BT International expands Global Fabric with security options

BT International has expanded its Global Fabric network-as-a-service platform with integrated security service edge options from Cisco, Fortinet, Netskope and Zscaler, broadening its security offering for multinational customers.

The update is aimed at supporting organisations as they roll out AI agents, cloud applications and autonomous digital workflows across more users, devices and locations.

BT International is adding the four vendors' security service edge products to Global Fabric, which it markets as an AI-ready networking service. The integration gives customers a choice of security providers while using BT's network platform to connect traffic more directly to cloud and security environments.

Businesses are facing shifting network demands as AI adoption changes how traffic moves between users, applications, devices and cloud services. BT International said many Chief Information Officers are finding that older network and security designs struggle to provide the scale, visibility and control these workloads require.

Its cloud-based architecture is designed to reduce the number of third-party internet networks traffic crosses before reaching a security inspection point. Instead, Global Fabric connects to partners' security and cloud ecosystems through selected cloud locations around the world.

Network shift

The launch also extends BT International's broader push to combine networking and security services within a managed environment. The platform is designed to provide consistent security, application performance and network management on a single network underlay.

The addition of integrated security service edge products also places Global Fabric within the wider secure access service edge market, where companies combine software-defined wide area networking with cloud-delivered security services. BT International said its approach includes internet exchange point peering to improve internet breakout performance and reduce path latency.

The design is also intended to improve resilience and path diversity between Global Fabric sites and security vendors' points of presence, while giving customers more predictable latency and more consistent policy enforcement regardless of location.

Yash Jethani, Principal Analyst, ISG, said: "The convergence of networking and security is ultimately about enabling trust at scale. Global enterprises increasingly require a cloud-delivered operating model that provides resilient connectivity, consistent security enforcement and simplified operations across users, applications, AI agents and digital ecosystems worldwide. The ability to deliver that trust consistently across markets will be a key competitive differentiator."

AI demand

BT International framed the update around the demands created by agent-based AI systems, which require continuous access to data, applications and cloud services. That can place greater pressure on bandwidth, latency and reliability across international networks.

Matt Swinden, Managing Director, Strategy & Product, BT International, said: "Agentic AI is changing what organisations need from networks. AI agents depend on secure, reliable access to applications, data and cloud services in real time, creating new demands for performance, resilience and security. By bringing together SSE with Global Fabric, we're helping customers build an AI-ready network foundation on which they can scale innovation and automation and choose the best security services to meet their needs."

BT Group has said its International unit, which serves multinational organisations headquartered outside the UK and overseas public sector customers, is due to be contributed into a new joint venture expected to complete in the second half of 2027.