This past June we broke the news about the MEF LSO Sonata APIs which bring digital transformation to telcos. Colt Technology Services was one of the early companies involved in this initiative. The company had this to say at the time:
Today’s announcement is the culmination of a long journey. This project started as a Proof of Concept (PoC,) and it is incredibly exciting to reach this stage. We are proud to have been part of this process from the beginning. With the adoption of LSO Sonata APIs in our production network, we are improving efficiencies, reducing manual processes, and helping to improve how we all work together as an industry.
Mirko Voltolini, Head of Network On Demand, Colt
Colt aims to be the leader in enabling customers’ digital transformation through agile and on-demand, high bandwidth solutions. The Colt IQ Network connects 900+ data centres across Europe, Asia and North America’s largest business hubs, with over 27,500 on-net buildings and growing. Customers include data-intensive organizations spanning over 213 cities in more than 30 countries.
Colt is on the leading edge of NFV and SDN – add in this MEF initiative and company has impressed us.
To learn more, we had an exclusive interview with Mick Connors Head of North America Sales, Enterprise & Channel – he told us he was the first employee on the Colt Enterprise team.
Our goal is to allow the network to work like the cloud, with agility, flexibility and cost-savings.
Mick Connors
Mick explained they want to give power back to users so they don’t need to pay for bandwidth when it not needed. Customers can access a portal to turn up and down bandwidth as needed – just like the cloud, he explained.
While the company has a wide-range of offerings, Mick emphasized the goal is not to be all things to all people. Having said that, they want to be best-in-breed and offer limited cybersecurity solutions – DDoS mitigation and managed firewall services are their current offerings.
We asked where there is the most growth and he told us the U.S., Australia/Asia and Eastern Europe.
The company considers itself agile at 5,000 employees and in fact, Mick explained they are chosen over the competition because they are more agile. This makes sense when you realize their competition can be a carrier with hundreds of thousands of employees. Of course, agility is important when there is a need to connect fiber to 5G solutions. Colt also partners with carriers – depending on their needs and Colt’s ability to deliver a solution.
We asked for some tips based on Mick’s position in the market and experience working with a varied customer base. He said, fifty percent of companies will be going through digital transformation by 2021 and there will be 25 billion IoT devices coming soon. “Companies have to prepare to move quickly and be ready for the advent of 5G and AI handle new companies and competitors in the market. He continued, “They must be closer to the edge with lower latency and higher bandwidth, which is our specialty. This is why we are in 900 data centers and counting.”
Colt is working with Orange and AT&T in interconnectivity trials, allowing them to order services in real-time. They also recently announced that they will enable enterprises to enjoy direct, on-demand connections to Google Cloud globally.
Learn about the latest in everything you need! UCaaS, the Channel, IT, IOT, Edge, Cybersecurity, AI, SD-WAN, and the Future of Work at the world’s only SD-WAN Expo, part of the ITEXPO #TechSuperShow, Feb 12-14, 2020 Fort Lauderdale, FL.
