Juniper Network, a provider of high-performance networking and cybersecurity solutions, has been selected by the UK’s telecoms giant British Telecommunications (BT) to deliver its Network Cloud infrastructure initiative. This arrangement will help support the rollout of BT’s upcoming unified cloud networking platform, which will integrate the company’s networks, including 5G, Wi-Fi and fixed-line, into one virtualized service and enable more efficient infrastructure management and implementation.
This new and more flexible network infrastructure will also generate a range of innovative applications that support services such as Internet access, TV and business network functions, improved voice and video delivery, and scalability. The Network Cloud platform will be built according to a common framework, and shared across BT’s offices throughout the UK and globally.
“This move to a single cloud-driven network infrastructure will enable BT to offer a wider range of services, faster and more efficiently to customers in the UK and around the world,” said Neil McRae, Chief Architect at BT. “Being able to integrate seamlessly with other partners and solutions and aligning with our roadmap to an automated and programmable network is also important.”
According to the statement, in order to achieve the evolution towards a more agile, virtualized network, the British telco is investing in a number of Juniper solutions across various tenants within the BT network, including a dynamic end-to-end networking policy and control for telco cloud workloads using Contrail Networking services, cloud operations management using AppFormix, and a scalable and flexible spine and leaf underlay fabric using the QFX Series.
Bikash Koley, Chief Technology Officer at Juniper Networks, said, “By leveraging the ‘beach-front property’ it has in central offices around the globe, BT can optimise the business value that 5G’s bandwidth and connectivity brings. The move to an integrated telco cloud platform brings always-on reliability, along with enhanced automation capabilities, to help improve business continuity and increase time-to-market while doing so in a cost-effective manner.”
