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Newsletter-4Q16_Final3

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QUARTERLY
REVIEWOCTOBER - DECEMBER 2016
SD-WANDISRUPTIVE, TRANSFORMATIVE...
A GAME CHANGER!
CAPITALIZING ON GROWTH OPPORTU...
MEET
THE
FORCE
BEHIND
DIGITAL
The world is on an exciting digital journey.
From financial transactions to governance, from...
MESSAGE FROM
BILL BARNEYCo-CEO, Reliance Communications
Chairman & CEO, Global Cloud Xchange
As SD-WAN is rapidly making w...
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  1. 1. QUARTERLY REVIEWOCTOBER - DECEMBER 2016 SD-WANDISRUPTIVE, TRANSFORMATIVE... A GAME CHANGER! CAPITALIZING ON GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES ACROSS EMERGING MARKETS CORRIDOR WITH FAST EDGE AND CLOUD X WAN GCX AND BMC UK DELIVER 2018 FIFA WORLD CUP QUALIFYING MATCH TO FANS IN EUROPE GCX EXPANDS CLOUD ECOSYSTEM WITH MICROSOFT AZURE EXPRESSROUTE RCOM AND MCB ANNOUNCE LARGEST EVER CONSOLIDATION IN INDIAN TELECOM SECTOR
  2. 2. MEET THE FORCE BEHIND DIGITAL The world is on an exciting digital journey. From financial transactions to governance, from retail to healthcare, new possibilities are endless. The digital world is more connected, more efficient, more convenient and more environment-sensitive. As India embarks on its digital journey, Reliance is The Force behind making this vision a reality!   With a network spanning 285,000 route km from India across the globe; 10 world-class Data Centers; a revolutionary CLOUD X portfolio; and a wide bouquet of Enterprise Communications solutions, Reliance Communications (RCOM) and its global subsidiary Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) are helping Enterprises, SMEs and government agencies achieve their digital dreams.   As The Force behind digital, we are opening new frontiers and delivering a truly next generation digital galaxy today. EMPOWERING DIGITAL INDIA Call us: 1800 200 111 Email us: MakeItEasy@relianceada.com Visit us online: rcom.co.in/business Global: globalcloudxchange.com
  3. 3. MESSAGE FROM BILL BARNEYCo-CEO, Reliance Communications Chairman & CEO, Global Cloud Xchange As SD-WAN is rapidly making waves among enterprise CIOs, an exponential increase in its deployment is evident as the mandate to drive efficiency, security and cost savings have fueled decision makers to step up to the trend and make things happen. In this issue of RCOM/GCX Quarterly Review, our cover story examines why SD-WAN architecture is gaining popularity in today’s increasingly Cloud-centric world (see cover story, page 8-11). Reliance Communications and GCX recently launched Fast Edge, the first “Make in India” Content Delivery Network (CDN) and CLOUD X WAN, a global SD-WAN solution for enterprises. These two solutions further enhance our product portfolio to address the growing mandates of speed, cost savings, flexibility, scalability and enhanced security. Over the past months, we have also continued to expand our Cloud ecosystem, including the addition of Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute in Chennai, with the ability to establish additional interconnections across multiple locations (page 2-3). On the broadcast side, we once again partnered with BMC UK to deliver the 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifying Match to ITV London studios, providing an unrivalled viewing experience for soccer fans across Europe (page 4-5). Earlier this year, GCX introduced a new approach to servicing many of our larger enterprise customers through dedicated “Customer Advocacy Teams” (CAT). This change has seen a complete transformation in the way we handle customers and run our Network Operations Center (page 14). We hope you enjoy this edition of RCOM/GCX Quarterly Review. As always, we look forward to hearing from you on how we can better serve your network requirements. Best regards, Bill CONTENTS RCOM/GCX QUARTERLY REVIEW DISCLAIMER Executive Editor: Lorain Wong Editor: Genevieve Li Cover Story: Lorain Wong Tom Gowen Neil Kelsall Contributors: Brad Kneller Brad Wadsworth Creative Director: Roger M. Proeis Design: Aaron Chan Production: Jennifer Bao Quarterly Review is published quarterly by Global Cloud Xchange. Please email your feedback and suggestions to GCXcommunications@globalcloudxchange.com For additional information on RCOM GCX, please visit our website: rcom.co.in | globalcloudxchange.com © 2016 Global Cloud Xchange All rights reserved Quarterly Newsletter | October - December 2016 NEWS PAGE 2-6 COVER STORY PAGE 8-12 PRODUCT UPDATE PAGE 13 RCOM/GCX UPDATE PAGE 14 EVENTS PAGE 15 TECH TALK PAGE 16
  4. 4. CAPITALIZING ON GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES ACROSS EMERGING MARKETS CORRIDOR WITH FAST EDGE AND CLOUD X WAN 2 NEWS Quarterly Newsletter | October - December 2016 rcom.co.in globalcloudxchange.comrcom.co.in globalcloudxchange.com Aligned with initiatives taking “Digital India” from promise to fruition, GCX has launched Fast Edge, the first “Make in India” Content Delivery Network, putting content closer to India’s 350 million+ eyeballs with the most cost-efficient access available in the market. FAST EDGE CDN “India’s Internet User growth is accelerating at more than 40% year-over-year and India has surpassed the USA to become the #2 Global User Market behind China,” according to the Global Internet Trend 2016 report by Mary Meeker, KPCM. With the increasing number of OTT, Gaming and New Media companies targeting India’s 350 million+ eyeballs, the demand for improved response time; reduced risk of malicious attacks; improved visibility of control over traffic flows; and reduced risk of network capacity bottlenecks are rapidly growing. These requirements are posing challenges, especially for third-party CDN providers with only infrastructure at regional hubs, far from where growth is exploding. “Fast Edge comprises a Content Delivery Network of content caches around the edge of Reliance’s Indian network, connecting back to nine state-of-the-art Tier III+ data centers in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad,” said Bill Barney, Co-CEO, Reliance Communications and Chairman CEO, GCX. “The content caches, in turn, are seamlessly connected onward to our network of data centers situated in key hubs along the Emerging Markets Corridor, all interconnected by our wholly owned global subsea fiber network.” Open-source cache servers hosted in Reliance/GCXMPLSPoPsthroughoutIndia mean content of all types including social media, data, video and gaming, can now be served from the very same neighborhood in which the eyeballs accessing it are based. “By building Fast Edge across the length and breadth of the Reliance network, the distance for content to travel to the eyeball can be slashed from 5,000 miles to 10 miles, effectively eradicating the middle mile bottleneck,” said Braham Singh, SVP of Product Management, Reliance Communications (Enterprise) and GCX.“ And because the content is cached and delivered across our local network, any rapid exponential growth in the number of users concurrently accessing will not automatically lead to middle mile bandwidth issues. In other words, content can now go “viral” across India without impact on users.” Fast Edge with Dynamic DNS (DDNS) also offers built-in protection and security in addition to maximizing the speed of content delivery. With Reliance’s Direct Internet Access (DIA) providing downstream access to 100% of India’s Internet users, Fast Edge is designed to optimize Content Delivery across India – a step forward in making Digital India a reality.
  5. 5. 3NEWS CLOUDXWANfromReliance/GCXdeliversenhancedMPLSclassVPNconnectivityforEnterprises, featuring low cost, Cloud-based, secure routing across the world’s largest subsea cable infrastructure. CLOUD X WAN As digital innovation continues to push the Wide Area Network (WAN) boundaries globally, CIOs are forced to look for ways they can do more with less, especially as IT budgets across market segments have generally remained flat. In view of this, RCOM/GCX further expanded its CLOUD X portfolio with the recent launch of CLOUD X WAN, a Cloud-centric network platform designed to help overcome many of the challenges facing today’s global enterprise networks. “In today’s market, it is evident that SD-WAN is rapidly gaining momentum as it offers an innovative way to adapt traditional WANs to Cloud services,” said Bill Barney, Co-CEO, Reliance Communications and Chairman CEO, GCX. “CLOUD X WAN, was developed to address the market, offering an affordable solution which embraces flexibility, scalability and enhanced security.” GCX’s CLOUD X WAN will provide Cloud- based managed services globally across the company’s proprietary CLOUD X platform; a leading edge Cloud ecosystem and multi-service orchestration platform implemented in key hubs along GCX’s Global subsea network infrastructure. CLOUD X WAN is an evolution of GCX’s existing hybrid WAN service which already connects more than 20,000 locations to a global MPLS network via the Internet. A simple SD-WAN router will form the basic building block, carrying out instructions from a centralized SD-WAN controller. This device will perform key routing functions and other virtualized network services as selected in real-time in a portal by the customer” said Braham Singh, SVP, Product Management, Reliance Communications (Enterprise) and GCX. Through CLOUD X WAN, enterprises will be able to subscribe to network services on a “pay-as-you-go” basis meaning their network infrastructure can be as agile as the Cloud services it connects into. CLOUD X WAN’s centralized SD-WAN architecture provides managed MPLS and SD-WAN services, as well as Virtualized Network Functions such as Virtual CPE VPN, Virtual Firewall Security, Virtual WAN Optimization and Storage-as-a-Service across the network.
  6. 6. GCX AND BMC UK DELIVER 2018 FIFA WORLD CUP QUALIFYING MATCH TO FANS IN EUROPE GCX has once again partnered with BMC UK to deliver an end-to-end connectivity solution for the highly anticipated Slovenia vs England 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying match on 11 October, from Slovenia’s Stožice Stadium, Ljubljana to ITV London studios. “World Cup qualifying matches are one of the most watched and followed sporting events in the world and especially important for soccer fans across Europe. Therefore, it is mission critical for us to provide our fans with smooth, uninterrupted access to the game,” said Lee Russell, Operations Director at BMC UK. “With GCX’s expansive Global Network and its media capabilities, we have once again delivered an unrivalled viewing experience for our viewers.” The broadcast from Slovenia to ITV London studios includes an end-to-end network solution with fast, dedicated and reliable connectivity, as well as active monitoring of the transmission over GCX's Global Network to ensure consistent broadcast quality for European audiences. “Technological advances continue their relentless march into the way we view sports and the demand for a high- quality fan experience is snowballing. Having a scalable and resilient communications infrastructure is vital to the media and broadcasting sector, said Bryce Jewell, Managing Director of the UK, Global Cloud Xchange. We are delighted to partner with BMC UK again this year to provide high- quality live connectivity broadcasts for the exciting World Cup qualifying match. The GCX Global Network is distinguished by its unmatched geographic coverage and ability to provide both subsea and terrestrial connectivity to major telecommunications hubs fully supported by two redundant global network operation centers. Our network connects many of these telecommunications hubs across the globe, from the developed markets in the U.S. and Europe to the key emerging markets in the Middle East and Asia, including India and China. 4 NEWS Quarterly Newsletter | October - December 2016 rcom.co.in globalcloudxchange.com GCX EXPANDS CLOUD ECOSYSTEM WITH MICROSOFT AZURE EXPRESSROUTE
  7. 7. mirror.co.uk / Action images via Reuters 5NEWS “As India enterprises enter a new era of digital globalization, they require sophisticated new levels of support to tap into opportunities from the convergence of Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT), to the latest augmented reality apps,” said Braham Singh, SVP of Global Product Management, Reliance Communications (Enterprise) Global Cloud Xchange. “Through the interconnection of CLOUD X Fusion and Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute, customers will benefit from the added flexibility and global reach to be more competitive as we look at new opportunities from the ‘Digital India’ initiatives.” “Enterprises around the world always look for the right platforms to help them thrive in the digital economy,” said Ross Ortega, Principal Program Manager, Azure Networking. “Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute, combined with CLOUD X Fusion, offers a complete suite of Cloud management tools that give enterprise customers the flexibility and scalability required as they adapt to the new paradigm. We are pleased to have GCX as part of our growing Microsoft Cloud Ecosystem.” CLOUD X Fusion is part of GCX’s CLOUD X portfolio, a proprietary platform designed to seamlessly combine the speed and power of fiber optics with the agility, flexibility and cost-efficiencies of “pay-as-you-go” Cloud computing; available globally and controlled by a simple-to-use user portal. With CLOUD X Fusion, enterprises can use Ethernet or MPLS VPN to privately connect their on-premises network, data center or any other network resources via GCX’s private network directly to the Microsoft Cloud platforms, such as Azure, Microsoft Office 365, and CRM Online. This offers faster speeds and lower latencies than typical connections over the Internet. CLOUD X nodes has been launched in Hong Kong, Palo Alto (California), London, New York and all five Indian cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad) since 2014, with plans to roll out additional nodes in the next 12 months. GCX in collaboration with Microsoft recently announced the addition of Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute via GCX’s CLOUD X Fusion in Chennai, with the ability to establish additional interconnections across multiple locations and offer enterprise customers secure and seamless access to the rapidly growing public Cloud ecosystem.
  8. 8. RELIANCE COMMUNICATIONS (RCOM) AND MAXIS COMMUNICATIONS BERHAD (MCB) ANNOUNCE LARGEST EVER CONSOLIDATION IN INDIAN TELECOM SECTOR On 14 September 2016, Reliance Communications Ltd. (“RCOM”), India’s leading fully-integrated nationwide telecommunications service provider, and Maxis Communications Berhad (“MCB”), promoters of Aircel Limited (“Aircel”), a leading pan-India mobile operator, announced the signing of definitive documents for the merger of their Indian wireless businesses - the largest-ever consolidation in the Indian telecom sector. The RCOM-Aircel combination will create a strong operator clearly ranked amongst India’s top 4 telcos by customer base and revenues, also ranking among the top 3 operators by revenues in 12 important circles. MergedCo will have the second-largest spectrum holding amongst all operators, aggregating 448 MHz across the 850, 900, 1800 and 2100 MHz bands, and will enjoy enhanced business continuity through extended validity of spectrum holdings till 2033-35. Mr. Anil D. Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Group, said Together with our partners, MCB, we are delighted to have taken the lead in consolidation of the Indian telecom sector, first, with RCOM’s acquisition of the wireless business of SSTL (Sistema / MTS), and now, with the combination of our business with Aircel Ltd. in a 50:50 Joint Venture with MCB. We expect this combination to create substantial long term value for shareholders of both, RCOM and MCB, given the benefits of the wide-ranging spectrum portfolio and significant revenue and cost synergies. MCB commented, “This deal further reinforces MCB’s commitment to India. Since acquiring Aircel in 2006, MCB has invested in excess of INR 35,000 crore (USD 5.2 billion) into Aircel, making this one of the largest foreign investments into India, not only in the telecom industry but across all sectors. The magnitude of this investment, and the further equity commitment in support of this deal, are underpinned by MCB’s belief in the long term growth potential of both India and the Indian telecom sector.” MergedCo will be one of India’s largest private sector companies, with an asset base of over Rs. 65,000 crore (USD 9.7 billion) and net worth of Rs. 35,000 crore (USD 5.2 billion). The combined entity will enjoy substantial benefits of scale driving significant revenue growth, and capex and opex synergies with an NPV of ~ Rs. 20,000 crore (USD 3 billion). RCOM and MCB will each hold a 50% stake in the merged entity (“MergedCo”), with equal representation on the Board of Directors and all Committees. The Company will be managed by an independent professional team under the supervision of the Board. RCOM’s overall debt will reduce by Rs 20,000 crore (USD 3 billion) or over 40% of its total debt, and Aircel’s debt will reduce by Rs. 4,000 crore (USD 600 million), upon completion of the transaction in 2017. RCOMwillcontinue toownandoperate its highgrowthbusinesses in the domestic and global enterprise space, Data Centers, optic fibre and related telecom infrastructure, besides owning valuable real estate. On consummation of the merger, RCOM and MCB are committed to additional equity infusion into MergedCo to further strengthen the Balance Sheet, fund future growth plans, and enhance financial flexibility. Both parties are already in talks with leading international investors in this regard. MergedCo’s subscribers will have access to nationwide ‘gold standard’ 4G LTE services on the sub-1 GHz band, under RCOM’s existing nation-wide spectrum sharing / ICR arrangements with Reliance Jio Infocomm. The combined 2G, 3G and 4G networks position MergedCo for further strategic collaborations, and provide MergedCo the unique capability to offer a robust platform of services across all customer segments in all 22 telecom circles, including the mass market, leading to a superior customer experience at an affordable price point, and bringing the Internet to All in furtherance of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of Digital India. The transaction is subject to applicable approvals, including inter alia, shareholder and regulatory approvals, lenders’ consents, etc. Goldman Sachs, SBI Capital Markets, Standard Chartered Bank, Strategy, A.T. Kearney, BMR Advisors, PWC, S.R. Batliboi Co. LLP, EY, KPMG, Khaitan Co, JSA Law, Kirkland Ellis, and Slaughter May are acting as Advisors for the transaction. NEWS Quarterly Newsletter | October - December 2016 6 rcom.co.in globalcloudxchange.com
  9. 9. 7NEWS 17-19 OCTOBER 2016 DALLAS GCX (#ASN18101) is proud to be a sponsor of NANOG 68 in Dallas! Please join GCX US team at the Tuesday Afternoon Break (4:15pm at Regency Foyer) to discuss network connectivity, IP Transit and Data Center solutions NANOG 68 ABOUT NANOG The North American Network Operators Group (NANOG), is the professional association for Internet engineering, architecture and operations. Our core focus is on continuous improvement of the data transmission technologies, practices, and facilities that make the Internet function. NANOG is a membership organization organized as an 501(c)3 non- profit. NANOG Meetings offer a great opportunity to network with colleagues, freshen-up skills, learn advanced networking techniques, and discover new network applications.
  10. 10. COVER STORY Quarterly Newsletter | October - December 2016 8 SD-WANDISRUPTIVE, TRANSFORMATIVE... A GAME CHANGER! Digital Innovation and the impact of Internet of Things (IoT) are among key drivers pushing Cloud networking technology on to center stage as one of this generation’s most disruptive game changers. As the gap between network demands and available budget continues to widen, traditional Wide Area Networks (WANs) are being challenged. SD-WAN is seen as key in driving improved return on network investment, in making enterprise network services agile and in enabling a new consistent level of network security in today’s increasingly Cloud-centric world. International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that “worldwide SD-WAN revenues will exceed $6 billion in 2020 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 90% over the 2015-2020 forecast period.” According to IDC, “The emergence of SD-WAN is a relatively recent market development, preceded by the existence of hybrid WAN architectures. SD-WANs leverage these hybrid WANs, but incorporate a centralized, application-based policy controller, analytics for application and network visibility, a software overlay that abstracts underlying networks, and an optional SD-WAN forwarder that together provides intelligent path selection across WAN links.” rcom.co.in globalcloudxchange.com IT’S ALL ABOUT THE “USER EXPERIENCE” As we head into the new software-enabled network world, today’s topology is built on a premise that the “user experience”, or how your employees interact and use the tools to do their jobs, is more dynamic and needs to scale in ways never thought of before. In the ever-growing Internet of Things (IoT), today’s “user” can connect to the network through any number of devices; whether corporate devices or even their own. Those devices connect to corporate applications via a multitude of connection types, like broadband or wireless Internet. And with the advent of Cloud technologies, data and applications are no longer hosted in one or two data centers…the “servers” are often dispersed anywhere throughout the world. “Thenetworktopologyoftodayneedstobesoftware-enabledto truly be Cloud-connected. This new software-enabled network will need to be able to support an unending amount of devices dynamically, accessing an unlimited number of connections, connecting to an ever changing library of Cloud-hosted
  11. 11. 9COVER STORY applications, with efficiency and elasticity,” said Wilfred Kwan, Chief Operating Officer, Reliance Communications (Enterprise) and Global Cloud Xchange. A big challenge for today’s enterprises is dynamically managing and controlling a huge number of IoT devices with thousands of connections and even more connectivity options, to a range of Cloud-hosted services. That, in a nutshell, is the requirement that the new software-enabled network needs to address. For enterprise CIOs, the decision of what to software enable, really depends on users and where their applications are hosted. Some SD-WAN platforms focus more on the ability for branch offices to utilize more cost-effective connectivity methods, while others focus on getting the users’ packets streaming to the Cloud faster,” said Tom Gowen, President of North America, Global Cloud Xchange. “The GCX CLOUD X WAN, for example, emphasizes the use of high-bandwidth, low-cost connectivity options at enterprise branch locations, connecting to Cloud-hosted applications through the optimal network path, and the on-demand deployment of pre-built network service chains through Network Function Virtualization (NFV); all orchestrated and controlled via a single web portal.” SD-WAN AND NFV DELIVERING BENEFITS TO THE ENTERPRISE USER Going beyond 2016, SD-WAN followed by NFV is expected to deliver significant benefits to multinational enterprises. Intelligent edge devices running software-based virtualized network functions on virtual computing machines will increasingly replace the multitude of specialist appliances that currently run these network services at sites in today’s enterprise networks. Benefits from this scenario mean that a single, low-cost piece of equipment can become truly multi-functional; capable of running a number of key network services including router, firewall, load-balancer, network optimization, VPN encryption and more. While this capability has been available for many years and utilized by telco service providers, it is now just trending into the enterprise arena with deployment within public Clouds capturing growth momentum. “NFV, in particular, is offering clear benefits to enterprise users as it drives value and savings in a number of ways. For example, numerous expensive individual appliances are replaced by virtual machines running on a “white box” which provides various software-based applications and services,” said Kwan. “This translates into massive savings in hardware costsasasingledevicecannowrunmultipleservices. Also,the complexity of traditional “premium” services (i.e., optimization, advanced security, anti-virus, etc.) is reduced, making these value-added services much more accessible to the enterprise.” continued, page 10 Going beyond 2016, SD-WAN followed by NFV is expected to deliver significant benefits to multinational enterprises. Intelligent edge devices running software-based virtualized network functions on virtual computing machines will increasingly replace the multitude of specialist appliances that currently run these network services at sites in today’s enterprise networks.
  12. 12. COVER STORY Quarterly Newsletter | October - December 2016 10 rcom.co.in globalcloudxchange.com continued from page 9 The network topology of today needs to be software-enabled to truly be Cloud-connected. This new software-enabled network will need to be able to support an unending amount of devices dynamically, accessing an unlimited number of connections, connecting to an ever changing library of Cloud-hosted applications, with efficiency and elasticity.” Wilfred Kwan Chief Operating Officer Reliance Communications (Enterprise) and Global Cloud Xchange. SD-WAN: REDEFINING WAN OPTIMIZATION SD-WAN offers enterprises tremendous agility, efficiency and cost-savings. Enterprises can deploy a mixture of expensive dedicated and commodity Internet networks into remote offices with on-demand capacity and centralized controls. These networks can be easily optimized for quality and performance. But extending SD-WAN into the Cloud is a different story. Cloud resources are dynamic. Auto-scaling is a common use case and a good example. Cloud servers and applications are provisioned dynamically with different locations and Cloud provider options. For SD-WAN to work in the Cloud, the controller must be very intelligent and a part of the Cloud orchestration. This allows automatic extension of SD-WANs to the Cloud server networks and provide unification of the entire enterprise network environment in real-time. “It’sinevitablethatSD-WANwillbeapartoftheClouddeployment model in the near future similar to NFVs in the service chain model. To make this a reality, intelligent orchestrators with knowledgeandcontrolofallcomponentsareneededtoprovision Cloud resources and SD-WAN in real-time,” said John Yung, CEO, Appcara. “More and more enterprise applications are distributed across different Clouds and locations for compliance and better user experience. SD-WAN controllers need to be tightly coupled with Cloud orchestrations, such as Appcara’s App360, to extend SD-WAN services to these applications operating in the Cloud.” AND THE JURY IS IN... As SD-WAN is rapidly making waves among enterprise CIOs, an exponential increase in its deployment is evident as the mandate to drive efficiency, security and cost savings has fueled decision makers to jump on-board and make things happen. They are liking what they see in terms of increased network agility, which translates to faster provisioning that matches the flexibility of the WAN to that of the Cloud. Also, appealing are the significant cost savings in hardware across sites as they are replaced by a single intelligent device running virtualized network functions, in addition to savings through bandwidth optimization. “SD-WAN also gives enterprises increased manageability, control and scalability. In addition, improved visibility through granular end-to-end performance data brings a level of transparency only previously available with expensive appliance and management platforms. This makes decision-making on network-related issues so much more informed,” Gowen added. With most SD-WAN platforms, performance visibility is also available to the user (e.g., the enterprise IT department) via some form of portal. While this is nothing new, and network performance data has been available through network service providers for many years, previously it required separate software, network probes and hardware systems. Now this capability is a fundamental feature of any SD-WAN controller and platform. IN A NUTSHELL... From an enterprise perspective, the user experience is now defined by high performing applications, reliable connectivity, and instant access to Cloud services, as opposed to network latency, congestion and delays in adding to the network. If Cloud was a revolution, Software-enabled networking is really the evolution of how users connect to the Cloud.
  13. 13. • Low-cost Internet could be used more commonly in the network without any adverse effect on per-application user- experience? • The aggregate bandwidth connecting any location could be used better with “dynamic load-balancing” leading to lower connectivity costs? • The multitude of disparate appliances could be replaced by a single device capable of carrying out a range of network functions like firewall, Secure Internet Gateway or WAN Optimisation meaning lower capex and opex? • New network functions, more bandwidth or even new locations could be provisioned in minutes at the press of a button providing real agility? • Routing decisions to on-premise data centers or public Cloud platforms could be made on a per-application basis leading to optimised performance and connectivity? The network finally caught up with the Cloud? ENTER CLOUD X WAN WHAT IF... • Internet security models often hamper Cloud performance with Cloud-bound traffic flowing in and out of centralized gateways • Low cost connectivity like broadband Internet is most commonly used at low criticality sites or as back-up • Twice the required bandwidth is often bought with “back-up” connections dormant for the vast majority of time • A multitude of disparate appliances (Router, Firewall, Anti-Virus, Proxy, Load balancers, WAN Optimisation … etc) are relied upon to carry complex network functions • Provisioning is reliant upon manual processes, can be prone to human error and it can take weeks to turn up a new site • Pre-existing network connections are rarely used leading to delay and duplicated cost • Internet performance is variable and often unreliable creating a barrier to Cloud adoption • Hybrid WANs blending performance-guaranteed MPLS with low-cost Internet are complex to manage THEENTERPRISENETWORKHASFAILEDTOKEEPPACEWITHTHECLOUD And the Traditional Network Model has Become Outdated IN THE TRADITIONAL ENTERPRISE NETWORK MODEL ... • Supports an increasingly geographically dispersed user base • Needs to support more and more “devices” including mobile, tablet and “Things” • Is seeing application-driven bandwidth demand grow between 20% and 50% per year • Is facing more and more cyber security threats, especially at branch locations • Needs an ever-growing range of specialist network services to deliver best value for money from IT investment • Is seeing the gap between network demands and available budget becoming bigger • Needs to be as agile as possible, taking advantage of “the Cloud” as much as is feasible and practicable with more and more applications becoming “Web-based” TODAY’S CIO... continued, page 12 11COVER STORY 11COVER STORY
  14. 14. 12 rcom.co.in globalcloudxchange.com In today’s world, Cloud services are consuming an exponentially increasing amount of bandwidth and network operators are challenged to continually keep up with demand. During a recent panel discussion on “Delivering the Cloud to Corporate Customers Employees” at WAN Summit Singapore 2016, panels agreed that having an extensive global footprint and the ability to interconnect to various leading Cloud providers are critical factors for enterprises in transitioning into the Cloud, especially in the emerging market countries where access may be more of a challenge. In addressing the challenges of delivering Cloud services in remote area and across emerging market countries, Wilfred Kwan, Chief Operating Officer, Reliance Communications (Enterprise) Global Cloud Xchange commented that there were more options available now and deployment is much more feasible with I n t e r n e t and broadband. “The key question is how much of that is Quality of Service (QoS)? An end user would want to know who can guarantee my service. It’s great to have all the reporting to improve user’s experience but the bottom line is you still need to have a quality network before you can do all of the above.” The panel also discussed the different options accessing the Cloud—either with direct connect or through Cloud exchanges—as well as, the most common practices for enterprise customers. “We see it from a direct-connect perspective as many of our enterprise customers adopt more hybrid environments. So, direct connect is great when you’re carrying credit card data or some sort of PCI compliance. Or, if a particular control is an issue for you equally, a hybrid model then allows people at branch locations to deploy much more cost-effective broadband solutions for email and web browsing, for example. So, direct connect is still very much part of the strategy for our enterprise customers, and we’re seeing that deployed much more in a hybrid model,” said Simon Waller, Vice President of Carrier Sales for EMEA and APAC, GTT. “It’s always the choice for our enterprise customers and—in fact—we do recommend our enterprise customers, especially those with critical applications, to ensure redundancy is built in. You can go with two carriers, you can manage yourself, or through us. Because at the end of the day, you want to have a resilient link with a high-speed route with the lowest latency. Our job is to make the CIO look good. Anything that we can do to enhance that, we’ll do it!” added Kwan. WAN Summit Singapore 2016 brought together corporate WAN strategists and service provider executives to discuss common challenges, gain new perspectives, and build business relationships with potential suppliers, customers, and peers. DELIVERING THE CLOUD TO CORPORATE CUSTOMERS EMPLOYEES COVER STORY Quarterly Newsletter | October - December 2016 continued from page 11
  15. 15. PRODUCT UPDATE Quarterly Newsletter | October - December 2016 MAXIMIZING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES WITH RELIANCE CLOUD TELEPHONY The voice communications market is undergoing a seismic shift. After decades of being stagnant, new solutions are being adopted to improve the business processes of an enterprise. In India, most Cloud telephony providers are standalone operators that partner with various telecom companies to offer their services, and hence there is a need for a more streamlined, controlled and systematic voice communications. “As Indian enterprises embark on their digital transformation journey, they need comprehensive Cloud telephony solutions that offer the most efficient lead management system to increase business agility while staying connected to their customers,” said Braham Singh, SVP, Product Management, RCOM (Enterprise) and GCX. “Reliance Cloud Telephony was developed to address the market and to help enterprises transitioning to secure and reliable voice services in the Cloud for future growth.” Reliance Cloud Telephony is powered by a telephony engine designed to integrate telephony intelligently, as well as, contextually with customer databases, applications and processes, enabling organizations to take giant strides in lead generation, lead management and customer service with minimal investment. Reliance Insta CallBack • Instant connection with interested prospects leading to significantly higher sales closures Reliance AutoCall Notifier • Enables automatic personalised mass notifications through telephone calls and/or SMS Reliance Smart CallThrough • Intelligent routing of incoming calls to relevant experts using a virtual number interfacea Reliance Cloud Telephony is of particular interest to Marketing Customer Service professionals. Since its launch, Reliance Cloud Telephony has rapidly gained momentum in the marketplace, providing end-to-end integrated services for Indian enterprises across different industries. For instance, a leading ‘local search service’ provider was facilitating many deals between its listed sellers and buyers (through Web, Voice and Text) but had no way of ascertaining the number of leads that each listing was generating. They utilized our ‘Smart CallThrough’ Cloud telephony service to get valuable analytics on the calls that each listed business generates. Reliance Cloud Telephony is helping businesses connect relevant personnel at the ‘moment of need’: patients are getting connected to caregivers, transporters are able to find each other for smooth movement of cargo, even machines are getting connected to maintenance personnel…the list continues to grow. On an average, our Cloud telephony services facilitate a hundred thousand interactions every day. “We believe that Cloud Telephony is in its nascent stages and the future will see the technology put to ubiquitous use. In the coming months, we will continue our momentum and expand our Cloud Telephony suite for enterprises to remain competitive and enable them to generate sustainable and long-term business benefits,” said Singh. RELIANCE CLOUD TELEPHONY SERVICES
  16. 16. 14 RCOM/GCX UPDATE Quarterly Newsletter | October - December 2016 case at a time. “We must continuously be aware of the end-user customer impact during an incident and remain empathetic to the impact. Also, being aware that the customer is going to be very forceful for a resolution – even when the CAT team are working diligently for a fix – is a big challenge,” said Bruce Mcleod, GCX Operations Director, APAC. “Customer Advocates face certain hurdles while completing assigned tasks, most challenging being timely responses and technical resolution from underlying suppliers for certain incidents. Unless inputs are available from suppliers, a meaning-full update to customer can be challenging. Our Customer Advocates are trained to handle such situations; we also have a supplier management team in place as part of CAT structure to help them,” Saleem Meethal, GCX’s Head of Specialized Services Center added. In the midst of challenges, our CAT members continue to set high targets and KPIs in the management of the program. According to Chun Su Liu, GCX’s Global Escalation Director, “We aim to transform ourselves into a world-class customer- focused Service Provider, delivering the best customer experiences by driving a customer-centric culture and a commitment to excellence. Through a passion for quality service, 24/7 availability and ever-ready support, we will make customer advocacy a continued success as we support a broader group of customers going forward. OUR CUSTOMER ADVOCACY TEAM MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN CUSTOMER CARE… Earlier this year, GCX introduced a new approach to servicing many of our larger enterprise customers through dedicated “Customer Advocacy Teams” (CAT). This change has seen a complete transformation in the way we handle customers and run our Network Operation Center. Each Customer Advocacy Team comprises dedicated resources who are intimately familiar with the select customer’s services and whose time is dedicated to the provisioning of these services to the customer. “Our Customer Advocacy model is designed to improve customer experience by building customer-centric teams with focus on faster resolution and complete ownership,” said Surjeet Singh GCX’s Head of Network Service Assurance. “With this vision, we changed the traditional ‘Service Provider’ approach to an active ‘Customer Centric’ approach towards operations. The instant benefit of Customer Advocacy is that the subject matter expert Customer Advocate takes end- to-end ownership of the fault to ensure the resolution is on right track and the customer is proactively updated on resolution progress. The Customer advocate provides one-stop-shop for customer traction irrespective of the product line and technology.” Deep knowledge of the customer’s services and design has helped to resolve network incidents effectively and we have also seen a significant improvement in the efficiency of operational resources within the CAT program. The program also builds a strong sense of ownership by making engineers the focal point for customer-specific assignments. This has led to better alignment across the Customer Service and Operations teams, adding to the initial success of the CAT program which is now being implemented on a broader scale including extension into our India Enterprise domestic operations. Since its launch, the CAT program has also seen challenges which each team member has worked towards resolving one rcom.co.in globalcloudxchange.com Our Customer Advocacy model is designed to improve customer experience by building customer-centric teams with focus on faster resolution and complete ownership.” Surjeet Singh Head of Network Service Assurance Global Cloud Xchange
  17. 17. REACHING THE ASIAN EYEBALLS WITH GCX AT IBC 2016 9-13 SEPTEMBER 2016, RAI AMSTERDAM “The Emerging Markets Corridor will be among the fastest-growing Internet markets and the biggest beneficiary of the digital revolution as requirements continue to grow,” said Mark Russell, President of Europe, GCX, in a presentation “The Art of Connecting to Eyeballs in Emerging Markets” at the IBC Conference on Monday 12 September 2016 in Amsterdam. Mr. Russell also shared how media and OTT companies can meet the explosive new demands ahead, by offering lower-cost content, better user experience and scalable and resilient communications infrastructure. Alongside our partner Equinix and customer BMC UK, GCX also had the opportunity to share with the delegates on how our suite of products and solutions can help in addressing the new mandates of the media broadcasting industry at IBC 2016. EVENTS Quarterly Newsletter | October - December 2016 15EVENTS UPCOMING EVENTS NANOG 68 17-19 OCTOBER 2016 DALLAS, TEXAS GITEX TECH TALKS 2016 18 OCTOBER 2016 DUBAI WORLD TRADE CENTRE, DUBAI ROTARY CHARITY REGATTA 11 NOVEMBER 2016 SYDNEY SUBMARINE NETWORKS WORLD 17-19 OCTOBER 2016 SUNTEC SINGAPORE CAPACITY EUROPE 7-9 NOVEMBER 2016 PARIS CAPACITY ASIA 6-7 DECEMBER 2016 HONG KONG GCX MIDDLE EAST AT IRAN CONNECT 2016 6-7 SEPTEMBER 2016, IRAN GCX Middle East team took part at the Iran Connect in Tehran on 6-7 September 2016. Co-hosted by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology of Iran, Iran Connect provided the first opportunity for international organisations to discover investment and trading opportunities in one of the world’s last untapped markets. GCX NORTH AMERICA AT MARKETPLACE LIVE 22 SEPTEMBER 2016, NEW YORK GCX US team attended MarketplaceLIVE in New York on 22 September 2016. MarketplaceLIVE is a one day event that brings the complete community of Cloud and Internet stakeholders together as equals to cross- pollinate ideas. GCX ATTENDS TELECOMS WORLD MIDDLE EAST 27-28 SEPTEMBER 2016, DUBAI GCX Middle East team took part as a sponsor at Telecoms World Middle East on 27-28 September 2016 in Dubai. The two-day event gave our Middle East team an opportunity to meet and network with the delegates on how GCX suite of solutions can help in addressing the demand of the digital economy and to capture new markets. RCOM RECEIVES LONG PARTNERSHIP AWARD FROM TESCO BENGALURU  5 OCTOBER 2016, BENGALURU  Tesco Bengaluru recently awarded Reliance Communications with the “Long Partnership Award” at the Tesco Partner Connect 2016 for providing the most robust and reliable voice and data solutions to Tesco for more than eight years. Mohammed K Quraishi, Global Enterprise Business, RCOM (left), received the award from Glen Attewell, Chief Executive Officer, Tesco Bengaluru
  18. 18. TECH TALK Quarterly Newsletter | October - December 2016 16 rcom.co.in globalcloudxchange.com WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FACING SUBSEA OPERATORS AS THE WORLD MOVES INTO THE CLOUD AGE AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS EVOLVES? To not think or act solely as a subsea operator. Technology is evolving quickly and bandwidth demands continue to soar as a result of Cloud and IoT. The subsea network is key as we bring our Cloud services to market. We need to continue driving down our operational costs to ensure bandwidth remains affordable. To achieve this, GCX is looking at new go-to-market approaches like cost-sharing opportunities as well as traditional sales of infrastructure space, power, fiber, spectrum, etc. Additionally, as we see new players entering the market with limited subsea experience we have an opportunity to offer outsourcing and professional services to these new cable owners. As owner and operator of the world’s largest private subsea infrastructure, we are well-positioned to deliver on this opportunity to further enhance offerings for our customers. BANDWIDTH DEMANDS ARE EVER- GROWING. WHAT TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES OR INNOVATIONS ARE COMING IN THE SUBSEA WORLD TO MEET THE DEMAND? There will be pressure in both access and core networks. New access networks will evolve using technologies like Narrowband IoT and 5G. In the core, Dense Wave Division Multiplexing “DWDM” will continue to underpin subsea networks for years to come. In fact, subsea is ahead of the game with ongoing advances in fiber and signal amplification technology. As an example of the rate of progress, during my eight years at GCX, the capacity per channel (wavelength) on a subsea network has increased from 10Gbps to 40Gbps to 100Gbps. Trials for 200Gps and 400Gbps per channel systems are currently taking place and this upward trend will continue for the foreseeable future. HOW HAVE CHALLENGES LIKE CABLE OUTAGES CHANGED OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS? The impact of cable system outages has changed significantly over the past 10 years. I recall the days when the loss of a trans-Atlantic cable would see the world go mad; guys working 36 hours non- stop managing customers, processing restoration requests and/or re-routing services across different cable systems and capacity. In contrast, we recently had an outage on one of our cables and received only one 10G restoration request. Nowadays, customer networks are based more on self-healing IP (Packet based) networks and resilient topologies with risk spread over multiple subsea cables which provide added assurance on network reliability. Having said that, in some regions the opportunity to diversify is limited so we need to ensure our network operations is always ready to support customers under all circumstances. ARE THERE ANY ADVANCES EXPECTED TO MAKE SUBSEA NETWORKS EVEN MORE RELIABLE? The two biggest factors that impact reliability are the frequency of cable cuts and the time to repair. “Other marine users” remain the primary cause of cable cuts (typically through fishing or anchoring activities) and we are successfully using systems such as AIS to warn ships that attempt to fish or anchor near our cable. Time to repair is dependent upon the availability of a maintenance vessel and the permits required for the vessel to operate within a country’s territorial waters, which is a huge variable dependent upon where in the world we need a repair. As an example, for a recent repair off the Egyptian coast, separate permits were required from 13 different government departments before work could commence. Efforts are being made to make governments aware of these issues through industry bodies such as the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), UK Cable Protection Committee (UKCPC) and NASCA in the US and we have found that governments take notice when major outages (affecting multiple cables) occurs. As an industry, we continue to push for a much more focused effort in this area. AS BILLIONS OF INTERNET USERS COME ONLINE IN THE EMERGING MARKETS, WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACING SUBSEA OPERATORS AS THEY CONNECTHERE? There is a wide range of challenges including environment, weather and socio-political factors. Unlike in developed markets (i.e., US and Europe), the Emerging Markets can be difficult in terms of terrain, infrastructure or onward connectivity and backhaul networks. Then you have the weather. The weather systems are so variable and extreme such as the extreme heat in the Middle East. And finally you have socio-political factors like regulatory environments. In many of the countries that are, or will experience the Internet explosion, the telecoms markets are very heavily regulated. That makes it a very complex and often slow process to bring up the bandwidth and international connectivity the population demands. That’s often where GCX comes in. We have a network spanning 285,000 route km from India across the globe; nine world-class data centers in India; and a revolutionary CLOUD X portfolio. We are well-positioned to serve the Internet explosion in the Middle East and Asia, including India and China. Network infrastructures are under tremendous pressure as exploding Internet traffic volumes consume bandwidth capacity fast. To maneuver this challenging landscape, subsea operators must also evolve to stay relevant in order to capitalize on the new digital opportunities. RCOM/GCX Review catches up with Brad Kneller, Vice President, Global Network Operations, Global Cloud Xchange, to talk about challenges and exciting new technologies impacting the subsea sector. SUBSEAATAGLANCE
  19. 19. OUR OFFICE LOCATIONS ASIA-PACIFIC INDIA EUROPE AND MIDDLE EAST USA NEW DELHI BCA 06, 2nd Floor, A-Wing Reliance Center Delhi Maharaja Ranjit Singh Marg New Delhi 110002 SOUTH KOREA Suite 2303, City Air Tower, 36, Teheran-ro, 87-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul (06164), Korea SINGAPORE 67 Ubi Avenue 1 #06-01 North Wing Singapore 408942 TAIWAN 4th Floor, No.200 Section 1 Keelung Road, Taipei 110 Taiwan HEAD OFFICE Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) H Block, Thane Belapur Road Koparkhairane Navi Mumbai – 400710 BANGALORE HM Towers, 4th Floor Brigade Road Junction Ashok Nagar, Above CCD Bangalore - 560025 HYDERABAD 4th Floor, Plot No.38 Hi-Tech City Madhapur Hyderabad 500081 MUMBAI 2nd Floor South Wing Off Western Exp Highway Anand Nagar, Vakola Santacruz East Mumbai 400055 BELGIUM Regus Brussels Airport Pegasuslaan 5 B-1831 Diegem Belgium EGYPT Nile City Towers, North Tower, 23rd Floor Cornish El Nil, Ramlet Boulak P.O. Box 11624 Cairo, Egypt FRANCE Immeuble Le Colisée, 8 avenue de l’Arche 92419 Courbevoie Cedex France GERMANY VANCO GmbH Triforum Haus A1, Frankfurter Strasse 233, 63263 Neu-Isenburg Germany SAN BRUNO 999 Bayhill Drive Suite 160 San Bruno, CA 94066 DENVER Suite 2-130 2000 S Colorado Blvd Denver, CO 80222 NEW YORK 600 3rd Avenue 2nd Floor New York, NY 10016 RESTON 12007 Sunrise Valley Dr. Ste 115, Reston, VA20191 AUSTRALIA Level 8, 54, Miller Street, North Sydney NSW 2060 Australia CHINA Room 705, 7/F, Office Tower 2 SunDongAn Plaza, No.138 WangFujing Ave, Dong Cheng District Beijing 100006, China HONG KONG Suite 3901-02, 39/F Lippo Centre, Tower Two 89 Queensway Hong Kong JAPAN 9F Atelier Yours Ogawamachi 1-10-2 Kanda-Ogawamachi Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0052 Japan ITALY Torre Tonda P.zza Don Mapelli, 1 20099 Sesto San Giovanni Milano, Italy THE NETHERLANDS Herikerbergweg 292 - 342 1101 CT Amsterdam The Netherlands SPAIN Calle Bahia Business Center Calle Bahia de Pollensa, 5 28042 Madrid, Spain SWEDEN Grev Turegatan 18 SE- 114 46 Stockholm Sweden UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (Jebel Ali Branch) Building # ZF08 Near R/A12 Jebel Ali Free Zone - North P.O. Box 30440, Dubai U.A.E. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (Dubai Branch) Al Masaood Building 7th Floor, Al Maktoum Street P.O. Box 30440 Dubai U.A.E. UNITED KINGDOM Sovereign Court 637 Sipson Road, West Drayton Middlesex, UB7 0JE United Kingdom

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