Cisco and NTT Data are extending their partnership to offer customers more streamlined options for deploying private 5G services for enterprise connectivity.
The partnership ties Cisco’s networking technologies to NTT Data’s Transatel network. Specifically, Cisco’s eSIM technology will let customers easily connect devices to the Transatel network, where they can then activate, provision, setup, configure and manage Cisco networking gear to securely connect mobile branches anywhere, the companies stated.
Cisco’s eSIM technology lets devices connect to cellular networks using a digital SIM, eliminating the need for physical SIM cards. Since its eSIM cards can be remotely programmed over the air, they are not bound to a particular carrier as SIM cards generally are, Cisco said.
“By integrating Cisco’s networking technologies and NTT Data’s global connectivity capabilities, the two companies will empower enterprises to effortlessly connect to the network, using cellular technologies for primary or secondary connectivity,” Cisco stated.
NTT Data’s Transatel network spans some 180 countries and is offered with flexible pricing plans, NTT stated.
“This collaboration is a game-changer for the enterprise market as it delivers a variety of valuable use cases, such as on-demand SD-WAN, fast scaling for 5G carriers, and edge computing for IoT applications,” said Masum Mir, senior vice president and general manager with Cisco Provider Mobility, in a statement.
Cisco and NTT have partnered in the past to bring private 5G services to market. For example they support a managed private 5G package that uses Intel hardware to integrate private 5G into their preexisting LAN/WAN/cloud infrastructures.
“From a high level, the private cellular networks market continues to demonstrate potential as enterprise and industrial organizations continue to invest in wide-area, grid-based implementations across mines, utility grids, and railways as well as local area implementations including manufacturing plants, warehouses, and ports. Local area instances include deployments both underground and indoors,” IDC wrote in a recent report.
“Many enterprises considering private cellular networks are holding back investment until solutions can deeply integrate well with existing IT and network infrastructure. For example, to address demand, there is a push within some vendors to integrate at the network management layer to deliver a unified, single-pane approach from which to define policy, security, and traffic using the same platforms currently in place for other networks,” IDC stated.
“The idea is to integrate where it is feasible, so as to avoid simply overlaying another network, thus driving complexity and costs up,” IDC stated.
Source:: Network World