PLDT Enterprise eyes rise of SD-WAN, SASE

[Top row (L-R]) President of Cisco – Asia Pacific, Japan, and Greater China Dave West; PLDT Enterprise Vice President & Head of Fixed Core Business Solutions Gary Ignacio; [Bottom row (L-R)] PLDT & Smart Vice President and Head of Technology Strategy and Transformation Office Arvin Siena; Jovy Hernandez, ePLDT President & CEO and SVP & Head for PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups

PLDT Enterprise is seeing software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) and secure access service edge (SASE) architecture as two of the most in-demand technologies for businesses in the next few years.

In PLDT Enterprise’s recently concluded Tech Talk ON-AIR, Vice President and Head for PLDT Enterprise Fixed-Core Business Solutions Gary Ignacio said that SD-WAN has already reached its inflection point, accelerated by the new market dynamics. “The enterprise market has fully matured and has now embraced SD-WAN as their wide-area networking technology of choice. We’re anticipating its sustained momentum and growth over the next few years,” he said. 

SD-WAN enables businesses to interconnect their network of branches and users through a highly-intelligent, software-driven platform, leveraging all available network underlay technologies such as MPLS, fiber broadband, LTE and 5G. This could help industries, such as banks, to simplify network management, optimize data traffic flow, and enable highly resilient, always on connections.

“Close to two-thirds of our local banks are pursuing transformational projects to enhance their digital capabilities and that number just continues to increase,” he added.

Likewise, he also stressed that PLDT Enterprise recognizes the importance of data security, and as such, is pioneering SASE to ensure a fully secure ecosystem where privacy and protection policies are fully enforced. “SASE will continue to get a lot of traction as companies put in place the right technologies to be able to connect and secure, not only their physical locations but their entire user base and end-devices as well. The PLDT Group has established a very strong foundation for this, out of our internal cybersecurity capabilities and best practices, and this will be further enriched by our strategic partnerships from the incumbent and emerging leaders in the field”

Other industries which have been benefitting from these two technologies include the retail sector and the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, among others. 

ePLDT President and CEO and SVP and Head for PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups Jovy Hernandez assured the company’s unbreakable commitment to providing digital solutions that will help businesses build a solid foundation amid the COVID-19 crisis.

“Over the last decade, multiple technologies have come to the fore and a lot more are emerging that will revolutionize the way we do things. And it is our aspiration at PLDT Enterprise to become every organization’s technology partner who can create the right mix of innovations and solutions which can deliver real value to their business,” said Hernandez.

“It is much more than just bandwidth. We strive to answer the needs of businesses today for a business-grade internet connection, the need for accessibility for on-premise and cloud applications and to manage multiple locations so that they can become truly resilient in this new age of business.”

PLDT Enterprise has been providing resilient connectivity for the business industry through bandwidth solutions such as BEYOND FIBER, Branch-in-a-Box, and PLDT SD-WAN. 

BEYOND FIBER is designed to be three times more reliable for businesses which comes with a minimum speed equivalent to 90 percent of the subscribed bandwidth at 90 service reliability. This service promise currently remains unmatched in the industry.

Branch-in-A-Box, meanwhile, is a platform built for businesses that need to connect, protect, and manage multiple locations through easy to deploy and easy to manage ICT solutions that already come seamlessly stacked.

PLDT Enterprise’s TechTalk ON-AIR aims to discover the best practices of industry leaders in fueling their business growth by tackling the development and the presence of e-industries.

Hernandez said that it is a way of empowering customers and viewers with the information they will need to succeed. 

“We have several events lined up for the year and we can expect more meaningful discussions and insights as there are technologies that we should be looking at to put all of these together,” he said. 

For more information, visit pldtenterprise.com.