Category Archives: FatPipe

20 Nov

Catch Up with Rising Intelligence on the WAN Edge

WAN Edge refers to the device deployed at the “edge of the network,” especially at the branches. Till a few years back, these devices were expected to make routing decisions without human intervention, but with the advent of SD-WAN, the Edge devices are gaining much-needed intelligence and also are capable of performing multiple functions. Imagine effortlessly managing your WAN, elevating its performance, fortifying the security, and seamlessly integrating new heterogeneous connections of different technologies – all in one powerful suite of solutions. FatPipe Networks, the inventor and multiple patents holder of SDWAN technology has been at the forefront of making the “Edge” more powerful and intelligent to exponentially enhance the network performance. It provides unique patented technology MPSEC TM to the networking industry which has given a new dimension to Edge Intelligence. It also provides solutions for improving network performance in an existing WAN, simplifying WAN management, or adding and managing additional connections with zero-touch provisioning.

WAN Redundancy with MPSEC TM

FatPipe Multi path security patented technology allows multiple heterogeneous connections to the WAN for seamless aggregation of MPLS, Internet, 4G, leased networks, and satellite networks in one single virtual link with seamless sub-second failover to enhance network SLAs.

Dynamic load balancing on multiple lines 

FatPipe’s dynamic load balancing allows the load to be distributed on a WAN connection according to several algorithms ranging from simple round-robin load balancing to complex load balancing that determines the least number of hops from start to destination.

Multiple Quality of Service

FatPipe technology supports QoS mechanisms that let organizations prioritize specific traffic over others. This will ensure that VoIP calls have priority and the availability needed to be completed.

Data traffic Optimization

The Edge is enabled with multiple WAN Optimization techniques making it more intelligent. FatPipe data compression technology can compress data by up to 8x. FatPipe’s de-duplication technology looks for data duplicates in data sets and eliminates them. By caching local copies of transmitted data, FatPipe technology reduces the strain on network resources.

Hybrid WAN

The Hybrid WAN has the public and private networks working in parallel. We can also have internet-only branches to connect to their HQ or other data centers using an on-site or cloud gateway.

Centralized control and Policy-based management 

FatPipe SD-WAN ensures data security and decision-driven traffic routing through a centralized control function with additional benefits such as application performance, user satisfaction, business efficiency, and reduced operational expenditure. Based on policies, FatPipe manages the configurations and flow of traffic.

Dynamic path selection

FatPipe SD-WAN intelligently prioritizes data and diagnoses existing network conditions to effectively map application traffic to the best-suited route.

Last-mile connectivity

FatPipe SD-WAN devices deployed at each location elevate last-mile connectivity between sites without excessively relying on service partners, as with cloud-based solutions.

Fabric and Flat Networks

While fabric networks facilitate the seamless integration of many components, improve scalability, and enhance overall network performance, flat networks can reduce complexity in WAN environments with a simplified structure. Flat networks can improve data transfer efficiency, lower latency, and simplify management by minimizing the number of network layers.

Intelligent WAN Edge Consolidation 

FatPipe Intelligent WAN Edge consolidation typically involves simplifying management processes, improving network performance, and adding or managing additional connections into a unified and intelligent solution. The objective is to provide a more cohesive and effective approach to managing and optimizing the WAN edge infrastructure.

08 Nov

Managed SD-WAN Continues to Gain Traction

Fully managed SD‐WAN service is the choice of customers as the complete deployment and management of the end-to-end SD‐WAN solution with proactive issue resolution is taken care of by the Managed SD-WAN provider. Managed SD-WAN provides a centralized control center that actively oversees the network’s edge devices, enabling real-time detection of anomalies or performance issues. By swiftly identifying and addressing these concerns, Managed SD-WAN ensures continuous network stability, security, and optimal performance, serving as the backbone for the reliability and seamless operation of corporate infrastructures.

Managed SD-WAN services offer several key benefits across the U.S. in terms of providing proactive network monitoring and network health and performance alerting:

1.Continuous Monitoring

Ensures proactive monitoring of the network. This continuous surveillance allows for early detection of potential issues, enabling prompt resolution before they escalate and affect network performance. By actively overseeing the network, these services can identify patterns, anomalies, or deviations from the norm, helping to maintain network health.

2. Proactive Issue Resolution

Helps detect and address potential issues before they impact the network. This approach minimizes downtime and optimizes network performance, as issues can be dealt with swiftly, often before end-users notice them.

3. Enhanced Security Measures

Ensures network performance and assists in the early detection of security threats or breaches. Alerting systems signal security issues promptly, enabling immediate action to mitigate potential risks and strengthen the network’s defenses.

4. Deep Analytical Reports 

Provides deep analytical reports such as link-wise applications, data segregation, Quality of Service reports, etc. These reports are presented in easy- easy-to-understand charts and tables with associated dashboards and flexibility to summarize the report in the desired format. It also provides timely notifications and alerts and ensures that the responsible team is immediately informed of any irregularities or potential problems, enabling rapid responses to rectify issues before they affect the network’s health or performance.

5. Focus on Core Business Functions

Allows us to focus more on core business operations. With experts managing network health and performance, internal IT teams can direct their efforts toward strategic initiatives and essential business tasks rather than day-to-day network monitoring.

FatPipe Managed SD-WAN services perform proactive network monitoring and network health and performance alerting to identify and address issues in real-time promptly using cutting-edge tools like Symphony Orchestration and Enterprise View 2.0 TM. This is helpful in the detection of performance bottlenecks, security threats, or connectivity problems, enabling organizations to take immediate action, maintain network reliability, and provide a seamless user experience. Clear communication and expectation setting, equipped with robust, proactive monitoring, help in transparent engagement and manage customer expectations. Redundancy strategies and swift, responsive support mechanisms ensure reliability, a user-focused approach provides enhanced customer satisfaction, and continuous improvement underscores the commitment to overcoming external challenges.

26 Sep

Secure SD-WAN: Essential Element of Modern Network Security

SD-WAN is one of the most widely adopted technologies in the last decade due to its efficiency in optimizing application delivery and cost-efficiency. Network security has become an indispensable element of modern networks. Organizations must thoroughly evaluate their cybersecurity needs. They must assess the efficiency of SD-WAN’s security features to protect sensitive data, proactively identify vulnerabilities, and maintain the resilience of their SD-WAN infrastructure.

SD-WAN for Better Return on Investments and Enhanced Security

SD-WAN enables organizations to transform their network with better Return on Investments by optimizing network performance and enhancing overall productivity. While SD-WAN has many power-packed features for better ROI, one of multiple organizations’ extensively used SD-WAN features during this network transformation journey is migrating from MPLS technology to Internet technology for Edge connectivity. This migration requires the technological capability of seamless aggregation of any connectivity and robust security functionalities in SD-WAN technology to prevent the Edge from cyber-attacks.

Securing an SD-WAN deployment from end to end is vital to safeguard sensitive data and ensure the reliability of network operations. To achieve this, organizations can utilize several security measures, including encrypted traffic, Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), and blockchain-type data transmission:

  • SD-WAN encrypts traffic to make sure that sensitive data is not compromised.
  • SD-WAN utilizes NGFWs that offer advanced threat security, intrusion detection and prevention, web filtering, content filtering, etc.
  • Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) enhances security when used alongside SD-WAN by providing secure, monitored, and enforced access to remote resources, safeguarding against unauthorized access and threats. Only authorized users and devices have the permission to access the network.
  • SD-WAN provides unmatched security with innovative concepts like Blockchain type of data transmission thereby offering foolproof mechanisms of data packet transmission.

FatPipe Networks, the inventor and numerous patents holder of SD-WAN, not only provides technically superior load balancing, link reliability, link aggregation techniques but also impregnable native security and SASE-based security for any organization’s SD-WAN requirements. FatPipe has invented a unique way of securely transmitting data over lines with multi-path security also known as MPSEC TM, which provides an additional level of fortification for business-critical traffic throughout a client’s enterprise architecture. FatPipe products, besides providing increased security also obfuscates internet traffic, making it almost impossible to decrypt, through a mechanism similar to Blockchain technology.

31 Mar

Network Connectivity and COVID-19

Network Connectivity and COVID-19

Yes, the COVID -19 virus has absolutely affected the global economy, and not in a good way.  It has also forced businesses, especially essential businesses, to be creative in the way they may not have expected even a few weeks ago.

Working from Home

Employees working from home is not necessarily new, but the number of employees working remotely has dramatically increased, thanks to the stay at home call from officials and business owners globally.   As a result, the demand for secure and most importantly, reliable connectivity, has never been more acute.   So how has the modern-day business adapted?   What are the essential needs for remote workers, and how does the WAN administrator of today deal with these significant changes?

Facts:   More than 25% of businesses have not updated their work from home security policies in the past 5 years.  Driven by the need for secure remote access, companies are scrambling to implement solutions that are robust, secure, and of course reliable. This dramatic increase in the need for remote secure and reliable connectivity has placed extraordinary demands on the carriers as well as network administrators, some of whom are also working from home.

“The spread of coronavirus and social distancing mandates have put many IT pros in a precarious, but necessary, position of having to quickly transition to a largely remote workforce”. (Jackie Crankshaw, Lifeboat Channel Chat, 03/27/2020).  “With more employees working from home, cybercriminals have more access points to exploit networks”

Hacking is always a present danger, but in today’s environment, the chances for breach of a network have significantly increased. Network administrators must be wary of the security issues they now face, and have to accommodate the changing business environment, especially as more workers are connecting from home offices.

Secure connections for remote workers

There are plenty of choices out there, and VPN connections are, for the most part, a logical way to go.   But what good is the VPN if the connection itself is less than reliable, or worse still, down.

The key to ensuring remote workers can do what they are asked to do and help keep businesses up and running is to have the data traffic be secure, and of course, reliable.

For example, Video conferencing and VoIP calls are bandwidth hogs, and with more and more remote workers using these methodologies to connect, the demand for reliability and continuity of call is paramount.

So how can businesses of today, with all the challenges of social distancing ensure their “connectivity” is reliable and secure?

Simply deploying a VPN is not the answer.   Without the ability to manage the links, or lines coming into the HQ data center, the VPN tunnels from all the remote workers will suffer from congestion and in some cases, the link may drop all together. This defeats the remote worker purpose.

The best possible way to ensure reliable connectivity is to enable software driven networking solutions to manage the connections.

FatPipe Networks have been developing and deploying software driven network solutions for well over 20 years, and have 13 seminal patents that enable customers to design, customize and manage how their data traffic is managed across the network.   This includes remote worker connectivity.

Road Warrior solutions from FatPipe Networks

In fact, FatPipe has had a remote worker solution for many years, FatPipe Road Warrior solutions, which give customers the ability to load balance the traffic across multiple links, as well as failover in a sub-second should a link degrade or fail completely.

The difference with FatPipe solutions is the seamless nature of how it works.  Just set it and watch how the traffic is automatically directed by the FatPipe software.   FatPipe Road Warrior solutions allow customers to enable as many VPN tunnels (Fatpipe has tested to over 9,000 simultaneous connections) as necessary, and use any link type, including copper, fiber, wireless (3G;4G;5G; LTE) and satellite to load balance and failover when the demand requires.

In today’s disrupted business environment, knowing your connectivity is reliable, secure and manageable is critical. FatPipe Networks has been in the market for over 20 years and has recently received a Gartner Peer Review rating of 4.9 out of 5, taking the top spot in recommendations from customers as a best of breed SD-WAN solution.

If you have employees working from home, students learning “on line”, citizens trying to get information from their local city council, or just want to be able to manage data traffic coming into the network, then FatPipe must be a solution worth exploring.

Call FatPipe Networks today – 801-683-5656 ask for sales.

www.fatpipeinc.com

 

01 Feb

WAN Edge and SD-WAN, what you need to know

There are plenty of articles and information on the WAN Edge.    Perhaps the question to ask is, so what? How does this affect today’s multi-line hybrid WAN?  With research suggesting there will be 50 billion devices attached to the Internet in the next 3 to 5 years, how does the corporate network manage access to their applications and information stored, both on premise, in the cloud and from WAN edge devices?

Today’s corporate WAN’s are complex, and the top issues faced by IT management are still the security of data flowing across the network, managing access, the co-mingling of on premise and cloud-based applications, and reliable, high speed connectivity.   Adding new WAN EDGE devices is simply adding new access and data flow challenges that require careful management.   But who has extra IT staff for this?   They key to success rests with the management of this data traffic.

WAN of Things

The WAN ‘edge’ is evolving into the new WAN of things.  Remember IoT?   WANoT could be how data is to be served to users, no matter where they are, and no matter what device they use.   The question then changes to how to ensure secure, reliable access to applications and information no matter what the access route.

Data can be anywhere these days, applications too.   It is the secure, reliable access to this data, the applications and information needed to be successful in today’s digital society.

WAN Edge devices have computational power

WAN Edge devices have evolved to where they now have computing power, meaning a major portion of data analysis and computational functions are being handled “at the edge”. For example, routers are WAN edge devices, as are switches, but so are weather sensors and satellite tracking devices in shipping.  The proliferation of these “smart” devices with computational power can transform the business WAN, especially if the data from these devices becomes mission critical. Instead of a device sending data only, it is now able to compute and send results of that computational analysis back to the WAN.  This data is then sent to a web property or reporting tool. The downside of all of this computational activity that it adds more traffic to the network.

Control and management of data flow is not new, but is certainly becoming more critical, especially with more and more devices attaching to networks.   WAN traffic management is the key and IT administrators are seeking solutions that automate the management of this traffic.

So, what about “SD-WAN”?   Surely this was the answer to the IT administrators desire for WAN traffic control and management?   Well, it seems that since the advent of SD-WAN, many businesses have been trying to implement a solution that supposedly promises nirvana.   But this has had mixed results at best. The problem is that SD-WAN means different things to different people. Some SD-WAN solutions are complex, some are off premise or cloud based, and some cannot deliver on the promise of true WAN traffic management.

What is True WAN Traffic Management?

Recent research with customers across the globe suggests that “true” WAN traffic management requires sophisticated software that can automatically manage any traffic type, on any type of link.   Today , businesses want to customize their data traffic that results in secure, highly reliable data flow across the WAN, with limited, if any, administration oversight. This software must have the ability to customize HOW to direct this WAN traffic, especially if it has come from a WAN Edge device, using tools that can prioritize link usage with options to customize the flow.    Requested options are, interface type, application signature, protocol, IP address or destination, port source or destination or a combination thereof. True traffic management must also have the ability to set thresholds, based on almost any criteria, allowing for complete customization of how this traffic is directed across the circuits.

Identification of WAN Edge devices then becomes much easier, and the traffic flowing to and from them, customized and optimized. Using this true traffic management,  it does not matter what type of device it is, where it is located, or how it is connecting to the network.   Providing seamless, secure, and reliable access is paramount as is ease of installation and management.

FatPipe Networks has been developing and providing WAN traffic solutions for over 20 years.  With 13 seminal patents, over 182 technical claims, FatPipe is a leader in the industry for SD-WAN, WAN Edge solutions and true WAN traffic management.

FatPipe is continuously innovating and developing to meet customer demand.  FatPipe’s Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) and SDN traffic management solutions lead the industry with a security module that is FIPS 140-2 certified.   With a rich, complete suite of software to customize application traffic on premise or in the cloud, as well as for remote users and offices, FatPipe offers true WAN traffic management.  Cloud approved, FatPipe also supports any link type including Fiber, Copper, Wireless (3G:4G:5G LTE), and satellite.

Recently, FatPipe received a rating of 4.9 out of 5 by Gartner, and 100% of customers reviewed stated they would recommend FatPipe. The nearest competitor had 4.8 and 86% respectively.

If you are adding WAN edge devices, or are wanting to manage WAN traffic securely and cost effectively, you have to consider FatPipe Networks solutions.

Contact FatPipe today – 801-683-5656 or visit www.fatpipeinc.com