Windstream Wholesale Rolls Out SD-WAN For Resellers, Revamped Reseller Program

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CHANNEL PARTNERS CONFERENCE & EXPO — Windstream has launched a new SD-WAN offering designed for the reseller community, and revitalized its wholesale reseller program.

The announcement was made during this week’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo. Augmenting Windstream Wholesale’s offerings suite and delivered over its 147,000-mile fiber-optic long-haul network, the SD-WAN delivers a variety of benefits to reseller partners, the company said.

Melissa Cook, vice president of Windstream Wholesale’s reseller program, tells Channel Partners that resellers now will have the opportunity to reach a wide range of verticals through the SD-WAN offering.

“The SD-WAN solution has proven to be successful with retailers, restaurants, financial services, as well as many other multi-location businesses,” she said. “We are one of the only providers that have integrated the solution with our own network gateways, strategically located in eight locations across the country. These gateways allow us to connect directly to the cloud, as well as to our nationwide MPLS network, to provide a critical competitive edge.”

In the past, resellers have been faced with the “high cost” of access in an environment that has been difficult to compete with “the big guys,” Cook said. Windstream’s SD-WAN will now provide for the optimization of its customers’ network, taking advantage of low cost, high bandwidth offerings to send traffic directly to the Internet rather than augmenting high-cost access methods, she said.{ad}

“We have partnered with VeloCloud to provide a solution, backed by an easy-to-use interface, that provides analytics and rules to prioritize business critical applications,” she said.

With the reseller base inherited as a result of its merger with EarthLink earlier this year, Windstream Wholesale has strategically realigned resources, including leadership, marketing efforts, dedicated sales and support teams, “completely refreshing the program and offering a highly engaged partnership experience to our valued reseller customers,” Cook said.

“Windstream Wholesale is excited about partnering with our resellers to provide solutions and services that they can offer to their clients,” she said. “We will be able to provide our full product suite, across a larger nationwide footprint, taking advantage of our longstanding relationship with more than 50 local access providers via multiple access types including Ethernet, cable, DSL, wireless and T1. Our SD-WAN solution compliments both our nationwide DIA and MPLS solutions, and takes full advantage of our broad access reach.”