Tag Archives: cloud

10 Sep

Not all SD-WAN solutions solve the problem

Buy SD-WAN – it will solve your network issues and improve your efficiencies.  Really?  How often have you been approached by an IT solution provider who represents a particular vendor’s product and convinces you that it will solve your problem?   You trust them and buy their solution only to find it can only do 50% of you need it do.

This is very common in today’s market.   Most WAN administrators want very simple things. A network that works efficiently, securely, and “autonomously” so that they can concentrate on delivering applications to their user base that help drive company profits.

So why is it so challenging to implement Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) solutions that work as desired?   Research has shown that a large percentage of SD-WAN solutions deployed are either re-tooled or worst case – removed because they have not met specific needs.

Don’t buy the Hype!

Marketing plays a significant role in decisions made.   Certain features and functions are marketed to solve business needs, but savvy administrators do not buy the hype.  They require suppliers to prove effectiveness of the recommended solution.

Here is where the rubber meets the road.

Businesses will do Proof of Concept, and it is usually a good way to determine if the products will solve the problems.  Or is it?   Only if your POC has been designed to show you how the solution solves the “real” problem, not mask it with fancy screens showing how it “may” solve it without really getting to the bottom of the issue.   The pressure to close the sale is always the driving force.

The truth is, most vendors want to help you solve your network problems. However, there is a flood of opportunists who simply want to make some cash. Simply put – software-defined network solutions should be simple to understand, simple to implement and above all, simple to manage!

Key Issues Facing Administrators

Now it is well known that businesses are most wary of the security of their data flowing across their network.  How can they ensure that this traffic is secure from origin to destination and back?   What about cloud-based applications, the internet as a reliable link, back up off-premise, and application performance?   Can SD-WAN provide a comprehensive solution to ALL the issues, not just a subset?

Firewall companies will sell an SD-WAN solution, router companies will sell an SD-WAN solution, and ISPs will sell an SD-WAN solution.   Which is right for your business?

It is all about the “S”

It is the “S” in SD-WAN that is critical to decision making.   Without a comprehensive, integrated and simple to manage software suite, your SD-WAN may look a little like a cobbled together smorgasbord of hardware and software that is frequently difficult to navigate, difficult to remediate issues and impossible to customize.    To exacerbate the problem – you need to retrain your IT staff, get new certifications or worse still, hire expensive administrators.     And just wait until you have to upgrade!   What happened to the SD-WAN that will solve my problems and be much more efficient?

The best approach to an SD-WAN solution is to focus your research and effort on the “S”.   It is the software that drives the management of traffic on your network, not the hardware.   It is the software that will give your business the flexibility and control required to ensure your data is secure, no matter which link is used, or where it is destined, and it is the software that will allow simple and easy to manage traffic management.

So, the software MUST be able to work on multiple platforms, virtual machines, large or small edge devices, and provide the user with a simple, easy to understand and use interface that provides a complete view of your entire network to enable effective traffic management.

It really is about Traffic Management

After all, it is about traffic management, isn’t it?   The software you choose (the SD-WAN solution you choose) will determine the security, flexibility, reliability, and performance of your network.  Can you afford NOT to look at the best of breed “S”?

FatPipe Networks have been developing networking solutions for over 20 years and were the first to sell “SD-WAN” into the market, even before SD-WAN became a buzz word.   FatPipe’s software suite is unmatched in the industry with a comprehensive solution that addresses security, reliability, performance, compatibility and most importantly, is simple to install and easy to manage!  Regarded as “best of breed SD-WAN” FatPipe works with any link type, including cable, wireless, 3G, 4G, 5G, LTE, satellite, broadband, and legacy systems such as BGP.

If you are serious about the “S” in SD-WAN, you must include FatPipe Networks in your evaluations.

26 Jul

12 Attributes of a Best of Breed SD-WAN

12 Attributes of a Best of Breed SD-WAN Solution & Why You Need One for Secure Traffic Management

SD-WAN is really about traffic management.   Sure, zero touch deployment is not necessarily a traffic management solution, but the reason software is driving WAN deployments and configurations is simply that it is capable of managing your data links and traffic across these links.

Network Security

Extensive research has established that security is the number one issue faced by WAN administrators.  Hosting your data in the cloud, hybrid cloud or on premise has created the need for highly secure traffic management between users and your data.   There are a lot of SD-WAN solutions out there that claim to have the capabilities to manage this traffic securely, but not all SD-WAN is the same.

If you think security, firewalls are part of the conversation.   Firewalls are designed to detect and prevent intrusion, but are not WAN traffic management devices.   Traditional Routers are designed to route traffic over multiple links, but have been complicated to install and definitely complicated to manage.

SD-WAN has certainly disrupted the traditional networking industry and today, software managing your data traffic is becoming much more commonplace.   For SD-WAN to be successful in today’s complicated networks, it must be simple to install and, above all, simple to use and administrate.   It must be able to run on popular hypervisors, be compatible with cloud infrastructures and understand multiple link types, including legacy systems, such as BGP networks, as well as the less expensive and ubiquitous broadband networks.

So how does the WAN administrator find the best SD-WAN solution when there is so much choice and marketing hype?   Understanding the features and functions of pure SD-WAN is important, especially when it comes to security of your data.

Best of breed SD-WAN solutions will come with the following features:

  1. Easy to install
  2. Support ALL link types (existing legacy systems (BGP) as well as Internet, satellite, 3G,4G,5G, LTE, cable)
  3. Support multiple links in one device (up to 12 interfaces is not uncommon)
  4. Support bandwidth ranges from 10Mb up to 40 Gig.
  5. Provide secure management of BOTH inbound and outbound traffic.
  6. Allow customization and assignment of application traffic on certain links with instant failover
  7. Ability to determine healthy links instantly, which allows for instant failover, of BOTH inbound and outbound traffic. This usually means the methodology used to test the links is very important.  Ask what algorithms the software uses to test the links.
  8. Cloud support with emphasis on secure traffic transmission and instant failover capabilities to multiple link types.
  9. Zero touch branch deployment
  10. Options to host or outsource to MSP
  11. Opex or Capex offerings
  12. Most important! Easy to use management tool!   It must provide a simple to use traffic management tool that allows for quick, easy and intuitive changes to any link or application traffic not matter where that application or link is located on the WAN.   You should NOT have to retrain your IT staff or pay for certified staff to manage your SD-WAN implementation.

Of course, this is not a comprehensive list, but if you are looking for an SD-WAN solution to sustain your systems for some time to come, you need to consider each of the features above and map them to your long-term plan.  Remember, security is the number one issue, so do not look at any SD-WAN solution that cannot provide selective encrypted data flow across the network, and preferably choose solutions that incorporate stateful firewall IDS/IPS features.    SD-WAN will definitely benefit the efficiency of your network, but do not settle for limited capabilities, knowing that your user count will increase and your network will expand.

FatPipe Networks has been developing and selling SD-WAN solutions for over 17 years, and are widely known as the “inventors” of SD-WAN.   The software suite is extremely comprehensive, but what is most talked about is the easy to use interface, EnterpriseView™ – which is a single pane view of the network allowing administrators easy access and with simple to understand menus, administrators can make changes to traffic management, no matter the destination, starting point or route taken.

FatPipe Networks encryption is FIPS 140-2 certified, making it the only SD-WAN vendor with an encryption module approved by government agencies.  To add to the security capabilities, FatPipe recently announced firewall support next generation firewall IPS/IDS features allowing users the luxury of having a highly secure traffic management solution with integrated firewalling.

FatPipe’s comprehensive SD-WAN suite is unique in the industry especially its patented SmartDNS™ which provides customers with INBOUND fail-over capabilities, not seen in other SD-WAN offerings.   FatPipe also provides industry leading policy-based routing, giving administrators the ability to set thresholds based on common network issues, such as latency, jitter, and packet loss that will trigger if certain user defined conditions are met, ensuring data is not lost or compromised due to congestion or other link issues.

FatPipe is certainly a top contender if you are seriously considering SD-WAN or are upgrading your current network solution.  Call FatPipe today at 1-801-683-5656 x 1224.

www.fatpipeinc.com

[et_social_follow icon_style=”slide” icon_shape=”rounded” icons_location=”top” col_number=”auto” counts=”true” counts_num=”0″ total=”true” outer_color=”dark” network_names=”true”]

20 Mar

The Most Important Factors Affecting WAN Administrators Today

Organizations are looking at how to reduce the costs of WAN management and WAN optimization.  With the advent of Cloud based applications for a private, public or hybrid cloud, businesses are searching for the best solution to help not only implement these changes, but to manage them as well.   Here are three of the most important factors affecting WAN administration today:

  1. Security: Without question, the most important factor affecting the implementation of any SD-WAN solution, is security. Our research revealed that security of applications hosted in the cloud and locally was paramount to IT administrators.    But it is not only security of cloud based applications.  Transmission across the WAN is equally important, especially for organizations with international operations.
  2. Ease of Management: This gives rise to the second most important factor affecting WAN administrators.   Administrator skills required to manage the WAN.   Organizations cited that the need to have highly skilled, and in some cases, vendor certified personnel to manage their WAN equipment was costing too much, especially with on-going maintenance of proprietary systems and solutions.  More than 50% of respondents stated that they have difficulty in retaining IT expertise, especially in today’s job market.   Solutions that keep it simple, easy to manage and cost effective are preferred.
  3. Compatibility with existing networks:  Very few suppliers can claim to have a suite of offerings that can address the complex need to address security, ease of management of private and public cloud application needs and compatibility with existing networks.    Rip and replace is not something WAN administrators want, or should do.   There is growing need to upgrade, enhance and augment existing infrastructures, using the equipment and legacy systems to help implement a SD-WAN solution that is compatible with current networking technology and protocols such as BGP. EIGRP, and OSPF, and well as provide inbound and outbound load balancing and traffic control.

FatPipe offers its customers SD-WAN solutions with WAN Optimization and network optimization.  These solutions are available as appliances, virtual machines (VMs) and instances in the Azure and AWS cloud.

FatPipe has always been a company serving network administrators.   FatPipe was providing SD-WAN solutions long before SD-WAN became a buzz word.  The solutions are built to work with existing LAN and WAN infrastructures and protocols.  In fact, FatPipe is the only SD-WAN vendor to support up to 40Gbps bandwidth and up to 15 interfaces.  

FatPipe Networks – www.fatpipeinc.com Call 801683-5656 x 1224

21 Feb

Microsoft customers to benefit from SD-WAN for Azure

SD-WAN for Azure addresses connectivity issues for users of Microsoft Cloud based real time applications, such as Office 365.

FatPipe’s SD-WAN for Azure, an SD-WAN virtual machine enables Microsoft customers who use Office 365 and other cloud based applications by overcoming the need to reconnect every so often when the sessions break.   This is especially important for customers and offices where large groups have to use Office 365 or other cloud-hosted applications, or when a single line connection to Azure is not adequate to address line drop issues.

Using FatPipe’s patented MPSec technology, multinational corporations, embassies and government agencies can use cloud-hosted applications knowing that their traffic is transmitted securely using FatPipe’s cryptographic module, FIPS 140-2, certified by NIST.

Delays and interruptions are reduced with FatPipe’s built in WAN optimization, reducing bandwidth needs and using FatPipe’s QoS gives priority to real time applications. 

FatPipe for Azure provides real time Azure cloud offerings including Office 365, AI, Business Intelligence, Azure stream Analytics and Event Hubs where thousands of telemetry data have to be sent to the Azure Cloud.   Using FatPipe for Azure, VoIP, video, data and VPN sessions are not dropped, but simply failover to other available lines. 

A Global logistics company was looking to migrate real-time applications to Azure and improve performance for their Office 365 users.   Using FatPipe’s SD-WAN for Azure, they made this migration securely and easily.  “We have been a FatPipe partner for several years, providing connectivity for our customers.   We are excited to deploy FatPipe SD-WAN in Azure as we execute on our cloud strategies with our customers” said Aneil Raghunanan, IT Project Manager.

FatPipe for Azure can be downloaded from the Azure marketplace: https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/apps/fatpipe-inc.mpvpn-azr?tab=PlansAndPrice

More information on FatPipe for Azure can be found at: https://www.fatpipeinc.com/products/symphony-sd-wan/fatpipe-sd-wan-for-azure.php

06 Feb

Employees sent home due to carrier line outage

 Recently a nationwide CenturyLink outage knocked out 911 voice calls, ATM withdrawals, and hospital patient records.  Locally in Salt Lake City, a manufacturing business had to send their employees home costing tens of thousands of dollars in lost business.

Additionally, a major bank could not conduct business as usual as they could not access data or applications located in the Cloud or reach their branches.    This is not an “unusual” occurrence.    Line Outages are more common with the massive demand on carriers to provide more bandwidth and access to applications and data stored in cloud based centers across the country.   Of course, if these businesses had multi-line secure, sub second failover technology installed, none of these disruptions would have occurred.    FatPipe’s patented technology has proven itself time and again, most recently with a Chicago based town council, when bad weather caused their primary network to suffer an outage.    With FatPipe’s solution, employees did not see any disruption whatsoever, unaware of the major outage.   The council called FatPipe, not to register a support call, but to thank FatPipe for their solution that worked flawlessly.   Modern networks are more crucial than ever before, especially for mission critical information such as that found in healthcare, financial and local government institutions.    FatPipe pioneered technology to keep networks up using any link type, including LTE, 3G,4G,5G, fiber, leased, satellite, DSL, cable, wireless, and Internet.