SD WAN: The best way to connect your customers in Europe

Key Growth Drivers

SD WANs just make sense on every level at this stage. Everyone has to do it, and the faster they do it the more they will save, the safer and more versatile their networks will be, and the better prepared they will be for the future. On an SD WAN you’ll be ready for IoT, AI, Big Data, Bring your own Device, and you’ll have control and transparency. 

And an SD WAN platform is particularly important for remote locations. More data-intensive applications and more cloud services mean that more and more distant sites need higher bandwidth and more reliable fiber-based internet connectivity.

 

Leading Markets

In Europe, the bulk of investment is naturally in the core markets of the EU which is where Eurofiber operates its network – The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany. If I had to narrow it down further, I would say one of the most popular starting points is along the western seaboard, i.e. the Netherlands and Belgium.

Take the Netherlands, for instance. There are thousands of multinationals based in the Netherlands and hundreds more continue to land here every year - in fact since Brexit we have seen a rise in multinational investment and more HQs being set up here.  The air, sea, land and Internet infrastructure, tax breaks and English-speaking workforce are big selling points. And the market is here too - there are 170 million consumers within 500 kilometers of Amsterdam.

Also, from a network point of view, customers need terminations that give them easy low-latency reach to their main markets, and that’s what the Benelux can offer, both to the major clouds and to corporates.  We’re home to the AMS-ix and NL-IX internet exchanges. And we’re a natural landing point for traffic. All the major network players terminate in Amsterdam or Brussels.

 

Growth Opportunities

There are excellent opportunities to both service customers and build SD WAN share fast in Europe, as the market is more fragmented than in the USA. The quicker you can add software-defined capacity across a global footprint the happier your customers will be and the bigger your slice of a $13 billion-dollar market. But to do this you need to get rock-solid internet infrastructure to all of your customers’ sites.

 

3 Key Recommendations

When selecting a partner to help meet your customer SD WAN needs I would make 3 simple recommendations:

• Go direct:
  I’d say the easy way isn’t always the best way, and even though you could single source it, you will get a better cost to quality ratio if you go direct.
   
• Spread your net wide:
  You want infrastructure partners that will last in terms of expertise, customer focus and quality. There is still a tendency to naturally look to the incumbent telco per country in Europe, but in some markets the incumbent has been overtaken by specialists. Take Eurofiber; we have overtaken KPN in fiber reach in the Netherlands, where we have around 34% of the market. Our fiber reaches the doorstep of almost 70% of enterprises here. We are approaching the same level of penetration in Belgium and we are building out fast in France.
   
• Use a specialist:
  The other suggestion I would make is to go with a specialist fiber provider. It’s not just a matter of cost, it simplifies management and improves the quality of what you can offer.  There are fewer layers to work with once it is up and running, and that makes it easier for you to troubleshoot and orchestrate and manage your growth. You can get the SLAs and response-times you need and you can cover all your target sites faster. For Eurofiber, for instance, near-net sites are not an issue in core markets as we are constantly building at a rate of about 50 kilometers a week, and we can prioritize the build-out towards new customer sites at no additional cost.