Summary Bullets:
- As one of the first providers to offer SD-WAN in Indonesia, telkomtelstra has the early-mover advantage to capture the early SD-WAN adopters.
- Its multivendor strategy addresses the diverse needs of around 30 million enterprises in the country.
Backed by Telkom Indonesia (the Indonesian telco with the largest market share in the country) and Telstra (the Australian incumbent carrier, which is expanding rapidly in Asia-Pacific and globally), telkomtelstra started its operation in 2015 focusing on the managed services market in Indonesia. Within only three years, the provider has rapidly expanded its portfolio and customer base. It now offers managed network services, security, UC&C and cloud solutions. The provider also offers various security consulting services such as advisory and assessments. For more, please see GlobalData’s telkomtelstra company assessment from November 27, 2018.
After launching its SD-WAN solution in July 2018, telkomtelstra recently announced its collaboration with several vendors, including VeloCloud, Viptela, Meraki, Fortinet and Riverbed, to give customers more options. As each player has its own strength, the multivendor approach provides telkomtelstra with an edge, especially in addressing the diverse demand of enterprises. For example, VeloCloud offers better integration with data centres and cloud; Viptela provides a high degree of customisation and seamless interworking, especially to enterprises using Cisco equipment in their current network; Meraki has simpler configuration and better wireless integration, and is often positioned as lower-cost solution; and Fortinet offers higher security features while Riverbed provides WAN optimisations. A multivendor strategy for SD-WAN is not new. Regional and global carriers have been offering multiple options for their SD-WAN solutions in the market for some time. Service providers usually start with one or two vendors to ensure service delivery consistency and reduce deployment complexity. However, the move may seem a bit too advanced for the local market, considering that market awareness is still low. It may also cause confusion if the sales team is not equipped with the right information when positioning these different options to customers. telkomtelstra is one of the first providers in the country to offer SD-WAN ahead of the two largest local carriers (Telkom Indonesia and Indosat Ooredoo).
Nevertheless, it is a proactive and timely initiative by telkomtelstra to gain an early-mover advantage to capture early adopters and to address the different needs of the 30 million enterprises in Indonesia. The move also strengthens the carrier’s brand in the country as a managed service provider, and it could drive domestic SD-WAN adoption. The changing ICT requirements due to ongoing digital transformation initiatives are driving the need for agile and efficient network services. This can be addressed by SD-WAN, as it enables enterprises to configure and manage their network (e.g., add connectivity to a new branch or clouds, increase bandwidth and set QoS) in real time via a centralized self-service portal. With NFV, enterprises can also add various virtualized network functions such as firewall and WAN optimisation on a single CPE. SD-WAN is already happening in other parts of the world and is beginning to gain its traction in Indonesia. GlobalData IT Customer Insight 2018 shows that 73% out of 81 Indonesian enterprises interviewed are considering SD-WAN services in the next two years and are allocating 9.6% out of their network and communications budget for the solution.
As adoption grows, the competitive landscape in Indonesia will change. Other carriers are expected to offer SD-WAN services, while webscale providers are entering the market with their own overlay solutions (e.g., Microsoft Azure Virtual WAN, Alibaba Smart Access Gateway). As the market gets more competitive, telkomtelstra needs to continue to innovate in order to stay ahead of other providers. For example, the provider can leverage Telstra expertise by offering NFV services and its SD platform to provide a single pane of glass for network and cloud services.
IT Connection 