In 2014, Singapore launched its Smart Nation initiative: a national-level digitalisation and automation master plan that seeks to maximise the country’s digital potential. Through this, Singapore hopes to foster growth and bolster its digital economy.
When it comes to the complex needs of building a Smart Nation, what digital transformation the Singapore government imbues upon its systems and processes must be, to some extent, matched by the private sector’s digital capabilities in order for the country’s collective digital potential to be maximised.
To support this smart nation initiative, network infrastructure must not only be robust and secure, but must also have inbuilt intelligence and reliability to support digitalisation efforts.
One way to deliver such a connectivity solution is software-defined networking (SDN) with Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV).
Digitalisation and automation powered by SDN
The SDN completely changes the game in this space: since it is primarily a software technology, it doesn’t have to yield to the limitations of hardware tech. Its emergence has redefined what it means to implement large-scale computing infrastructure in a completely virtual environment. Through the cloud, what typically takes weeks can now be pushed to the customer at an accelerated rate.
Ushering SDN’s latest technology into the Singapore market is SPTel, a joint venture company of ST Engineering and SP Group. The company is also known for its unique and diverse fibre pathways that combine leased SP Group infrastructure and owned fibre pipes, laid alongside the power network cables, providing enterprises with true network diversity.
SPTel terms this as their business class digital network and through it delivers ICT solutions on an “everything-as-a-service” model. By integrating this with a front-end customer portal and automated backend processes, SPTel has effectively gone digital in their solution offering. This allows customers to receive instant quotations without manual processes to minimize the risk of human errors.
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With network functions being deployed virtually, additional service requests or upgrades can be completed within minutes instead of days. This increased agility improves the speed at which organisations can react to changing network requirements with on-demand services such as additional bandwidth or cybersecurity.
This also allows for an improved total cost of ownership for the network, with services provisioned on an “as-needed” basis. This allows users to only pay for the bandwidth and services used according to their operational needs, as opposed to spending on oversizing to anticipate occasional peaks.
Susan Loh, VP, Sales, Marketing and Business Development, shares more, “ Our cutting edge digital solutions change the way you think about and plan for your network. By introducing innovative and sustainable commercial models such as dynamic resource allocation, customers can have greater control and clarity over their network expenditure and even optimize their performance as needed to ensure the best digital experience for their customers.”
SPTel’s Business Class Digital Network also provides an added layer of security for its users. This clean pipe network comes with inbuilt DDoS attack detection to alert users of threats on their network. Mitigation can then be done on the fly to minimize the business impact. This is part of a full suite of cyber-solutions that can be provisioned on-demand, including: Virtual Firewall, Virtual Web Application, and Virtual Secure Email Protection.
Holistic digital transformation
To support businesses that are currently operating with segregated teams or work from home arrangements and are struggling to find a solution to extend the secure corporate network environment to the home, SPTel has integrated an SDWAN solution with their Business Class Digital Network. This removes the need for additional VPNs and improving the productivity of segregated teams. IT managers can now monitor network utility, manage network traffic and configurations, and securely connect employees working on their home networks.
This provides users with a one-stop management dashboard that allows them full control over their ICT applications, streamlining security, network traffic, and other controls in one convenient virtual platform.
SPTel’s commitment to digitalisation
SPTel recently partnered up with the Connectech Asia 2020 conference for the inaugural Virtual Connectech Event. The three-day event featured an exciting line-up of speakers and engagement opportunities with players from all across the industry. There, SPTel unveiled their business class digital network, opening doors for organisations and enterprises across Singapore to accelerate their efforts towards digital transformation.
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To see their solution in action for yourself, SPTel would like to invite you to request for an Innovation Hub Tour. This tour will provide an exclusive look at their new digital services and network capabilities. Request for a tour here.
At their core, SPTel provides reliable connectivity services as an alternate network provider in Singapore with unique fibre pathways. The digital services provider offers 2-tier network structure that enables data to travel through fewer hops for ultra-low latency performance of less than 1 millisecond island-wide between SPTel’s exchanges. Coupled with their pervasive hubs for edge computing and award-winning IoT-a-a-S platform, SPTel is well poised to be the digital services partner of choice for Singapore.
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by SPTel.
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