Nokia’s Nuage Networks closed out 2017 with a flurry of new customer announcements, additional evidence that the software-defined network (or SDN) venture was gaining traction in the enterprise information technology world. Nuage added Fujitsu Ltd., Telus Corp. and China Pacific Insurance Co. Ltd. as customers just in the past six months, following previous “wins” earlier in the year with firms such as BT Group plc, China Telecom Corp. Ltd. and Telefonica S.A.

“We have had breakthrough wins in terms of public cloud. We are really excited to be leading the charge here,” said Sunil Khandekar (pictured), founder and CEO of Nuage Networks from Nokia Corp.

Khandekar visited theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and spoke with host Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick) at SiliconANGLE’s studio in Palo Alto, California. They discussed Nuage’s recent customer success, the appeal of software-defined WAN and how security can be more fully integrated into network management. (* Disclosure below.)

Connecting users and applications everywhere

Nuage’s recent success with large global service providers shows that large organizations are responding to its simple pitch. It wants to connect users everywhere with applications everywhere, and software-defined wide area networking allows that to happen.

“We were doing intent-based networking before it was even a thing,” Khandekar said. “We’re doing automation end-to-end, because ultimately it’s about connecting users to applications.”

Nuage’s solution seeks to solve a silo problem that exists in many large enterprises. Big companies might have automation only for the data center or only for the wide area network but not an architecture that combines both. Add security and these are the three major pillars that Nuage intends to address.

“Our customers like that we’ve thought through this problem end-to-end and provide all three, which is absolutely unique in the industry,” Khandekar explained. “No one does this.”

With security top-of-mind for nearly every C-level executive, IT vendors must look for ways to protect enterprise networks beyond a perimeter defense model, which has generally failed. Nuage’s answer is to bring security along for both the automated data center and wide area network.

“We do microsegmentation from the branch all the way to where the application is for that particular user, so finance users can only access finance applications,” Khandekar said. “The rich analytics that we have help them understand who’s talking to who at the application level.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s CubeConversations. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Nuage Networks. Neither Nuage Networks, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE