Briefing notes
Senior executives from DXC Technology briefed ISG on the company’s network engineering capabilities. The team briefed the ISG analysts on the growth of the overall network business, touching upon their differentiation, capabilities, key assets, and accelerators. DXC has been positioning its global offerings in the market in a way that showcases how they are interlinked with its OEM partners. Its network global growth program focuses on proactively reaching out to existing accounts and talking to them about the modernization journey. ISG witnesses a shift in mindset from the enterprise decision making perspective. Despite the options of software defined wide area network (SD WAN), enterprises tend to opt for multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) and Internet based architecture and, hence, there was an uptake in MPLS plus Internet nomenclatures. Moreover, there has been a rise in the adoption of complete Internet based architecture. DXC has been active in this space with several internal use cases around Internet first approach at data centers, which catapulted it to the forefront in meeting the new demands of customers. Thus, the company could abandon older vanity matrices to keep itself relevant to the enterprise business outcome and move to newer technologies.
All-inclusive NetworkTransformation Portfolio
The company has segmented its offerings into three key areas: consulting and advisory, network modernization and reliability operations spanning consulting, implementation and managed services. After the initial design and PoC, the modernization activities involve several functions, including optimizing the underlays in SD WAN, automated provisioning and segmentation, such as moving to a software defined local area network (SD LAN) and rolling out software defined data centers (SDDCs). The DXC team assesses the customer’s infrastructure and network assets and provides a road map for technology adoption, including developing PoCs and solution designs. This paves the way to network modernization, which is directed toward hand holding the customer across its journey along its digital transformation ambitions. DXC’s priority has been to improve customer experience and be relevant to the customer’s business outcome. Consistently, the company hosts clients regularly at its network innovation and delivery centers, enabling it to identify enterprise level challenges at the grassroots level. Clients' requirements from different verticals have been converging along a few aspects such as user experience and security. The global market witnessed a surge in demand for Internet and most of DXC’s enterprise clients have been accepting to move to an Internet only connectivity model. DXC’s network modernization strategy aims to enable agility, speed and flexibility at scale.
The company focuses on driving more reliable operations to support clients with digital and business transformation taxonomy. The network consulting and advisory practice, as a part of this, assesses the current state of the infrastructure or the network, which is used to define a business case. This, in turn, would initiate the software defined networking (SDN) journey that drives the business outcome requirement. The company uses a wide range of modernized vendor agnostic transport and up to the minute software defined capabilities around SD WAN, SD LAN, SDDC, cloud networking and private wireless. Central orchestration can deliver these at scale, enabling the right multicloud or hybrid cloud architecture. On the other hand, the reliability operations are focused on smart automation directed toward auto detection of incidents and resolution of incidents with the help of incidents with the help of API based tools and runbook integration. Also, the tools that drive operational improvement support the ITSM functions on the back end. Real time AI driven analytics enhances visibility, which is helpful in the case of environments, such as on premises or cloud data centers.
Paving the Way for Next-generation Offerings
- Trailblazing to new-age network cyber-resilience
- Proliferating data-driven decision making
- Sharpened focus on the tooling management platform
- Accelerators to catapult to upper echelons of network services business
- Harboring zero-touch in private wireless solutions
Robust Road Map Fortifying Systems Integration Paraphenalia
DXC is committed to enabling SDN services for its enterprise clients while leveraging the potential of software defined solutions for its more than 50 data centers across the globe. The company has deployed Cisco ACI with Network as a Service (NaaS) capabilities in its DC Group One in the Americas, which drives faster deployment. Similarly, its DC Group Two across EMEA and APAC has been empowered with more than 12,000 programmable interfaces and centralized policy management across 230 devices. The company also plans to integrate the Aruba CX 10000 series of devices across more than 40 data centers as part of its road map to bolster its software defined everything (SDx) dexterity, providing cloud based orchestration policy management and accelerating provisioning for client to site infrastructure.
The DXC offerings road map represents a continuous cycle of development and evolution. The company plans to extend its SDN capabilities around SDDC by adding VMware solutions, followed by the expansion of the SD WAN portfolio with Cisco Meraki and Juniper solutions. On the secure access service edge (SASE) front, DXC is working toward integrating the Cisco umbrella, which will also encompass private wireless. The company tends to fortify its network solutions by adding more application services in the cross stacked EXE and adding features in the mix. In the year’s second half, the company will focus on the edge computing and IoT aspects along with SD LAN and data center automation around Juniper Apstra.
Key Take-aways
DXC’s network practice has been a scion of its all encompassing digital and software capabilities, which, in turn, has been considered with reverence by large enterprise customers. Its coterie of certified full stack network engineers brings in a unique combination of software defined and traditional networking capabilities, skilled and equipped with the underlying information and knowledge from the in house tools and AI driven solutions. Moreover, the company has effectually leveraged automation to fast forward activities such as troubleshooting and deriving information about the health of devices, CPU utilization, memory utilization and traffic within minutes. This has been instrumental in solidifying its stand in the quest toward intent based networks. The company has been actively identifying its shortcomings from a market penetration perspective. DXC identified a requirement from the manufacturing industry, which warranted integration of the manufacturing plants and sites into the IT network, a segment that has been unexplored by DXC so far. Furthermore, it has strategized activities for further integration of its solutions in the SMEs segment, driven by Cisco Meraki elements. Overall, the company is suitably placed to emerge as a market maven in the network transformation outsourcing space, adopting intrepid solution development and precociously upskilling its workforce.
About ISG
ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III ) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 900 clients, including more than 75 of the top 100 enterprises in the world, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,600 digital ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data.
