Westpac collaborates with nbn and Cisco to rollout SD-WAN

By Edil Corneille

Australia’s Westpac Group announced today that it is rolling out new technology in all its branches across Australia as part of an infrastructure transformation program designed to deliver efficiencies and improve the employee and customer experience.

The technology to be rolled out is Software Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN). It is delivered in collaboration with nbn and Cisco which enables faster internet connection and improved technology capabilities in branches with high levels of security. SD-WAN has resulted in a significant reduction in IT costs for the bank.

The solution is said to be delivering greater stability and bandwidth and allows for faster direct access to cloud services. SD-WAN has now been deployed in 300 branches in NSW, ACT, Victoria and Queensland so far, following a successful pilot program earlier this year.

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nbn is rolling out a fibre network to all branches, thereby providing Westpac with flexible access to business-grade nbn broadband services through multiple retail telecommunications providers.

Cisco is supporting the physical rollout of SD-WAN by providing a scalable and secure platform, together with a simple cloud management architecture, which allows better visibility of the Westpac network and all aspects of its performance.

Westpac Head of Secure Network Services, Wayne Bonett, said: “The rollout of this new technology in branches is an important part of our broader strategy to modernise our underlying infrastructure and consolidate legacy technology systems.

“We have already seen improvements in branches, with 5x faster mobile banking application downloads for customers, reduced transaction times and more reliable free Wi-Fi for customers.

“It has also helped with collaboration activities for our people, with improved video conference quality and faster direct access to cloud hosted services like Microsoft Office 365,” he said.

“In addition, the technology gives Westpac the flexibility to change Retail Service Providers and adjust the number and bandwidth of nbn services to meet future needs,” Bonett said.

Westpac started a program of work to transform its infrastructure 18 months ago when software defined network technology was deployed in data centres. This paved the way for a shift towards greater cloud connectivity for all employees, increased efficiencies in network infrastructure across the bank, and enabled the SD-WAN technology rollout in branches.

The rollout is ongoing and anticipated to be complete across the whole branch network nationwide by the end of 2020.