Virtualplatform extends orchestration for SD-WAN underlay

Virtualplatform has expanded its orchestration product with features aimed at organisations running large, distributed networks, such as multi-site retail estates.

The Australian-developed platform manages the lifecycle of telecommunications services across multiple carriers. It covers service qualification and ordering through to provisioning and ongoing management.

Enterprises with hundreds or thousands of locations often depend on a mix of fixed and access services, including NBN and fibre ethernet. These connections underpin in-store systems for card payments, inventory and digital ordering, as well as security monitoring and cloud applications.

Even short outages can disrupt trading and operations. Many organisations still rely on separate carrier portals and manual tracking for service records, incident handling and supplier engagement, which can slow fault resolution and complicate billing checks.

Unified Management

Virtualplatform positions its software as a single layer for managing connectivity across carriers. It includes service qualification, supplier management, billing reconciliation, service lifecycle tracking and fault visibility, and the expanded capabilities target large, multi-site environments.

In practice, orchestration platforms sit between organisations and supplier systems. They standardise processes that differ by carrier and service type, and provide a single view of service status and change history.

Virtualplatform abstracts supplier systems and automates workflows to reduce operational complexity and improve visibility across service estates.

SD-WAN Context

The expansion comes as SD-WAN deployments become more common across branch and retail networks. SD-WAN products manage traffic and policy at the overlay level, while underlay connectivity still relies on carrier services that require procurement, provisioning and ongoing administration.

Virtualplatform now extends orchestration into that underlay. It does not replace SD-WAN controllers; instead, it is positioned as complementary, focusing on the carrier services beneath the SD-WAN layer.

The platform automates the lifecycle of connectivity services from qualification and procurement through provisioning, service changes, fault management and billing. It also provides a consolidated operational view of underlay infrastructure in distributed networks.

For operations teams, underlay visibility often sits outside SD-WAN tooling. Carriers use different terminology, ticketing processes and reporting methods. Multi-carrier sourcing can add resilience and geographic reach, but it also increases the number of interfaces teams must manage.

Direct management of carrier services can reduce time spent moving between portals and chasing supplier updates, and improve incident diagnosis and engagement with carriers on root cause.

Integration Model

Virtualplatform uses an API-first approach and a supplier plug-in engine, enabling organisations to integrate new carriers and services without bespoke development.

Integration remains a key constraint in telecoms operations software. Carrier interfaces vary widely in maturity and data consistency, and a plug-in model enables the addition or updating of supplier connections as commercial arrangements change.

The platform is already used by service providers and technology partners managing hundreds of thousands of telecommunications services across Australia. Virtualplatform did not provide a customer breakdown by sector or specify the number of enterprise deployments.

Large multi-site customers in retail, healthcare and hospitality face similar telecoms management challenges: high volumes of service moves, adds and changes; accurate asset records across sites; and clear billing alignment across suppliers and locations.

Virtualplatform framed the expansion as part of a broader shift in how organisations treat connectivity operations, bringing service qualification, ordering, lifecycle management, diagnostics, and billing into a single system.

"Large, distributed organisations often depend on dozens of supplier systems and manual processes to manage their connectivity," said Piers Tyler, co-founder of Virtualplatform.

"Our goal has always been to simplify that complexity by providing a neutral orchestration layer above the carriers. As more enterprises deploy SD-WAN across retail and branch environments, extending orchestration into the underlying connectivity layer becomes a natural evolution," Tyler said.

Virtualplatform said it will continue to add carrier and service integrations through its plug-in approach as organisations adjust connectivity strategies and adopt new network technologies.