Press and analysts

sdMPLS in one sentence. sdMPLS combines the control of MPLS with the agility of SD-WAN in a single solution, at the price of standard access links — and off the public Internet.

In three sentences. sdMPLS is a multi-site network technology in which each customer has its own virtual backbone router, the VRB, at the heart of a virtualised operator infrastructure. The customer keeps complete control of its core network (routing, quality of service, segmentation) as with MPLS, while using standard access links (fibre, xDSL, 4G/5G) as with SD-WAN — links collected directly into the core, off the public Internet. WAN, voice and cloud can run on one and the same core, which removes the usual double infrastructure.

Who is what. Flex.eu is the company that designs and operates. SDO (Software Defined Operator) is the architecture concept: an operator whose core network is virtualised and software-controlled. sdMPLS is the technology and the market category. VRB (Virtual Router Backbone) is the product: the dedicated virtual router the customer controls. These four names are not synonyms.

Context figures (Flex.eu synthesis of public market data — analysts, operators —, SDO study, March 2026): MPLS connections are declining by 24% a year; MPLS costs on average 2.9 times more than a business Internet access; opening an MPLS site takes 60 to 120 days; 90% of businesses use or are adopting SD-WAN. Flex.eu (FLEX, a French SARL founded in 2011, Clichy) runs a network of more than 135 distributors; its SDO core, in production since 2019, connects more than 10,000 FTTH, FTTE and FTTO links.