2degrees - Software defined networks

That’s not how most businesses order and organise network services. At least businesses who are not 2degrees customers. Typically, they must call a network operator, discuss their needs, listen to technobabble, negotiate options or availability then commit to a contract. On a bad day they may also need to wait for credit checks before getting the connections they need. 

Yet all most businesses want is for their data to move seamlessly between end points. They rarely care about the "how". As far as they are concerned it can be over a fixed network, fixed wireless or mobile. For them the big issue is to have control over the where, when and whether there is enough bandwidth for the job in question. They want networks in a form where they are consumable at the point it is needed and for as long as they are needed, not a fixed monthly dedicated construction cost structure that is difficult to alter if their needs change. 

For most people, this is what software defined networks or SDNs are all about. There is smart technology behind the scenes, but the key is selling networks to customers in the same way companies like AWS and Microsoft sell cloud computing. 

2degrees Chief Business Officer Andrew Fairgray says: "There's a market desire for software defined networks. To leverage this, at 2degrees we need to focus on enabling digital outcomes and boosting productivity while remaining as the value player in the market. That means working closely with our customers.” 

Before the two companies merged last year, Vocus worked with customers to develop Flex, a front-end interface now used across 2degrees. The company had its own BSS (business support system) and a team of New Zealand developers. That allowed Vocus to define its own outcomes and the speed that things happened, it didn't need to wait on third party developers.  

Vocus worked with Freightways, a major customer, to develop Flex as a highly customisable self-service portal from the ground up. The pair put a lot of effort into simplifying the user interface.  This gave Vocus an entry into the mobile market at a time when the company didn't have its own network. Flex meant it was able to provide customers with the tools they needed to manage their mobile fleets, which was so valuable it opened the door to mobile sales in a competitive market. 

What can 2degrees' SDN do for their customers now?

“The goal is to provide customers with comprehensive on-demand network infrastructure”, says 2degrees CIO Steve Kurzeja.

“Everything on the network is software enriched. This gives customers the control they need. At the same time, we have a network that reaches every data centre in the country as well as the ones that are planned or in construction. Our network can reach anywhere on the UFB footprint, which covers close to every business in New Zealand.” 

"A customer from the top end of town might come to buy 100 gigabit Ethernet ports if they need to shift a huge workload from one point to another. This kind of deal will be huge soon as hyperscale and other cloud operators fire up data centres around the country.” 

"We can see a pent-up demand for public cloud. Many customers have already moved to the cloud. When AWS and Microsoft move into the country, we expect an across-the-board transformation effort from those organisations that have, until now, been holding back because of data sovereignty or other concerns." 

SDN makes this easy for enterprise customers, but it is not only about larger organisations. There's nothing to stop customers with more modest needs ordering secure point-to-point links from any home or office on UFB to a data centre or a cloud on-ramp taking them to Australia, the USA or beyond. 

Kurzeja says: “From there we can interconnect through our partners to other ecosystems. One of the keys to SDN is that the TM Forum, an international telecommunications body, has set up global API standards, this gives us better interconnection.” 

“It’s still early days, but if a customer wants to order, say, a circuit from London, we can do that now. We have partners from overseas coming to us in New Zealand wanting to set up circuits through our local ecosystem. Our network footprint already reaches across the UK, Australia and the US. We have other relationships connecting elsewhere, so if a customer needs a line to Singapore, we can connect through Vocus in Australia and the ASC submarine cable.”

What is in the pipeline?

The immediate focus is on the large cloud vendors establishing New Zealand data centres. Kurzeja says 2degrees continues to add more features and capabilities to its SDN offering. The next step is to do more with the data. “Right now we’re putting a lot of our data into Snowflake; that’s our data cloud platform that is part of 2degrees’ modernisation. We can use the data to get better insights for our customers and partners, we also use it internally and for machine learning. It’s giving us smarter algorithms which means we can be more predictive about customer needs and gives our network the ability to self-heal.”

He says that 2degrees is a software business. “The exciting part is that we can get customer feedback and iterate. We learn from our customers and change. They can see us continually releasing new things and listening to their needs, which is exactly what it means to be customer centric.

Software defined networks give 2degrees a competitive edge putting customers in control of their agility, innovation and application needs and futureproofing their connectivity.