Cisco SD-WAN, Now Extended Over Global Google Cloud Network

‘We’re pretty excited about what Google and Cisco are doing together because it allows our customers to essentially ride Google’s backbone -- can’t get much better than that,’ one Cisco partner told CRN.

Cisco and Google on Tuesday announced the availability of the first phase of Cisco SD-WAN Cloud Hub with Google Cloud Network Connectivity Center, a combination that opens up the Google global network to enterprises.

Cisco and Google announced last April that Cisco was extending its flagship SD-WAN service into Google Cloud Platform. The combination of Cisco SD-WAN Hub with Google Cloud brought together Cisco’s flagship SD-WAN technology with Google cloud workloads to create a first of its kind multi-cloud fabric.

Tuesday’s announcement builds on Cisco and Google’s partnership, said Raj Gulani, senior director of product management, enterprise cloud and SD-WAN for ‎Cisco (pictured above). Via the extended partnership. Cisco SD-WAN Cloud Hub is extended to Google Cloud, which is made possible through the integration between Cisco vManage and the new Google Cloud Network Connectivity Center, according to the two companies.

The availability of the first phase of Cisco SD-WAN Cloud Hub with Google Cloud marks another step towards building an industry-first multi-cloud application-centric fabric, Gulani said. “For SD-WAN customers, Cisco is [Google’s] partner of choice to launch the Network Connectivity Center with,” he said.

[Related: New SD-WAN-Infused Cisco Catalyst Line Targets Edge, 5G Use Cases]

“The reason we are excited about Google Cloud being complete in terms of [extending] Cisco SD-WAN Cloud Onramp is because we are completing the trifecta for the big three clouds -- AWS, Azure and Google Cloud,” Gulani said. ”We can deliver a very unique use case … We already delivered site-to-cloud connectivity, now we are delivering site-to-site connectivity.”

The extended partnerships gives Cisco SD-WAN customers access to the pervasive Google Global network as a high-performance transit option, Gulani said.

For partners, the integration between the Cisco SD-WAN Cloud Hub with Google Cloud opens the doors for more opportunities with enterprises, he said. “Now, partners can actually leverage the new solution with the use cases we have envisioned … and unlock a bunch of new use cases that weren’t possible in the past because of the global connectivity that Google offers, and [Cisco] vManage as a single pane of glass.”

Cisco Gold partner WWT is one of the top sellers of the Viptela-powered Cisco SD-WAN product, and deploying SD-WAN into public cloud environments is a big ask from customers right now, said Neil Anderson, senior director of networking solutions for WWT.

“Because a lot of those circuits are now internet circuits, [customers] can’t rely on the backbones they used to have from the service providers when they used to have MPLS. We’re pretty excited about what Google and Cisco are doing together because it allows our customers to essentially ride Google’s backbone -- can’t get much better than that,” Anderson said.

The integration will allow enterprises to extend their SD-WAN across regions and interconnect their major regions, he said: “We see a lot of customers trying to figure out giving up MPLS for internet, what the downsides are, and how to connect their regions. This is a very nice option for them.”

Google on Tuesday announced a preview of Network Connectivity Center. The offerings provides a single management experience customers can use to create, connect, and manage heterogeneous on-prem and cloud networks using Google’s global infrastructure. Network Connectivity Center serves as central location for connecting VPNs, partner and dedicated interconnects, and third-party routers and SD-WAN, according to Mountain View, Calif.-based Google.

Google partners that will use Google Cloud Network Connectivity Center will also be able to access Cisco SD-WAN, Gulani said. “It’s co-validated, end-to-end tested for our customers,” he said.