The Weekly Wrap: Top SD-WAN Providers, Frontier Chapter 11, CenturyLink

… Brian Crotty is taking the reins as Fusion Connect CEO, just a few months after the company emerged from chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Crotty most recently was chief commercial officer for Sungard AS. He succeeds Kevin Brand, Fusion’s interim CEO since last October. Crotty has nearly 30 years of experience leading major organizations in the communications industry.

Fusion filed chapter 11 bankruptcy last summer after its acquisitions of MegaPath and Birch Communications’ cloud and business-services business failed to meet performance projections. It eliminated about $400 million of its long-term debt in the reorganization.

Find out more details in our report.

2. Frontier Bankruptcy: Here’s How It Unfolded

After months of speculation, Frontier Communications finally filed chapter 11 bankruptcy last month. But how did it get there?

Frontier’s bankruptcy filing joins similar moves by Windstream, Sungard AS, Fusion Connect and other big channel players — in just the past year. Its financial struggles were widely known, as were customer complaints about its service, maintenance and lack of planning for rural broadband expansion.

We compiled a timeline of events, beginning last December, which outline how the Frontier bankruptcy unfolded. And stay tuned to Channel Partners for continuing coverage of the company’s recovery.

1. 20 Top SD-WAN Providers for 2020: The CP List Version 3

Our readers can’t get enough of this particular CP List.

Last May, our second CP List focused on top SD-WAN providers with analysts, members of the Channel Partners Editorial Advisory Board and other industry experts. They shared their views on what it takes to succeed in SD-WAN. We’re back with an updated list and fresh perspectives on changes in this competitive technology during the past year.

Matthew Toth is founder and president of Collaborative Communications Consulting (C3). He tells us SD-WAN’s definition hasn’t changed over the past year. But people talk about the technology as part of a wider product set called secure access service edge (SASE), he said.

“SASE includes SD-WAN, remote access, security and direct peering with major cloud providers,” he said. “Vendors should have less SD-WAN conversations and more SASE conversations.”

So who made the list? Find out here.