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Targeting the unique needs of distributed enterprises, World Wide Technology (WWT) today announced Branch of the Future, a World Wide Technology Managed Service, a managed-services offering for software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN).

The new offering is based on Cisco’s Meraki cloud-managed architecture that’s used to deploy, configure, manage and monitor Wi-Fi, routing and security appliances in branch-office locations. Branch of the Future, a World Wide Technology Managed Service also leverages Thelios, WWT’s enterprise network engagement suite for greater data visibility for marketing and IT departments, whose goal is to accentuate the customer and employee experience, and to decrease the cost and time to set up the Meraki network for large-scale enterprise deployments, the vendor said.

WWT’s Brian Ortbals

“World Wide Technology is proud once again to be putting innovation to work for our customers by developing and delivering a highly customized managed services solution, which provides data-driven, personalized customer experiences that drive revenue and capture operational efficiencies,” said Brian Ortbals, vice president, WWT advanced technology. “Branch of the Future capitalizes on WWT’s proven understanding of the issues enterprises encounter and helps them address these issues to enable rapid success.”

SD-WAN solutions are poised for healthy growth, according to IDC. Recent research estimates report that worldwide SD-WAN infrastructure and services revenue will reach nearly $8.1 billion by 2021, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost 70 percent.

The still relatively young technology market will be driven by digital transformation over the next five years, and the deployment of third-platform technologies including cloud, big data and analytics, mobility and social business, IDC notes.

In a Frost & Sullivan 2018 report, “Fast-Track Your SD-WAN Journey by Partnering with a Managed Service Provider.” the majority of respondents to an end-user survey indicated a preference for a managed SD-WAN solution versus a self-managed approach.

In managed SD-WAN, the service provider acts as a single point of contact for the complete SD-WAN solution, including the SD-WAN appliance, software license, WAN services and managed services.

The new WWT offering for distributed enterprises, such as health care, retail and financial services, allows these organizations to deliver customized, digital services from the branch office — overcoming the challenges large organizations face managing their branch networks.

WWT’s Advanced Technology Centers helps with the design and validation of a WAN solutions. They help stage and configure the validated designs for multi-branch deployments, and Thelios – the Network Auto Provisioner – helps with migration and deployment.

Customers get around-the-clock monitoring, management and remediation service with reports and dashboards for network health, fast provisioning — and a portal. Thelio also provides enhanced analytics.