Tag Archives: cloud

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

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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.

31 Jan

Make your Cloud Strategy YOUR Cloud Strategy

cloud strategy

There is no question that the move to the cloud is in full swing.  When you read any technical publication, the cloud is all they can talk about.  While cloud computing continues to see incredible growth, there are some facts that seem to missed.  According to research done by Morgan Stanley, 79% of the computing workload is done on premise.  While the number is expected to drop to 56% in 2021, premise-based data centers still carry the bulk of compute workload.

There are some reasons companies keep applications on-premise.  These can be security concerns, latency concerns, regulatory concerns or even corporate culture reasons.  For whatever reason, it is clear that premise-based computing with continue to be a critical component of the IT infrastructure for the foreseeable future.

While premise-based computing will continue to be part of the equation, it is important to develop your cloud IT strategy.  Most companies are adopting a hybrid IT strategy with portions of the compute workload remaining in the promise data center and other portions being outsources to a public cloud.  When adopting your hybrid IT strategy, you must customize it to your company to be successful.  Consider which applications are most latency sensitive, or have critical security components and strongly consider leaving them on premise. It is important to make your cloud strategy your cloud strategy.

Of course, connectivity is crucial to any cloud or hybrid IT strategy. FatPipe is the expert at hybrid WAN and can help with your hybrid IT strategy. FatPipe has spent nearly two decades developing solutions that are simple, efficient, dynamic & adaptable connections between users, applications, and their data.

These innovations have continued with the announcement of general availability of FatPipe for Azure.  FatPipe for Azure allows customers to seamlessly integrate an Azure cloud site into their MPSec/SD-WAN overlay and get the same benefits of MPSec that they get from a premise-based data center.  FatPipe ensures that your cloud applications, whether it is Salesforce, Office 365, or Google docs don’t have the quality issues during download, screen refresh, or when the line drops. Latency and jiiter as well as application prioritization is managed by your FatPipe ensuring a better quality experience.