KDDI America taps Cisco for managed SD-WAN

26 Feb KDDI America taps Cisco for managed SD-WAN

KDDI America, the U.S.-based subsidiary of Japan’s KDDI, announced this week that it teamed up with Cisco Systems on a new managed SD-WAN service for the Americas region, based on the Cisco SD-WAN powered by Viptela infrastructure and offered by KDDI America through Cisco’s global Managed Services Partner Program.The move, detailed in a press release from KDDI, comes as more carriers are adding managed SD-WAN services to their existing rosters in an increasingly competitive SD-WAN market. Prior to the Cisco announcement, the carrier already counted VMware/VeloCloud as an SD-WAN services partner. 
For Cisco, the KDDI deal is another feather in the cap of the clear worldwide market share leader in the SD-WAN infrastructure market. Lumen Technologies (formerly CenturyLink) and Verizon are among the other major U.S. carriers using Cisco’s Viptela infrastructure, and the latter just announced last week an expansion of its managed SD-WAN offerings. While Cisco has been leading the managed SD-WAN trend, carriers have a long list of vendors to choose from when they are looking for technology partners, as Futuriom recently noted.

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KDDI said in its release that deploying Cisco’s SD-WAN managed solution will allow customers to use their existing WAN network circuits regardless of whether they are dedicated MPLS services or internet connections. Customers can optimize traffic routes and in general gain greater visibility and more flexibility in how they control their networks, allowing them to make networking choices based on location size and functional requirements, KDDI America stated.
RELATED: Cisco acquires Viptela for $10M, enhances SD-WAN play
The carrier also said the Cisco’s SD-WAN managed solution, when combined with its Microsoft Azure Cloud Services offerings, which it launched in April 2020, gives KDDi America a “perfect pairing” for its customers’ cloud and connectivity needs. 
“Our mission has always been to support our customers across the globe to achieve all of their ICT needs, and this has evolved in recent years to support these same customers in achieving their total digital transformation,” said Masatoshi Nobuhara, President and CEO, KDDI America, said in the company’s statement. “As an IT company, KDDIA must always adapt to our customer’s ever-changing and growing needs. By expanding our collaboration with Cisco, KDDIA is well poised to provide enhanced solutions for our customers.”