Cloudbrink-NEC Networks & SI Corporation deal delivers speed boost for Philippines hybrid workforce

• 29 Nov 2023
• TM Team
• 0 Comments

Cloudbrink, the hybrid access as a service (HAaaS) provider, has extended its partnership with NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation to the Philippines, where flexible working is a key part of the government's program for economic development.

NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation, a member of the NEC group, already sells the Cloudbrink service in Japan under a partnership formed in March. The Philippines is the partnership's first expansion beyond the Japanese market.

The Philippines is one of the fastest-growing economies in APAC, under a government-led economic development and inward investment program. It is one of the few countries in the world to introduce specific legislation covering remote working. Revisions late last year to the Telecommuting Act clarify the obligations of businesses to provide adequate infrastructure and support for the work-from-anywhere workforce.

Cloudbrink is a VPN replacement service delivering high-performance zero-trust access to SaaS, cloud, and data center applications. It provides secure work-from-anywhere (WFA) connectivity that overcomes application performance and reliability problems of Wi-Fi, fixed and mobile broadband.

Remote working practices were popular in the Philippines even before the pandemic. In 2019, 52% of Filipinos were already working at least part of the time out of the office and the trend appears to be accelerating. A survey this year of 5,000 students found that more than 80% favored hybrid working.

The country's telecommunications industry is racing to keep pace with demand. With a low penetration of fixed broadband connections, businesses rely heavily on congested 4G and 5G mobile networks.

Cloudbrink's lightweight app with low-latency FAST edges increases effective connection speeds by 30x. The FAST edges are deployed from several hyper-cloud locations in the Philippines. Physical points of presence (PoPs) from rival service vendors are in Hong Kong or Singapore. Having a local edge presence significantly reduces latency, improving application performance.

Osamu Kikuchi, senior vice president of NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation, said: "Until now, leaving the office meant leaving a fast, secure network behind, which had inevitable consequences for productivity. With Cloudbrink, NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation can optimize the network without compromising security to give people the same experience of cloud and SaaS applications regardless of their location. Remote power users benefit most but all users will benefit – even those working in head office."

Prakash Mana, chief executive officer, Cloudbrink said: "We're delighted to be working with NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation to address the productivity challenge for hybrid workers in the Philippines. Filipinos are determined to build a world class economy and they can't afford to wait for the network to catch up. Cloudbrink alleviates access and connectivity problems, enabling people to have an enterprise-grade network wherever they happen to work."