A1 Telekom Austria Group has announced it will offer software-defined wide area network services via the VMware SD-WAN offering in all of its operating companies.
Claiming to be an SD-WAN pioneer, A1 Group said its new end-to-end managed service not only covers network hardware, but also the implementation and management of the network. By using SD-WAN services, A1 Group assured that roll-out, maintenance and management of cloud-based software for all customer locations, as well as network stability and reliability, will be improved.
A1 Group will manage not only the overlay, but also the underlay of the offer, as well as introduce a competence centre for SD-WAN, offering what it calls proactive monitoring on all services, multilingual 24/7 support with reaction times of less than 15 minutes and 99.9% availability – covering the full area of SD-WAN services, including consulting, RMA, proactive monitoring and global provider-management internationally with remote and on-site implementation and offerings.
“This is why I am especially pleased about our collaboration with VMware, resulting in an international cooperation with our group,” said A1 Digital CEO Elisabetta Castiglioni. “It is an excellent proof of concept, how colleagues from different countries and cultures have developed an international concept for our global customers
A foundational component of VMware secure access service edge (SASE), VMware SD-WAN is designed to simplify wide area networking by automating deployment and improving performance over private, broadband internet and LTE links for distributed enterprises.
It is claimed to offer a flexible, cloud-delivered service built to enable better security, visibility, control and resiliency. The offering combines multiple links and uses traffic-steering technology to automatically select optimal paths for applications to ensure consistent performance and overcome quality issues and outages.
“Customers are looking for solutions from partners such as A1 that provide more secure, automated access to data and apps, from anywhere [and that can enable] simple access to information, no matter where it’s located, so businesses can adapt and scale, and employees can work from wherever they choose,” said Craig Connors, vice-president and general manager of SASE business at VMware.
The economic effects study noted that A1 was one of the “essential pillars” of business in Austria, not only because it is assigned to state-owned companies, but also because it operates critical infrastructure. The study calculated that the direct gross value added effect of A1 amounted to €1.52bn in 2021.
Intermediary consumption generated an indirect gross value-added effect of €587.4m for A1’s Austria-wide upstream suppliers. Furthermore, the income of employees and upstream suppliers connected with additional consumption was said to have an induced gross value added effect of €188.3m. In total, all effects totalled up to a total gross value added of €2.295bn.
The analysis also observed that the company’s effects on gross value added, employment, wages and salaries, as well as taxes and duties, showed “the important and stabilising function A1 plays even in times of a difficult economic situation. Here, A1 acts both as an anchor of stability for Austrian employment and a driver of economic activity, both in the upstream supplier network and through significant investments.”
