Sri Lanka Telecom Launches Cisco SD-WAN Services to Enterprise Customers

by Suman Gupta

India, February 19, 2020 – Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) PLC, a pioneer in the Sri Lankan telecom industry and a leader in MPLS services for enterprise and government customers, in collaboration with Cisco and Millennium I.T. E.S.P. (Pvt) Ltd (MillenniumIT ESP), announced the launch of its new managed SD-WAN services to accelerate the digitization of enterprise and government customers in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka Telecom will offer Cisco SD-WAN’s full functionality, including intelligent dynamic routing, optimized cloud connectivity, and visibility into applications and performance to its enterprise customers in Sri Lanka.

This collaboration brings together Cisco’s intent-based networking solutions, SLT’s connectivity solutions, and MillenniumIT ESP’s systems integration capabilities to quickly develop and deploy multiple managed services efficiently and cost-effectively across Sri Lanka. SLT will handle the deployment and operation of enterprise WAN Service combined with its underlay connectivity options with MPLS and Internet connectivity, enabling them to offer its enterprise customers a host of differentiated services in a seamless, reliable, and secure manner.

As Sri Lankan businesses embrace digital transformation, many are looking at managed service providers to simplify running their IT operations, specifically around provisioning, managing, and troubleshooting services. Recognizing the need and the general transition of applications to the cloud, SLT collaborated with Cisco and MillenniumIT ESP to offer SD-WAN. With this innovative leap forward, SLT’s business customers can have their managed services turned up quickly, managed securely from both captive and the cloud, and modified easily using software-defined networking technology.

Focusing on the concept of “grow more, pay less”, SLT SD-WAN offers the simplicity of management, better visibility, enhanced application experience, optimized cloud connectivity, and a more secure WAN for accessing multiple cloud applications.  SLT SD-WAN natively integrates Cisco’s security stack to provide threat protection that is consistently maintained across branch offices and multiple clouds without compromising performance. In addition, it also provides many last-mile options and island wide OPMC and SLA to ensure maximum customer priorities.

SLT QUOTE:“SLT chose Cisco due to their excellence and leadership in the routing arena for more than 30 years. SD-WAN capable routers include Cisco IOS SD XE that run on the ISR series routers. Cisco’s networking solutions, along with SLT’s connectivity options, makes SLT SD-WAN the most comprehensive solution. With the true separation of the SD-WAN Layers of Control, Management, Orchestration, and Transport, Cisco and SLT will deliver the best user experience, securely across any cloud as a fully managed service. SLT also plans to expand the SD WAN to global customers in near future,” said Mr. Kiththi Perera, Chief Executive Officer, SLT.

MillenniumIT ESP QUOTE:“MillenniumIT ESP, the only Gold Partner for Cisco in Sri Lanka, is proud to partner with SLT to provide their customers with simple and cost effective Cisco SD-WAN capabilities that would enable enterprises to realize their digital vision faster. This is a significant milestone for SLT, which will enable the company to provide competitive and bleeding-edge communication solutions to its customers,” commented Mr. Shevan Goonetilleke, Director/Chief Executive Officer, MillenniumIT ESP.

Cisco QUOTE –“As Sri Lankan businesses move their workloads to multiple clouds, they require fast, highly secure access to applications hosted anywhere. Together, we can help Sri Lanka Telecom offer new managed SD-WAN services to Sri Lankan businesses. They can continue to expand high-quality network services for the Sri Lankan market,” said Mr. Sudhir Nayar, Managing Director, Commercial Sales, Cisco India & SAARC.