BCN has ripped out its entire internal tech stack and pared its SASE partner list to five. Both moves show how an established wholesale telecom aggregator is pushing deeper into managed cybersecurity.
BCN tapped a new vendor for its business support system, operations support system, agent portal and customer portal. The company considered making an internal upgrade with its existing vendor, but elected to go shopping.
“We really saw the breadth of providers out there that have really stepped up their game and are taking advantage of new data structures and leveraging AI as you go forward,” Chief Product Officer Chris Alberding told Channel Dive. “It was eye opening.”
Alberding joined BCN in August as chief product officer, a new role for the 32-year-old company. He accepted a charter to upgrade BCN’s digital experience and help push the firm deeper into cybersecurity, as network MSPs increasingly offer managed cyber. Its wholesale telecom aggregation business remains a core part of the business, but is only one part.
“The big answer is the big solution, and that's what we're challenged with today to deliver,” BCN CEO Julian Jacquez told Channel Dive last year.
Billing systems and customer portals are key differentiators for network MSPs, which originated to ease the pain of working directly with large local incumbent exchange carriers. Service providers are raising their demands from their software platform providers, asking for the ability to modify what bills look like and make it easier to audit and control invoices. Customers also demand multiple ways to pay, asking for Venmo, automated clearing house and other methods in addition to checks and credit cards.
“We need to meet them where they are, not have them adapt to our platform,” Alberding said.
BCN’s previous platform vendor languished following a series of acquisitions by the parent company. Focus, innovation and support had slowed.
“I think the longer your company's been around, the much higher likelihood you have of being on an outdated platform. In my last 10 years, I've seen a lot of companies going through consolidation doing the same thing we did,” Alberding said.
An increasing number of companies are taking a partnership route to building their internal platforms versus an in-house approach, according to Alberding. It can take up to six months for an internal team to learn how to code on their own platform.
“If you're in maintenance mode, it's one thing, but if you're in a company like BCN, where we're growing year over year, we've got to be positioned for scale and finding a partner that can do that for us is much easier than trying to do it internally,” Alberding said.
Cementing the SASE vendors
BCN is staying selective with its approach to secure access service edge offering, which is built atop OEM products.
SASE is in many ways the successor of software-defined wide area networking and is a key avenue for companies like BCN to enter cybersecurity by effectively merging security and networking into a single offering.
BCN has agreements with five SD-WAN and SASE providers: Bigleaf Networks, Adaptiv Networks, Cisco Meraki, Peplink and Cato. Each vendor fits a particular customer segment. For example, Bigleaf is good for small customers who just want SD-WAN, and midmarket clients that want a fully converged solution go with Cato.
You need to partner enough to meet the customer requirements, but without introducing unnecessary complexity, Alberding said.
“How do I give them a solution suite that fills the void without overwhelming them? If I take 12 technology partners to market, then you've got to know 12 different technology solutions and value propositions behind each one, and the challenges and how to find the right solution for the right customer,” he said.
Notably missing from BCN’s linecard is VeloCloud, a pioneering SD-WAN vendor that for years was one of BCN’s key partners. VeloCloud was purchased by VMware in 2017. In 2025 it was offloaded by VMware parent company Broadcom to Arista Networks.
Alberding said VeloCloud dominated the SD-WAN market but struggled to innovate after being acquired. The company struggled to maintain its lead in the SASE era, as cybersecurity firms like Fortinet joined the fray.
“They could not find their security direction. They just kept trying to bolt on pieces, and Broadcom came in, and it kind of defocused what they were working on,” Alberding said.
Alberding is hopeful that Arista will be the right fit for VeloCloud, but for now, BCN isn’t looking for a new partner.
“I don't think that Velo is needed at this point, but I am following them closely as to how this Arista acquisition will affect them,” he said. “For one, there's still a lot of great people over there that came through all of the transitions that I'd love to work with.”
