Playbook Volume 11 - ChannelVision Magazine - Digital Transformation

SD-IXArrives By Gerald Baldino As a result of this migration, en- terprise computing environments are becoming increasingly diverse and complex. Enterprises, for instance, now deploy an average of five cloud con- nections to hyperscale and SaaS pro- viders – a figure that only will increase moving forward. This in turn is creating new logisti- cal challenges for service providers, many of which are already struggling to establish agile and flexible con- nectivity to multi-site and hybrid cloud environments. The fact is that it’s not easy to manage and monetize con- nections outside of your own borders, despite all of the advances we have seen in this space. For years, providers have been waiting for a software-defined solution to reduce the cost and complexity of data center interconnection and cloud management. That solution has finally arrived. On May 1, Stateless launched Luxon, a software-defined interconnection (SD-IX) platform that can be used to deploy and monetize Layer 3+ ser- vices across and beyond multi-tenant data centers and cloud environments. Luxon enables the on-demand cre- ation of simple, highly customizable networks. It offers both the speed and agility that providers need to remain competitive in today’s fast-paced mar- ket, said the company. The platform has two main use cases: automating and securing tenant cloud deployments and connecting ten- ants to portfolio sites. Luxon is a plug and play solution that’s designed to be deployed in a building’s meet me room. According to the company, it requires no complex orchestration or integrations. Provid- ers can connect to Luxon with VLAN or VxLAN tags. One of Luxon’s most noteworthy features is that it eliminates the need to deploy new appliances or onboard systems when tenants submit requests. New deployments can be easily han- dled in the Luxon platform. What’s more, Luxon makes it pos- sible to proactively manage intercon- nect points regardless of their location. Luxon can be used to more effectively optimize and monetize both internal and external connections. At this point you are probably won- dering how SD-IX differs from SD-WAN and SDN. As Stateless puts it, SD-WAN focuses on building endpoint to end- point networks. SDN is centered on intra-data center traffic orchestra- tion and management. SD-IX takes software-defined networking a step further than SDN and SD-WAN, as it allows network administrators to expand management and control be- yond the data center using Layer 3+ network services. Luxon provides total control over routing, security, switching and all con- nections, using a seamless, software- defined approach. Ultimately, we’re looking at a big step forward in software-defined net- working, and a game-changing technol- ogy for colocation and cloud providers. “Luxon is the first step in State- less’ mission to provide users with the power to create simple, custom- ized networks on demand,” said Murad Kablan, CEO and co-founder of Stateless. “The platform provides colocation and cloud MSPs the real- time agility they need to adapt to ev- er-changing business requirements and priorities.” o T he data center landscape is evolving at a rapid clip, as more and more enterprises are moving their workloads to third-party cloud and colocation environments. According to Gartner, 80 percent of enterprises will migrate away from on-premises data centers by 2025. 30 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK