Comcast Business Launches New SDN Platform

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Comcast Business on Wednesday unveiled its ActiveCore SDN platform, a cable-delivered, gigabit-ready SDN platform, and SD-WAN as the first business product powered by the platform.

Comcast Business SD-WAN combines secure IP VPN, application-aware routing, and a stateful network firewall, the company said. This is delivered over the public internet via a carrier-class IP-backbone, using Comcast’s broadband offerings.

Comcast’s Craig Schlagbaum

Craig Schlagbaum, Comcast Business’ vice president of indirect channels, tells Channel Partners that Comcast SD-WAN “is a huge new opportunity for the channel.”

“Many analysts are forecasting SD-WAN to grow at a [compound annual growth rate of] 90 percent-plus over the next several years, so the customer interest is extremely high right now,” he said. “In 2021, the global SD-WAN market is expected to reach $7.53 billion. Comcast could only provide layer 2 Ethernet in the past, and with SDN and SD-WAN, we have a terrific offering to drive new sales and revenue for partners that have customers that are wanting to come off of expensive and hard to manage MPLS networks.”

ActiveCore delivers new services and network changes via software rather than through individually managed and customized hardware. The platform features an embedded orchestration capability, allowing it to deliver and manage multiple virtualized network functions (VNF).

When combined with an open, extensible IT infrastructure, ActiveCore delivers “better application performance, shorter deployment cycles and greater business agility at lower costs,” according to Comcast. The platform can be paired with the cableco’s DOCSIS 3.1-based gigabit broadband service.

“Our new SD-WAN offering can be provided nationwide, which is a major opportunity for our partners,” Schlagbaum said. “We believe our solution providers are a key route to market as many customers tend to prefer to buy from neutral consultants or advisers that can provide a best-in-breed solution. We will provide all of Comcast Business services to our partners along with the tools, training and support they need to drive new business and to solve their customer challenges.”

“SD-WAN continues to be attractive to a growing number of enterprises because its software-driven approach gives greater control and flexibility to users without the need for more hardware and costly equipment maintenance and labor,” said Rajesh Ghai, IDC’s research director, carrier network infrastructure. “SD-WAN also reduces the reliance on legacy technologies which will help multi-site enterprises to be more agile in the future as they can support multiple WAN topologies and dynamically deploy a set of features across all of their sites in a faster, more cost-effective manner.”