Digital Transformation in the Asia-Pacific Region Requirements for a Reliable and Secure Network

Singtel Business

White PaperDigital Transformation

1 “Building a Resilient Cloud Network with SD-WAN”, Ovum TMT intelligence/informa 20162 “Embracing the Challenge of Enterprise Mobility,” IDC 2014

Digital Transformation in the Asia-Pacific Region

Overview

European-headquartered enterprises wanting to capitalise on the growing business opportunities in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region realise they must develop organisational network capabilities to support their goals. Their priority is to establish regional offices with robust communications to avoid any weak link in the chain. Analyst group Ovum highlights how focus on the network is critical as businesses are increasingly moving mission-critical applications to the network and fostering digital engagement with customers. Cloud technologies are fundamental to this transformation, and 35% of multinational corporations in APAC say adoption of cloud services is the top driver of network services spending in 20171. However, network managers require a service provider that can navigate Asia’s complex telecommunications market and deliver tailored hybrid network solutions to suit specific business requirements. They want an agile, secure network to support innovation and growth; they also want

to avoid downtime with its associated financial and reputational repercussions.

Digital-First Strategies Drive Transformation to Hybrid Network Architectures

Digital transformation is propelling the move from private networks towards an optimised hybrid environment to encompass the internet and connectivity to the cloud. Network evolution is driven by accelerating enterprise cloud adoption and a growth in mobile users. IDC predicts the number of enterprise mobile applications will quadruple by 2018, and 60% of them will have no PC-based counterpart2. This creates a greater reliance on a secure and cost-effective network robust enough for mission-critical applications; and the momentum is building for hybrid software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WANs). Implementing an agile, resilient WAN presents challenges in APAC. These include complexity of configuration of multiple networks and policy-based routing; security threats from the public internet; disparate networks with multiple suppliers, which creates a lack of end-to-end network visibility and control; long lead time to implement new sites; and overall poor service levels.

Choosing a Partner with Regional Knowledge

An agile, robust WAN is the foundation for the delivery of ITC services. European-headquartered businesses want a solution that simplifies and centralises management. However, in APAC

they are confronted with diverse infrastructure development. Challenges associated with hybrid networks are exacerbated because the region is not homogeneous compared with Europe. APAC has 48 countries, 2,197 languages, multiple key service providers and divergent service levels. There are disparate price points for IP transit throughout the region, in addition to varying technology platform prices for the internet versus Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS). European network managers are often surprised that internet connectivity can be more expensive than MPLS. They require a partner with regional knowledge and a strong presence, able to leverage local expertise. Cost-effective hybrid networks demand a technology-agnostic solutions provider able to focus on low-touch provisioning, strong security and operational simplicity, with a dynamic attitude to service levels. Alliances with neighbouring countries and other service providers are vital for success. European-headquartered enterprises confronted with closed markets in APAC, not open to foreign investment, need to be able to rely on a provider with extensive reach to navigate legal and economic complexities. They require a solutions provider that can guarantee first-class support to minimise issues likely to increase management time and costs — including lack of language skills, complex taxation policies and restrictions on importing hardware.

Technology-Agnostic Solutions Offer Enterprises the Services They Need

Not all enterprises are built alike. They need a tailored communications network to suit

their unique requirements and the ability to connect remote sites in APAC with high availability at a low cost. European-headquartered businesses in APAC are seeing the benefits of deploying a hybrid network that can leverage multiple WAN connections — from MPLS to broadband to Long-Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband services — to support real-time applications. Ovum says global interest in the transformational approach to networking offered by SD-WAN has grown over the past 24 months. It estimates that approximately 5% of global multinational corporations have deployed SD-WAN solutions; that percentage is expected to reach close to 30% in three years. Singtel’s portfolio of services includes voice and data solutions over fixed, wireless and internet platforms; the company can advise on the optimum solution by focusing on both the network underlay and overlay. Solutions address underlying network transport issues of quality and manageability, and simplify and optimise the network. Many customers are benefitting from the agility and cost-effectiveness of SD-WAN where the network control plane and data plane are separated and decoupled from the services and applications that use the network. Enterprises can create automated policies to ensure data is transported by the best-performing, most logical option. Meanwhile, rather than configuring all network connections, sensitive data can be transmitted across encrypted networks or through a firewall.

European-Headquartered Businesses Encounter Network Problems in APAC and Turn to Singtel

Typical network problems experienced by European-headquartered businesses operating in APAC include slow response times, inconsistent quality, spiralling costs and a choke on business growth. Other pain points include carriers not being able to deliver services on time, and failing to

deliver halfway through a project. Support failures include instances of waiting up to a week to restore a circuit, despite a service-level agreement (SLA) of four hours. Singtel’s coverage, regional relationships and focus on support reassures network managers that problems will be resolved and offers them the ease of one point of contact, instead of the challenge of managing multiple providers. Without a resilient network, multinational corporations in APAC face huge difficulties. In one case, a global car manufacturer with its headquarters in Germany would be forced to cease operations at its manufacturing plant in China if its network failed, because departments from inventory control to finances are all interlinked and rely on the network. For this reason, it chose Singtel for SLA guarantees of network uptime. Global enterprises with 100 sites in the APAC region to businesses with just a few sites aiming to expand choose Singtel for peace of mind.

Singtel Offers Tailored Solutions to Meet Business Requirements

Singtel can provide the optimum network solution, including SD-WAN, for European-headquartered businesses based on their specific business goals. Software-defined networking is a frequently hyped technology, but Singtel’s SD-WAN is proven; it is deployed in 18 countries and has a fully operational global delivery and maintenance platform in 362 cities. Network managers can have confidence in an SD-WAN solution with a focus on analytics, monitoring and operations. It manages the hybrid network by presenting a single plane of glass to hide the complexities of the underlying network, providing end-to-end visibility with insight into application performance. Network managers can define how the network behaves without escalating management costs. Complex environments with disparate networks are simplified,

and zero-touch change management increases efficiency and removes the need for on-site engineers with one single overlay network across all transports. Network configuration can be achieved centrally and pushed to remote sites; bandwidth usage is optimised, and end-to-end service management backed by SLAs guarantees effective troubleshooting.

A network manager of a European-headquartered business requiring a traditional private network based on MPLS can opt for Singtel ConnectPlus IP VPN, which offers an extensive global reach of more than 370 points of presence to guarantee seamless connections.

Network managers looking for guarantees that the internet will support bandwidth-hungry applications can implement Singtel ConnectPlus Optimised Internet. It addresses issues of unpredictability to improve the quality of the internet with SLAs that cover latency and boost performance to cloud applications.

The escalating challenge for network managers of European-headquartered businesses with a presence in APAC is how to better manage a hybrid network with MPLS at its core that leverages the internet and wireless. Customers with multiple sites cannot afford to suffer from poor application performance or security breaches, but with two or more separate networks and multiple providers to manage, hybrid networks frequently prove problematic. Singtel ConnectPlus SD-WAN has gained traction in APAC because it addresses key customer requirements, such as easy setup of hybrid networks. The service creates an overlay network over any transport to form one single network fabric, making it easier for the enterprise to set up and manage hybrid networks.

Singtel ConnectPlus SD-WAN addresses another problem associated with complex hybrid networks: security. Traditional

IPsec is often challenged to interwork with MPLS networks. With this service, the administrative burden is removed and security is automatically provisioned between the MPLS and internet services. This focus on security affords network managers peace of mind that their organisation is protected against data breaches and attacks.

Singtel ConnectPlus SD-WAN provides centralised and more effective management as the network control and data planes are separated and control of all the network is hosted in the Singtel cloud. A network manager can direct network configuration through the portal and is offered detailed reports on all aspects of the network’s health, including controllers and bandwidth consumption.

Another key service feature is the fact that it is a highly programmable network, allowing network managers to define policies to drive non-critical applications to the internet and critical applications to MPLS. Higher utilisation and efficiency prevent frustrations associated with latency and quality to improve performance and flow of applications traffic. Network discrimination can also be applied to secure highly sensitive data via segmentation-based policies.

Network managers evaluating SD-WAN are guaranteed a smooth transition with the Singtel service. Singtel achieves this by focusing on requirements gathering and desirable outcomes; migration to ensure the overlay and underlay

networks can co-exist; visibility of network resources, including application usage; and fine-tuning the infrastructure. Network managers can develop a migration strategy based on application usage and plan accordingly to optimise the network. Upfront investment allows a network manager to understand organisational challenges as teams discuss key issues, including encryption, security, monitoring and management. Planning decreases migration time and ensures smooth operations when both networks are running side by side during the transition process.

Conclusion

Singtel Global Services offers European-headquartered enterprises the confidence to build a network and communications strategy to support operations 24/7. With 46 offices in 21 countries and more than 23,000 employees, Singtel can provide first-class support. As well as being the No. 1 mobile company in the region, it offers seamless high-speed data connectivity through its network services for data, video and voice. It has 12 world-class data centres in APAC and offers a range of managed hosting and cloud services. In 2016, Singtel established the Singtel Cyber Security Institute in Singapore to enhance cybersecurity skills. Its Enterprise Cyber Security Service and its work with global partners ensures cybersecurity globally for enterprises headquartered in Europe that are looking to expand in APAC.

Singtel is ideally placed as a network solutions provider in APAC with its global network scale and technology-agnostic range of services to provide the optimum networking solution for European-headquartered businesses. Its fully managed SD-WAN guarantees fast onboarding, uptime and capex reduction. The service stands out from other propositions on the market by integrating the SD-WAN overlay with the underlay transport layers. This key differentiator tackles the management pain points of hybrid networks. With Singtel ConnectPlus IP VPN Global Internet, Optimised Internet VPN and Cloud Access, issues associated with the underlay such as latency, quality and poor application performance are addressed. Network managers opting for the fully managed service will gain holistic visibility across the networks as well as vertical insight into application performance. The benefits of this dynamic management approach are quick resolution of any problem and reduced downtime. By choosing Singtel, network managers can be confident that the network will support both growth and a strategic focus on innovation and profitability.

Network managers of European-headquartered businesses requiring a network strategy to support growth in APAC should contact Singtel to discuss their specific requirements at www.singtel.com.

Copyright © 2017 Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (CRN:199201624D). All rights reserved. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

For more information www.singtel.com

Mar

ch 2

017