique in that it combined SD-WAN and Ethernet networks by integrating network function virtualization (NFV) platforms into the customer's existing fiber network, allowing its clients to select from a variety of connectivity options.

Design and implementation were paramount to make sure the platform's users wouldn't be turned off by a complex solution, which could limit quick uptake of future services. The MSO needed to work hand-in-hand with its OEM and a several other vendors to provide a seamless experience for its end customers.

Because of the complex nature of the solution — and the rigid deadline — the customer needed an integrator to quickly pull all the resources together to execute.

WWT leveraged our state-of-the-art Advanced Technology Center (ATC) to design, validate and build the best-in-breed platform to meet the precise specifications of the customer before deploying it at scale in our North American Integration Center (NAIC).

Results

Thanks to deep-rooted industry expertise found within the ATC and unmatched integration capabilities, WWT was able to complete the project in six weeks — a week and a half ahead of schedule.

Our flexibility and fluidity in building the pods on the fly enabled the customer to beat the deadline and improve its ability to generate additional revenue by launching its SDN service. The platform also helped the customer protect its own customer base while potentially capturing new market share in a highly competitive industry.

Technologies