Scaling Network Virtualization: How Megaport Delivers High Performance with 6WIND VSR

The network-as-a-service (NaaS) industry is experiencing unprecedented growth, driven by enterprises demanding cloud-native flexibility and hyperscaler-like agility in their network infrastructure. At the forefront of this transformation is Megaport, one of the world’s largest NaaS platforms, which recently achieved a major milestone by deploying 6WIND’s Virtual Service Router (VSR) to deliver high performance in virtualized environments.

The Evolution of Network-as-a-Service (Naas)

Megaport operates as a truly open NaaS provider, distinguishing itself from competitors through its complete independence from specific data center operators or network providers. With connectivity across 950 data centers in 26 countries, the company has built what may be the world’s most comprehensive automated global network fabric.

The company’s origin story reflects the fundamental challenge that led to the NaaS revolution. Founded by serial entrepreneur Bevan Slattery, Megaport was initially created to solve a classic chicken-and-egg problem in the data center industry: you need customers to attract carriers, but you can’t get customers without carriers. What began as a solution for data center connectivity evolved into a global platform that now serves enterprise customers seeking seamless cloud connectivity across multiple continents.

“A customer can buy services in Chicago, Paris, Singapore, and São Paulo, and it’s the same product set, the same services, the same quality, the same support team,” explains Megaport’s leadership team. This consistency across a global platform represents what true NaaS should deliver – network infrastructure that behaves like a cloud service.

The Virtual Edge Revolution

Megaport’s Virtual Edge (MVE) platform represents five years of evolution in network function virtualization. Originally designed to service SD-WAN use cases, the platform has expanded to support a comprehensive suite of virtual network functions, including firewalls, routers, and specialized services like NAT gateways.

The recent infrastructure upgrades mark the first major platform enhancement in five years, enabling the company to push VNF products into 100Gbps+ territory. These upgrades required new hardware connecting at N×400Gbps speeds and a new hypervisor architecture optimized for high-performance network functions.

Common Use Cases Transforming Enterprise Networks

The MVE platform addresses several critical enterprise networking scenarios:

• Cloud Security and Segmentation: Enterprises deploy virtual firewalls to manage security and traffic segregation between on-premises networks and cloud environments, or between different cloud platforms for multi-cloud architectures.
• SD-WAN Extension: Retail customers with thousands of branch locations can use MVE to bridge their SD-WAN networks with cloud and data center environments, creating seamless connectivity across distributed infrastructures.
• Virtual Points of Presence (PoP): Perhaps most intriguingly, customers are deploying entire network stacks – routers, firewalls, and other functions – to create complete points of presence in new markets without purchasing physical infrastructure or managing local connectivity.

Why 6WIND VSR Changed the Game

The addition of 6WIND’s Virtual Service Router to the MVE platform represents a significant capability expansion. The VSR’s versatility impressed Megaport’s technical team because a single deployment can function as:

• A high-performance IP router handling advanced routing protocols
• A security gateway terminating thousands of IPsec tunnels
• A Layer 4 firewall providing traffic filtering
• A virtual CPE for customer service termination
• A Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) for ISP services
• A platform for emerging 5G functionality

“It’s kind of one image that can do all of the things,” notes Megaport’s team. This versatility eliminates the complexity of managing multiple specialized appliances while delivering impressive forwarding performance that rivals dedicated hardware solutions.

Learn more about 6WIND VSR: https://www.6wind.com/vrouter-vsr-solutions/

Performance That Challenges Conventional Wisdom

Network engineers often assume that virtualized network functions cannot match the performance of dedicated hardware with ASICs. The 6WIND VSR challenges this assumption by delivering “staggeringly impressive” performance through optimized x86 cores.

“Customers come to us and say they want a physical appliance because they can’t do X, and I kind of encourage them to give it a go because they might be surprised,” explains Megaport’s technical leadership. This performance breakthrough is particularly important as AI workloads drive bandwidth requirements higher, with training scenarios demanding maximum throughput capabilities.

Emerging Use Cases: From Edge Termination to ISP-in-a-Box

Early deployments of the VSR on Megaport’s platform have revealed innovative use cases that showcase the power of software-defined networking:

• Virtual Internet Exchange Points: Customers use the VSR as virtual POPs to terminate upstream transit and connect back to their data center networks, allowing network engineers to focus on servers rather than edge networking complexity.
• Broadband Service Termination: The vBNG functionality enables ISPs to terminate broadband customers virtually, opening new possibilities for service delivery models.
• Municipal Broadband Innovation: Perhaps most exciting is the potential for creating “ISP-in-a-box” solutions. With municipal broadband networks available in markets like the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and various US cities, the combination of Megaport’s global network and 6WIND’s VSR could enable new ISPs to launch services without deploying physical infrastructure.

The Strategic Alliance: Simplicity Through Collaboration

The partnership between Megaport and 6WIND exemplifies how complementary technologies can create compelling customer value. Both companies focus on simplifying complex networking challenges, making advanced capabilities accessible through intuitive platforms.

“The goal is always about simplicity,” emphasizes Megaport’s team. “The product should always be the simplest option for the end customer, and I think the story that we have here really achieves that outcome.”

This collaboration extends beyond technology integration to include coordinated product roadmaps, hardware compatibility optimization, and performance tuning. The complexity of managing VNF platforms – including hardware acceleration, network interface optimization, and software lifecycle management – is abstracted away from customers who simply consume network services on-demand.

Agility in Software-Defined Infrastructure

One of the most significant advantages of the software-centric approach is development agility. While traditional network vendors often operate on multi-year development cycles, 6WIND releases major software updates twice annually with monthly patch releases for urgent features.

“The agility of your team is very impressive compared to almost every other vendor we work with.”

This agility enables rapid response to customer requirements and market changes, providing the flexibility that enterprises increasingly demand from their network infrastructure.

Market Trends Shaping the Future

Several key trends are driving the evolution of NaaS and cloud connectivity:

• Security by Default: Enterprises demand encryption and security at every layer of the technology stack. This includes IPsec on cloud on-ramps, area where some major cloud providers are still catching up.
• Mandatory Redundancy: Cloud providers are beginning to enforce diverse and redundant connectivity patterns, with other services.
• AI-Driven Bandwidth Growth: AI services require enterprises to move on-premises datasets to cloud environments for integration with services like Amazon Bedrock and IBM Watson, driving significant bandwidth requirements.
• Commodity Network Expectations: Enterprises want network infrastructure to behave like a utility – always available, automatically scaling, and invisible to daily operations. They expect network services to be ready in 60 seconds, bringing hyperscaler concepts to enterprise networking.

The Road Ahead

The combination of Megaport’s global NaaS platform and 6WIND’s high-performance VSR represents a new paradigm in enterprise networking. By delivering hardware-class performance through software-defined infrastructure, this partnership enables use cases that were previously impossible or economically unfeasible.

As the industry continues evolving toward software-defined everything, the ability to deploy, scale, and manage network functions as easily as cloud services becomes increasingly critical. The success of this collaboration demonstrates that the future of networking lies not in choosing between hardware and software, but in leveraging the best of both worlds to create solutions that are simultaneously powerful and simple.

For enterprises seeking to modernize their network infrastructure, the message is clear: the performance, flexibility, and economics of software-defined networking have reached a tipping point where virtual solutions can exceed the capabilities of traditional hardware while providing unprecedented operational agility.

Ready to evaluate 6WIND VSR on MVE? Click here: https://portal.6wind.com/mve-register.php

Watch the replay of the fireside chat with Megaport: https://www.6wind.com/unlock-agile-networking-at-the-edge-with-6wind-megaport-virtual-edge-mve/