VeloCloud And EarthLink, AT&T

Two very different companies have partnered with SD-WAN specialist VeloCloud this year to bring two different kinds of competitive offerings to solution providers. With VeloCloud, enterprises can create a network overlay with multiple links from different service providers to power their branch offices. The "software defined" bit means that the applications delivered in SD-WAN are independent of the underlying transport links.

EarthLink is using VeloCloud's technology to offer SD-WAN as a "concierge service." This service gives partners a way to continuously monitor the WAN service to ensure the performance and reliability of latency-sensitive applications. More importantly, it's a service that provides recurring revenue.

Meanwhile, AT&T is providing both a network-based and a premises-based offering with VeloCloud's technology. Both SD-WAN varieties will allow businesses to prioritize and route data across their networks based on the needs of the applications they're using. And again, both methods of offering SD-WAN give partners a way to sell both connectivity and network-based services and earn recurring revenue in the process.