How SD-WAN And Managed Connectivity Power Modern Enterprises

Redundancy only feels like a boring insurance policy… until it starts delivering real, everyday performance wins.

In this conversation with Julian Jacquez, President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of BCN Telecom, we dig into how dual connections, SD-WAN overlays, and intelligent automation transform networks from “hope nothing breaks” into always-on, high-performing platforms that keep cloud apps flying and employees focused on actual work (not buffering wheels).

We walk through the journey from single links and MPLS to today’s world of diverse access, policy-driven routing, real-time failover, and direct-to-cloud optimization. Julian breaks down why many enterprises start with managed connectivity, then layer in security through SASE and zero trust to create a unified model for identity, segmentation, and inspection.

For distributed environments like restaurants, healthcare, and retail, the ability to roll out consistent changes across hundreds or even thousands of locations is a massive unlock. No more touching every box. Firewall updates, policy shifts, and standards enforcement happen centrally and instantly.

And then there’s execution, where most network projects either shine or stall. We get practical about project-managed deployments, coordinating carriers and cutovers, and deciding between OpEx and CapEx based on refresh cycles, cash flow, and internal expertise. We also cover co-managed versus fully managed operations, what to automate first, and how AI-driven visibility turns raw telemetry into proactive tickets and recommended fixes.

We even explore access diversity in underserved markets, from fiber and broadband to 4G/5G and LEO, making sure sites stay online wherever work happens. With storms, power outages, and security incidents putting constant pressure on infrastructure, resilience isn’t a nice-to-have anymore. It’s a core business strategy.

If uptime, user experience, and smarter network spend matter to you, this episode will definitely make you rethink the modern WAN for the AI era.

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Chapters

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• 18:44 (Cont.) How SD-WAN And Managed Connectivity Power Modern Enterprises

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

Hey everybody, really excited to dive into the world of SD WAN and how it's shaping, reshaping enterprise connectivity in the cloud with Julian from BCN. Julian, how are you?

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

I'm great, Evan. Thanks for having me uh join you today. Appreciate the opportunity.

SPEAKER_01: 0:18

I've followed you guys for so many years. Speaking of which, um you've been at BCN for almost 20 years, which is amazing in tech. Would love to hear more about how you describe BCN these days and the current mission and journey you've been on.

SPEAKER_00: 0:33

Absolutely. So it's actually probably a little over 20 years now. Uh but uh so today, uh BCN, we provide managed uh connectivity and technology solutions uh to business customers. And and our goal really, uh the big mission statement is really to fuel uh to allow them to fuel growth and to provide them with resiliency uh in their technology and their connectivity. So uh we service nationwide uh here uh in the US uh as well as some international locations. Uh and and really are what really is moving the needle for us right uh right now here, I would say in the last three to five years, is selling managed and providing managed connectivity services with a nice technology overlay such as SD WAN and other things, um, so that a customer can truly rely on uh their um you know their their business uh connections to really uh accomplish the things they need to do with their business. Um we've been at it, BCN, we've been at it for 30 plus years. So we've kind of seen three decades of uh a technology company or a connectivity company, a telecom company. So we started a long time ago, uh got our roots in the C LEC business, and then here really within the last decade, last five years, really uh watched our company and really set ourselves on a uh a path and a journey to to really embrace uh uh what's kind of coming, if you will, here.

SPEAKER_01: 2:13

Um, well, we we've both been at it for decades, I think. Um, you know, we used to talk about T1s and ISDN and POTS and the good old days weren't so good. But um, so how has ST-WAN really changed the way enterprises think about connectivity today compared to you know these older models, even MPLS, which was supposed to be the next big thing? Uh what are they thinking?

SPEAKER_00: 2:37

Well, I I think uh what what we see is that you know, customers uh they they want to take advantage of the latest technologies that are afforded to them. They want to do it in a what I would say in a very resilient, a reliable manner, and they they want to feel secure and protected uh when they do that. Uh, and and then they want to go run their business, whatever business they're in, making uh auto parts, providing healthcare services, serving uh a great dinner at a restaurant. They want to actually focus on their business and what and what they're doing. And that's really, I think, where companies like BCN come in and others in our space, where we set out to really manage that solution, uh, that that connectivity and technology solution for them so they can actually go do the things that that they aspire to do. So um, you know, what we've seen a lot of uh, you know, kind of going back recent years, you know, uh a few years back, you would often see customers with really a kind of what I would call a single-threaded connection, meaning just one connection. Uh and then as the world changed and if things uh, you know, as uh we're now kind of at the forefront of this AI explosion, uh that desire, need for a single connection suddenly expanded to where they said we need to really have two connections. And and early on it was a single connection with some type of backup failover, i.e. the insurance policy. Uh, but you know, in in today's world, you really you you you don't really have to to buy it and hope that you know in in anticipation of needing it. Uh really you can buy the second connection, bring it real time, bring it live in operation, overlay it with an SD-WAN solution, and really now have a resilient uh uh you know uh dual-threaded uh connections out to the world. Uh and then once you start that technology overlay, even if you're just at the very basic end where you just say, look, I want to optimize these two connections and make them resilient, uh, whether you're at that or you're clear out at the edge uh seeking a sassy solution, uh, or somewhere in between that, that really is where kind of these SD WAN and technology overlays start to come into play. Um that's what we're seeing. We I can't tell you how many customers we see that we get uh opportunities and and it really starts with two, sometimes three connections, and then it immediately goes to that technology overlay to really manage the connections. I believe the big driver and behind all of this, and one of the things that we're really uh focused on, is it's all about improving upon and making that customer experience just uh uh as best as it can be, uh, allowing it to be uh kind of what they need uh to accomplish their businesses. So, you know, we kind of look at all these things as just kind of layers in perfecting that customer experience. Um so that's that's what we're seeing. That's what we see our customers asking us for. Uh uh, we see them shifting from old technology, you mentioned it, from MPLS to uh what's probably more a cost-effective or budget-friendly version of uh an SD-WAN with a public internet uh uh solution.

SPEAKER_01: 6:09

So brilliant. And there is a lot broken with some of the legacy technologies out there, whether it's the providers, the the uh architectures, even the CPE that's out there. Where do you find companies feel that pain most? Is it their their bill, their cost at the month, end of the month, or is it performance or agility or new applications, maybe all the above?

SPEAKER_00: 6:31

You know, it's it's kind of all the above. Uh so one of the one of the things that that I think we found successful uh and that we really pride ourselves in is is I I always say, look, if we can meet the customer their needs, we're gonna be in a really good spot. Uh that's probably where you represent the most value. That's probably where you'll get uh you'll get the most uh experience back out of uh the relationship, and you'll probably have some great longevity. So so to the point you make is we really talk to the customers and understand what are your needs. Are you trying to reduce, you know, lower your cost structure? You need to enhance your bandwidth, you you need to stabilize your connectivity, you have all of these applications in the cloud that you need to simply uh be able to rely on getting to them as well as uh having the bandwidth to make them really run smoothly and efficiently. Or uh, you know, do you do you have a security need, a security concern that you want to bring into that? I will say that a lot of times there tends to be uh what I almost would call a triggering event, meaning the existing solution is out of contract. Uh, the existing solution simply can't evolve through another patch or through another kind of band-aid to get them to where they want to be. Uh or uh, you know, uh a lot of times folks make change after something uh un undesired or bad has happened is the reality of it. Uh, you know, I I think uh you know oftentimes we kind of run our lives in the same same way, you know. Something something fails you, so you go out and fix it. So uh but it's generally kind of uh one of those will trigger uh the the need. Uh so interesting.

SPEAKER_01: 8:29

And you mentioned SASE and zero trust, which you know come into play, but they're they're not products necessarily, they're sort of architectures and guidelines. How tightly should they be integrated into SD WAN and what are some of the principles you rely on there?

SPEAKER_00: 8:44

Well, uh again, uh depending upon what uh what the customer uh needs and and and wants, uh obviously a sassy solution is you know effectively a fully meshed, fully integrated SD WAN solution coupled with uh uh you know leading edge security and kind of uh creating that the you know that secure uh access service edge. So so uh you know, if that's the driver, we uh and and others have uh product offerings and service offerings that allow for the technology to advance to that level. Uh a lot of times customers come in with a security solution and they really are focused on perfecting the connectivity, uh uh their connectivity needs. So in those scenarios, it it may look more like pure connect, managed connectivity with an SD-WAN overlay, again, for resiliency optimization, uh allowed allowing for you know cloud optimization uh and performance. So uh so we kind of see it uh both ways. Uh uh we also have have seen uh where a lot of multi-location customers, um such as I I don't know, like restaurant chains uh or things of that nature, where you have a whole lot of the same thing. Uh it's uh we find that it's very it's much more uh it's much easier for a customer and uh through uh managed service provider to really establish whatever firewall needs they want and then deploy them uh over the technology across the masses. So if they decide they, you know, they want to do something at a security level uh across a thousand locations, uh, again, through through uh our our overlays and the overlays that others can provide, we we really get into being able to allow them to make that change real time and and not have to dial into a thousand premise-based firewalls and and go through some type of change uh that they want to accomplish. So so again, I think we we allow the customer to have a much, much greater, uh much, much better experience uh and to and to really focus again on the things that their business is about uh uh and and allow us to help them manage uh some of these some of these other things. Uh we also, you know, we see a lot of drivers in uh uh with SD WAN technology overlays, they really allow us to create visibility and then allow us to create actionable visibility. What I mean there is is is that we can really see those connections cleanly. We can understand what's going on at a particular customer location. Uh, and now through, you know, kind of as AI works its way into our world, we're able to actually then start taking action upon the uh the data and information that we see, uh that we're kind of uh polling or pulling out of the network. Um, one of our big initiatives this year, here's spring of 26. We are launching our our latest and greatest customer experience portal, and and this is a big step, you know. Along the way, we had uh we had a lot of experience portal uh versions over the years, and they were kind of all incremental. This is a big shift for us. We're actually uh API connecting out into the networks, we're pulling data out of the networks, we're we're putting that up on uh the dashboard, if you will, a health and resiliency dashboard for uh customers. We're baking in the ability to then take action again off that data that we see at that via through automated trouble ticketing, automated uh um uh correction uh uh suggestion. Uh and uh it really again is trying is is really it's all driving towards the the customer experience. But we're going through a big change like that without these overlays and this technology and all the ability to pull this information, you really can't accomplish those things. So uh uh so I I would say that customers that want to have that type of uh uh overall experience, uh, that's kind of what you have to put together. That that's that's really what you need to bring into your business so that you can uh you can have the opportunity to experience these great outcomes.

SPEAKER_01: 13:34

Amazing. Uh can't wait to see that in action. Yeah. So you have so much real world experience in deploying SD Wan. What are some of the big challenges, maybe unexpected surprises that companies hit during real-world deployments? What should they look for and prepare for?

SPEAKER_00: 13:54

Yeah, uh great question. Great question. So I I I would say is is uh a few things. Number one, they really need to go through a process up front and really define their needs and then go through a uh go through a process where they meet with potential solution providers and ensure that their needs are aligned with the you know the solution that they're looking for. One of the big things that we find is again in these multi-location, multi-site deployments, that's mission critical, is what we call kind of project managed service delivery. Um so we've found uh that when you don't really bring those project management uh uh skills or those uh or those disciplines to a large deployment, you really can get tangled up fast, uh, particularly if you're deploying equipment, unhooking old things, uh installing new things. Uh we've seen that as well. Uh I also think, you know, inside of the decision making right now, you can find what I would say are more OpEx solutions versus CapEx solutions. So uh anyone who's run the numbers on these things, uh, you know, the OpEx solutions are generally uh going to uh utilize other working, other folks' working capital or the provider's working capital to for the equipment and some of the upfront costs. Um and then you're probably gonna have the ability to get access to uh technology and upgrades more on a on a what I would say kind of quicker in the process or more regularly in the process. If you go with a capex solution, you're gonna use your you know a lot of your your cash flow, your working capital. However, uh, you know, those models financially at some point capex goes away and opex continues. I mean, pretty basic stuff uh when you when you analyze it. But but I do think that both options are out there in the world today, uh, and you you know, exploring those and making sure you pick the right option or right answer for your customer. We we we also run into a lot of requests, you know, we uh customers will, you know, you can kind of do this. If you do CapEx, you can it's basically self-managed. If you do OpEx, you can have combinations of uh uh fully managed or jointly managed, meaning the customer and the service provider provide a management of the technology. I think, I think that's a real you have to really a customer needs to really make sure they assess their capabilities, particularly if they're going to do a co-managed solution, because uh they will have access to the technology overlays, they'll have the ability to to impact those. And and they may even have uh certain things that they're they're supposed to do or required to do. Uh they just need to make sure they they have the resources and skills to do that. Uh fully managed, again, you just you really need to get with uh through that initial evaluation process, make sure you that the team you're working with understands the technology they're working with. Um we've uh we've we've we we've seen a lot of kind of uh like I said, uh uh really smooth, great ones. We've run into ones that uh uh where you know uh there was a gap, if you will. Uh but uh again, I think uh it's it's who you're partnering with is going to ultimately get get you through those. So I hit a few things there. I don't know if any of that was right onto your question, Edwin, or not?

SPEAKER_01: 17:32

It it did. You know, it's a complex space and there's not a simple answer. Uh I am curious. You you're calling in as we speak from Martinsburg, West Virginia, although you're nationwide. Um, what do you think about the the smaller markets, the you know, markets maybe that traditionally weren't served, underserved markets, uh outside of the big metros. Uh it seems like there's a lot of opportunity there, a lot of investments happening in manufacturing and otherwise in places like West Virginia, but but else where? How are you thinking about those kind of customers as well?

SPEAKER_00: 18:36

Well, we're thinking about them absolutely from the uh from the standpoint of we we want to we want them to be customers. We have to have an offering, again, that meets the customer wherever they're at. Um, so from our standpoint, uh when you think about our connectivity offering, we have to go out and partner with all forms of uh of connectivity and access. So we need to partner with broadband providers, more legacy telco providers. We need to be in the big markets as well as the small markets. Uh we, you know, we easily have 50 plus pure connectivity providers. Uh we also have to deal with all mediums. You know, we need to be able to provide fiber where available, other forms of wire connection uh where not available. We have to uh you know, we have to embrace 4G and 5G from uh wireless. We have to embrace LEO for even some of those areas where really uh uh the the other forms of wireless really are aren't uh there from a network coverage standpoint. So we gotta you have to have all that in your solution uh for him because inevitably to I think the point you're making is you're gonna encounter a customer who has uh you know probably has a great uh location or facility in uh in a major metro, an NFL, and then they're gonna also have a uh uh some presence that's not uh in a traditional uh uh you know, it's gonna be a secondary or tertiary market. The beauty of the technology and the overlay is is that can go anywhere. It's all cloud-based. Uh it doesn't care, it doesn't matter. Zip codes don't matter in that space. Zip codes matter when you're trying to deploy connectivity. They really don't matter uh whenever you're dealing with the technology overlays. So uh so but I think accounting, accounting uh for all the and you know what we're seeing, and I'm sure you're seeing it in this with all the conversations you have, uh you know, the shift is on. Uh AI is going to, because it's such a significant impact on the existing infrastructure, it's actually going to wind up in the fields and farmlands. Uh, we're seeing that in Virginia today. I mean, uh, who would think that uh the state of Virginia, I was reading an article the other day, that's the largest cluster of data centers in the world. Right. In the world. So so I think the number I saw was uh something like close to 560, 570 some data centers. Uh all those centers aren't in the beltway, they're out in in western Virginia and other areas. Um, so so again, I think what I guess to answer your question, I do believe some of the geography is shifting. Uh, and I think that uh, you know, uh you may see that there's critical infrastructure in places where it it may have been traditionally a secondary or tertiary market. I think the power grid's gonna drive uh a lot of where those things get placed and the available of water for cooling, believe it or not, power and water are gonna matter.

SPEAKER_01: 21:53

Yeah, no, totally. And I think a big theme this year's and last year's uh resilience is key. With, you know, we've got a big storm coming in, we've got floods, we've got hurricanes, we've got power outages, as you mentioned. How do you think about network resilience, resiliency in general, and providing that experience that customers now demand? I mean, you just can't get work done these days without a high quality network.

SPEAKER_00: 22:18

Com completely. Again, um, so we pride ourselves in being able to provide multiple connections at every customer location. And we will work hard to make that a truth. Uh Even in some of the most redundant areas, or I should say most rural areas, there could be. So, so uh the fact is, is we you really need to have two forms of connectivity. Again, wired or wireless, you can go down that path. But in the wired space, we really see a lot of uh multiple connection options in the wired space. Uh, and uh, you know, again, relying on uh uh that uh with the technology overlay, you can overcome uh a situation where you may lose one of those, or maybe one of those is uh the service level is has been uh degradated for some reason. Uh you'll you'll you'll encounter that. But uh but uh it's it's definitely um you know things that I think business customers absolutely need to think about. I mean, think about it too. Like, you know, when you run your if you if you live in an area that's prone to heavy snows and and maybe icing, you there's a good chance you probably have a power generator at your house. Like it's the same concepts apply to a business, right? Uh uh so the things that we kind of do in our personal lives, I think a lot of times um we kind of replicate those maybe to a uh the the concepts are the same. The the the details on how you do it could be different, but but uh very very similar uh approaches.

SPEAKER_01: 23:52

Yeah, and when when when I was coming up in the industry, you know, with uh class five switches, we used to talk about five nines reliability. These days that we we went away from that for a long time, but now we're having to get back to that with everything that's happening from security challenges to weather to the environment.

SPEAKER_00: 24:09

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I mean, sometimes as we know, seeing into today's world, you know, uh every day there's a headline of somehow someone encountered a security challenge. There sometimes, if you think about it, those can be as bad as a natural disaster. You know, once one happens to happen uh without your control, the other one's kind of bad actors, but uh uh but they they literally could have the same impact on your business. Uh at the end of the day, they br they uh cause your business to be disruptive to uh a greater extent, and uh and you gotta overcome that.

SPEAKER_01: 24:46

So yeah, they can be uh business extincting events for sure. Um you have so many customers, so many thousands. I I'd uh I'd hate to ask you to name your favorite child, but is there a customer story or customer that you share care to to share a story about uh or an anecdote about?

SPEAKER_00: 25:07

Yeah, uh so I probably should it uh we obviously we have a lot of customers, uh, some big, some small. Uh we have customers that have been with us for uh you know decades plus. Wow, very cool. So uh, you know, I I would say that what what we enjoy, uh what what I think when we really feel like we've done some good that day is whenever we take uh we're able to work with a customer and go through a process and come out the other end, and they tell us how great of an experience they've had. They tell us how we changed their, you know, their their environment or their world to some extent. And the person who's in the middle of it, it could be a, you know, we may think it's a little thing, but it could very well be a big thing. Um, you know, uh like as an example that uh actually started last year, it's still happening into this year. Great new customer. Again, connect connectivity with a technology overlay. Uh, they were based in, they're in a lot of uh military bases. Um that's can be challenging in itself uh with the credentialing in and everything, uh coordination of vendors. Uh I think a third of those bases were uh out of country. Uh so so you know, we really put our project management team, we really challenged them uh at that point uh to uh uh to get that uh to the get that done. Uh so uh, you know, we I don't know, whenever you can make a positive difference, I mean that's just like to me, that uh and I and I think to a lot of our team members, that is can just be, you know, that can be uh that can that can really make the day or make the quarter. Uh so so I don't uh I I don't know if there's uh I don't know if that's answering your question, but but I do know that uh we uh you know we have a lot of different experiences uh with these customers. We could I could tell you some funny things, you know, whenever uh here's an example. Uh you you know, you get a customer who is in out who has facilities based out in the Everglades in Florida. And remember I said zip codes don't matter. Whenever you get a service address that's effectively a poll number, uh, because there is no service address, and then turning to your network partner, trying to figure out what what uh how you place that order, uh, we we've had that those type of experience. The reason it's coming to mind is because it's a uh a long-standing customer of ours that we're actually going back in and looking at some uh at some uh network inventory form that we were chatting about this morning, and I I was chuckling to myself in the conversation uh that I remember the day when we were trying to drop service uh to a poll number uh out in the middle of the Everglades for them. So we I guess we all carry those type of funny.

SPEAKER_01: 28:22

That is alligator country. So yes, uh that's like uh seller beware, fun stuff. Well, look, thanks so much for the update and the insights and turning um you know what can be a dry topic into a really fun conversation. Appreciate it, Julian. Thanks a whole lot.

SPEAKER_00: 28:37

We appreciate it, and uh we look forward to our next conversation, Evan.

SPEAKER_01: 28:41

Thank you, and thanks everyone for listening, watching, and sharing. And also check out our new TV show and techimpact.tv on Bloomberg and Fox Business. Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Julian.

unknown: 28:51

Bye.