Innovation in Cisco SD-WAN for Managed Services

It’s not news that the move to hybrid work has created a dynamic shift in how —and where— people work. Remote work, agility and security are top concerns for every company since teams are now increasingly distributed and global and branch office occupations are much more dynamic. Cisco SD-WAN continues to provide an ideal solution to enable secure connections between users, branch office networks, public and private clouds, and the internet.

Source: Cisco SD-WAN

Earlier this year, Cisco launched new features to simplify the experience for partners offering Managed SD-WAN and end customers who use a Managed SD-WAN solution.

Multitenancy support

One of the most requested enhancements is now available. Multitenancy increases both operational scalability and security for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), which in turn helps reduce delivery costs and streamlines management across multiple service subscribers. This shared management and orchestration plane serving multiple tenants provides bi-directional encrypted communication via a proxy server to provide increased security, while also reducing OpEx across customer deployments.

Automated reporting

Another included improvement is the ability to track consumption through automated reporting vs. manual usage submissions. This now simplifies the usage reporting to Cisco, associated with the Managed Service License Agreement (MSLA) buying program, and ensures billing accuracy, which helps reduce expenses previously dedicated to manually track usage and increase overall operational efficiency.

vManage UI update

vManage, Cisco’s centralized control plane for SD-WAN deployments, recently launched a major visual update. It’s easier than ever to deploy and manage the entire SD-WAN fabric through a more intuitive user experience.

The new update also includes highly visualized network monitoring, guided step-by-step configuration for intelligent device onboarding, and streamlined integration with Cloud OnRamp for SaaS integration with Webex. Additionally, we have added capabilities for Cisco ThousandEyes agent deployment within vManage to increase visibility into Cisco edge devices, SaaS applications, hybrid and public cloud, and the Internet for expedited root cause analysis. This integration also allows for increased service level monitoring and adherence, and it provides the opportunity for Providers to offer additional service offerings through delivering premium application performance SLAs.

What this means for partners

Reduced CapEx through the addition of multitenancy features
Operational efficiency via automated usage reporting and a single pane of glass for multiple customers
Simplified license management for edge device license allocation through Cisco Smart Software Management (CSSM) integration
Additional revenue opportunities through premium service tiers including application performance monitoring using ThousandEyes

These new features are also resonating with our partners. Here is what Tetsuo Hagino, Executive Manager at NTT East, has to say:

“We are excited about the multitenancy capabilities that Cisco has released. With this feature release, we are now able to provide more affordable and high quality Managed SD-WAN services, by provisioning multiple customers and improving the operational flexibility.”

Additionally, customers can expect predictable OpEx and scalability from a fully managed SD-WAN solution.

Policy-based, adaptive, connectivity is essential in today’s world and SD-WAN provides the ability to help users reliably and securely access applications and data, whether it resides in the Cloud, branch, data centers, or anywhere in between. Power your hybrid workplace and ensure the best network experience, regardless of where and when you work.

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