Optus SDN lets resellers buy bandwidth by the hour

Optus Wholesale has released a software-defined networking product to its channel, dubbed Cloud-N.

"Optus Cloud-N is a white-label solution and allows partners to rebrand the SDN service as their own and resell it using their retail rates. The portal can be accessed from any device via the internet,” said Optus Wholesale marketing and strategy head John Castro.

The service allows partners and end users to instantly dial up and dial down bandwidth within the Optus network on an hourly consumption-based billing model.

Only Equinix Sydney and Melbourne data centres are served upon today's launch, but the telco stated "other major data centres" would be on-boarded later this year.

Using the white-labelled self-service portal, users can change network traffic requirements according to the time of day. Optus cited a typical example of dialling up bandwidth during business hours then shrinking the pipe after hours for less latency-sensitive uses like back-ups.

An Optus spokesperson told CRN that the portal was built in-house, while the SDN controller and switch were purchased from "an existing vendor".

Cloud-N was developed to meet Optus' channel partners demand to "flexibly respond to end-user demand in real time", according to Castro.

“The service combines our 100Gbps network capability together with the investments Optus has made in data centre infrastructure and is in response to customers asking for pay-as-you-go services," he said.

"Optus Cloud-N uses SDN architecture which provides service agility to launch and turn down services more rapidly and efficiently than supported on traditional networks."

The announcement follows rival Telstra's release of its Internet SDN product, launched at the Cisco Live conference in Melbourne earlier this year.

Multiple providers are fighting it out for a stake of the burgeoning market for on-demand, consumption-based network connectivity. Megaport has first-mover advantage, and also is the only pure-play provider, competing with products from carrier or data centre operators such as NextDC's AXONVX, Vocus Cloud Connect and Intellipath, which is based on the Nextgen Group network.

In a March column for CRN, eintellego Networks founder Skeeve Stevens expressed scepticism about network and data centre providers such as Telstra, Equinix, Vocus and NextDC offering software-defined networking products that are restricted to their own infrastructure.