Orange Expands Telco Cloud Footprint via Bare Metal as a Service Capability

By Greg Tavarez, TMCnet Editor  |  September 07, 2022

The growth of network-based services is largely driven by evolving customer requirements around speed of deployment and flexibility. This is compelling network providers to deploy a new class of connectivity and infrastructure platform.

The Equinix 2022 Global Tech Trends Survey found almost three-fourths of companies worldwide plan to expand in the next year despite economic concerns and supply chain challenges, and they're relying on digital strategies to achieve that goal.

Orange and Equinix are supporting these initiatives with the expansion of the Orange (News - Alert) Telco Cloud footprint using Equinix's Bare Metal as a Service capability, Equinix Metal, to speed the deployment of Orange's New Generation International Network, or eNGINe. Equinix (News - Alert) Metal allows enterprises to secure dedicated servers that can be deployed through on-demand, reserved or spot market capacity in Equinix's global data centers.

The new model enables Orange to provide business and wholesale customers with on-demand Telco Cloud Points of Presence, PoPs, delivering essential services such as SD-WAN, CDN, 5G roaming and voice services, with an expected latency below 10 milliseconds. Three locations will be deployed by the end of this year in Amsterdam, Madrid and Seattle.

Powered by innovation in virtualized network functions and software-defined networks, Orange has 40 SDN PoPs worldwide and is targeted to reach 100-plus Telco Cloud PoPs by 2024 as part of its eNGINe transformation program.

With its Telco Cloud PoP architecture, Orange's customers access and manage applications in the cloud with reliable, fast connectivity and choose from an expanded portfolio with on-demand and adapted services.

"By embracing an 'as a service' infrastructure model and focusing investment in our SDN and VNF capabilities, Orange can provide a fully flexible and elastic solution to customers, speed up the deployment of our planned 100 Telco Cloud PoPs and quickly adapt capacity to meet demand,” said Jean-Luc Vuillemin, executive vice president of international networks at Orange.

Orange previously met customer demands with a deployment that took months from inception. With Equinix's automated dedicated Bare Metal as a Service located in proximity to its existing networks at Equinix, Orange will now deploy in weeks from inception.

Leveraging Equinix Metal, Orange accelerates its next-generation services without the up-front CAPEX or complexities of global supply chains, while retaining full choice and control over IT infrastructure and digital transformation projects.


Edited by Erik Linask
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