Ten years ago, ordering cloud services was very different. An enterprise had to find a data center, purchase servers, connect to a network, configure them together, and months later the organization could commence cloud computing. Today, of course, one simply logs onto a computer, enters a credit card through a portal and countless cloud resources become immediately available. There’s no hardware, hence no depreciation, and companies only pay for what they use.

Some industry leaders believe the same principles should apply to networking. However, in many ways, network provisioning has been at a standstill for a decade – but some companies are now changing that.

QTS Realty Trust (NYSE: QTS), for example, just announced availability of a new Software-Defined Networking (SDN) based platform powered by PacketFabric to complement QTS’ hybrid IT solutions. PacketFabric is a NantWorks ‎company and provider of next-generation Ethernet-based cloud networking services.

Part of a multi-phased approach to simplify customer network strategies, the PacketFabric deployment provides diverse connectivity to the cloud and other mission-critical IT environments through QTS’ carrier neutral data centers. By virtue of the PacketFabric platform, QTS’ enhanced capability provides fast, secure and scalable connectivity with immediate visibility and control over a customer’s network traffic across QTS facilities. QTS will initially make PacketFabric available from its mega data centers in Chicago, Miami, Suwanee and Atlanta, GA, Piscataway and Jersey City, NJ, and Richmond, VA.

With PacketFabric’s Software-Defined Networking (SDN) based platform, QTS customers are able to meet the capacity demands of the most bandwidth-intensive applications and workloads by instantly provisioning terabits of capacity to any other network, cloud service provider, or facility on the fabric.

“With an emphasis on scale, speed and economics, QTS aims to provide universal connectivity to enable our customers’ diverse hybrid IT strategies through our fully integrated data center platform,” commented Dan Bennewitz, QTS Chief Operating Officer, Sales, Product and Marketing about the announcement. “QTS’ cloud networking service powered by PacketFabric enhances the process of provisioning and managing network infrastructure for a growing number of enterprises seeking control over the ‘last mile’ between their applications and their data center provider.”

“The PacketFabric platform enhances provisioning and delivery of a wide range of hybrid IT infrastructure and next-generation cloud networking services,” remarked William Charnock, CEO of PacketFabric. “With PacketFabric embedded in QTS, customers can access scalable private and public cloud networking services and more easily provision and maintain network infrastructure.”

To learn more about PacketFabric, click here.