BT partners with Digital Realty to expand Global Fabric NaaS globally

BT has announced a new partnership with Digital Realty to roll out its Global Fabric network-as-a-service (NaaS) in key Digital Realty carrier-neutral facilities around the globe.

The partnership will help customers utilise their data more efficiently by making it easier for employees to access it securely and in compliance with business regulations across the company. It is also set to provide IT leaders with instant centralised control of connectivity for optimal performance and user experiences, reduction of total costs, and assistance in compliance.

First announced in October this year, Global Fabric is BT's latest network-as-a-service, which holds a strong global cloud footprint. The service has been designed to provide the advantages of flexibility, scalability, and resilience to its users. With near-instant control, it offers a choice of connectivity on a pay-as-you-use basis, making it an attractive proposition for many businesses.

Global Fabric connectivity between CNFs aims to help customers select and instantly create the correct type of connections for their applications and data, adding security services to enable more straightforward sharing across businesses. With the partnership, users can select the paths of their workloads as they travel across the network to provide the best user experience for employees, regardless of their location.

This control is beneficial in achieving the best application performance and costs. It also addresses the growing threats related to cybersecurity and future regulations on data in transit. The partnership builds on BT's ability to offer customers Digital Realty hosting and co-location services, which will now be available through the Global Fabric marketplace.

Harm Joosse, Global Head of Strategy & Business Development, Service Providers, Digital Realty, spoke on the topic, stating: "By integrating into Digital Realty's global data centre platform, customers address data gravity challenges by bringing users and clouds to the data with BT's Global Fabric connectivity, controls, and policy management."

He continued, "BT's innovative network-as-a-service solution, combined with Digital Realty's orchestration platform, empowers enterprises with on-demand, personalised experiences, ultimately revolutionising the way networks are used and managed."

Colin Bannon, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Business at BT, highlighted the advantages for businesses that deploy cloud services locally, emphasising the proximity to customers and suppliers. He noted that large organisations can derive additional value by securely and compliantly centralising local data, creating new insights.

Colin Bannon commented, "Businesses deploying cloud services locally benefit from proximity to customers and suppliers. For large organisations, more value can be unlocked if local data can be brought together centrally in a secure and compliant way to create new insights."

"With data volumes surging, CIOs need greater control of data flows. The combination of Global Fabric and Digital Realty can help customers unlock value from data by stopping local data hubs becoming digital black holes."