BT preps Global Fabric for commercial launch but its future is cloudy

BT has been extensively testing it over the past two months and plans to launch a demo version of Global Fabric's management portal in November. This will give IT teams the opportunity to get to grips with configuring and optimising multi-cloud network configurations and play around with its application programming interfaces (APIs).

Launched this time last year, Global Fabric is designed to provide enterprises with a one-stop shop that enables them to pick and choose the best connectivity options for whatever workloads they have, and then determine the optimal end-to-end route their data takes across the network.

So far, BT has deployed Global Fabric points of presence (PoPs) in 45 cloud data centres, and is on course to reach 140. On top of that, it also plans to provide high-bandwidth connectivity to 700 data centres worldwide.

BT said customers that don't currently have connections to data centres hosting Global Fabric PoPs can order links from BT in time for the service to launch next year.

"BT's Global Fabric will help customers hit the cloud running," said Colin Bannon, chief technology officer, BT Business. "It will give them a choice of the world's best cloud locations to interconnect with their customers, partners and suppliers, making them easier to do business with not just today but tomorrow too. With the achievement of our latest Global Fabric delivery milestones, we take another step closer to a new age of AI-ready, digital interconnectivity."

An impressive pitch, but the service appears to be out of kilter with BT's strategic trajectory, and the case for launching Global Fabric at all looks just a little threadbare.

Its unveiling took place towards the tail end of Philip Jansen's tenure as CEO. By then his replacement Allison Kirkby had been appointed but would not officially start work until the following February.

Under Jansen – who lets not forget was answerable to a board that included Kirkby – BT refocused on connectivity. He brought the curtain down on predecessor Gavin Patterson's glitzy but expensive era of sports broadcasting and ads featuring Hollywood A-listers, ushering in a decidedly more austere age of cost-cutting.

For BT's international enterprise unit Global Services, still reeling from the Italian accounting scandal, that meant asset sales in the Netherlands and Spain.

It was widely anticipated that when Kirkby stepped up to the plate that she would pick up where Jansen left off. Sure enough, she has spent her first months in charge continuing to overhaul BT's operations and technology to make it more efficient, agile, and in a position to address emerging growth opportunities like AI, quantum networking and so-on.

Kirkby also wants to further sharpen BT's focus on the UK, a plan that includes, in her words, "exploring options to optimise" the telco's global business.

So, as compelling a proposition as Global Fabric might be, it looks like an awkward fit for BT.

Update 16:55 3/10/24: This story originally stated that the initial target was 700 PoPs, BT has since clarified that it is targeting 140 PoPs, and high-bandwidth connectivity to 700 data centres.