VMware has announced the acquisition of cloud-based WAN provider VeloCloud to help it build its portfolio of SD-WAN products and services.
The virtualisation firm hopes the purchase will help it catch up with rival networking giant Cisco, taking on VeloCloud's 1,000 telecoms and enterprise customers including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom Mitel, Sprint, Telstra, Vonage, Bay Club, Brooks Brothers and Devcon.
VeloCloud's SD-WANs operate from a cloud-based infrastructure that is designed to take the strain off on-premise WAN hardware, allowing businesses to decide which WANs they want to use along the way, aiming to offer customers more flexibility, resiliency and scalability when applying their networks.
Although VMware hasn't revealed the specifics of the deal, it did say it would be integrating VeloCloud into its NSX, and NSX-as-a-service offerings, meaning businesses can operate their applications in a private cloud, alongside devices on the edge of the network and in the public cloud using a virtual network.
"Enterprises are transforming how they architect and utilize their infrastructure, with a shift towards a cloud-delivered, software-defined model," Sanjay Uppal, CEO of VeloCloud Networks, said. "This enables organisations to have a globally consistent infrastructure regardless of where it is deployed - from the data centre and the cloud to the edge. We look forward to helping VMware, the leader in software-defined infrastructure, in the next evolution of the company's networking and NFV strategies."
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of VMware's fiscal year.
"We recently announced a partnership with VeloCloud that includes joint product validation, coordination with product roadmaps, simplified ordering, and coordinated sales and marketing to improve solutions for our mutual customers," Tom Burns, senior vice president of Dell EMC's networking, enterprise infrastructure and service provider solutions division, said. "We look forward to continuing this SD-WAN partnership with VMware upon closing to offer mutual customers best-in-class intelligent edge appliances."
