On 2018-11-21, MTN Business Kenya said early adopters had tested, proven and rolled out MTN SD-WAN across their wide area networks in Kenya and East Africa. The company used the pitch to outline why some enterprises are moving away from older WAN setups.
According to MTN, the service is designed to reduce network complexity and make day-to-day administration easier. One client with branches across East and Central Africa was quoted saying the platform had “greatly simplified the management aspect of the network and in turn improved our user experience.”
MTN also said companies do not have to abandon existing MPLS infrastructure immediately. Instead, the firm described SD-WAN as something that can work alongside MPLS in a hybrid setup, with traffic gradually shifting toward cheaper internet bandwidth as needs change. The company said one reference client first replaced unmanaged legacy LAN switches that made fault identification difficult before later rolling the system out across its WAN.
The business unit further pointed to a centralized management portal that can automate routine work such as configuration, troubleshooting and reporting. MTN said the tool allows traffic prioritization for critical applications and can adjust traffic flows based on network conditions. A current client was quoted saying faults are now identified and resolved “by the click of a button on the user interface” and that VoIP and CRM performance improved without increasing WAN or internet bandwidth.
Cloud access was another selling point in MTN’s 2018 case for the product. The company argued that traditional MPLS cannot match SD-WAN for high-performance access to cloud applications such as Microsoft Office 365, which it said makes the technology relevant to digital transformation efforts in enterprises.
MTN also highlighted zero-touch deployment, saying centralized provisioning removes the need for IT staff to travel to sites for implementation. It said the system automates provisioning, applies traffic policies to branch routers and switches, and can save time and money when opening new sites or replacing old equipment.
The final point in MTN’s list was customer support. The company said clients would receive advisory services from MTN Business Kenya certified engineers. It ended the pitch by inviting interested customers to request a demo at [email protected].
