Tag Archives: failover

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

 

17 Jan

Avaya and FatPipe Partner to improve customer mobile experience

Toll Free is still popular, but using a mobile provides new challenges

Toll-free numbers aren’t going away any time soon. Companies still use them to connect customers to their contact centers. What’s different from a few years ago is that most contact center calls now come from mobile devices. And while companies are confident that they’re providing a good mobile experience, their customers don’t often feel the same.

One problem contact centers face is having to pay for each call going through a toll-free line, whether it originates from a smartphone or a landline. This significantly adds to a company’s operating expenses. The Avaya Mobile Experience (AME), launched in 2018, addresses this problem by lowering toll-free and agent costs. The cloud-based service can send incoming calls directly to a contact center without passing it to a fixed network.

AME identifies when a call is coming from a mobile phone, transfers contextual information on the caller to a contact center, and deflects calls to the mobile web for a richer customer service experience. If a caller chooses that option, the toll-free call ends and they receive a link for personalized access to a website. Customers can then use self-service tools like chatbots or a combination of voice, video, and co-browsing.

SD-WAN provides better visibility

With the proliferation of smartphones, consumers have come to expect a seamless digital experience. When dialing a toll-free number, they want agents to know who they are and have additional context that could speed up the call. AME was designed with those needs in mind. It collects customer information to assist contact center agents, so they can handle a call more efficiently if a customer prefers to interact via voice.

Greater multichannel engagement equips companies with valuable insight about customer behavior. But to pull it off, companies need a reliable network that prioritizes voice over IP (VoIP), video, and other real-time traffic without dropping sessions. By deploying a software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), companies can have better visibility into their network. An SD-WAN performs over any type of transport—including MPLS, broadband, cellular, and satellite—and selects an optimal path for each data packet.

A SD-WAN infrastructure needs reliable internet connectivity with sufficient bandwidth. SD-WANs provide operational flexibility, but also create complexities that stem from implementing WAN load balancing for internal, internet-facing, and mobile workloads. Thus, they require monitoring and tuning internet throughput for performance. A SD-WAN infrastructure must also include secure access to mobile devices as traffic is transported outside the firewall.

FatPipe and Avaya Mobile Experience (AME) helps improve overall customer experience

FatPipe, a provider of intra-corporate WAN solutions, has developed a secure multi-path VPN (MPVPN) to be implemented for hybrid WAN. It supports bidirectional quality of service (QoS), which monitors the sending and receiving of calls/sessions. An advanced routing architecture that utilizes MPVPN can correct up to 15 percent packet loss on diverse circuits simultaneously, while maintaining toll-quality calls and seamless failover.

Contact centers with mobile customers looking to migrate away from high cost MPLS circuits, now have the option of deploying FatPipe’s dual-path SD-WAN for AME. FatPipe and Avaya came up with a combined solution that equips contact centers with a hybrid WAN mobile infrastructure, which can reduce toll call expenses by up 40 percent annually, per FatPipe.

   

Call center response is vastly improved

The vendors formed a global alliance to help contact centers achieve those cost savings through joint product verification, pre-integration, and certified solutions. Beyond cost savings, the vendors see companies bridging an existing technology gap.

Companies that implement FatPipe’s SD-WAN with AME can control, monitor, and maintain multiple WAN connections, eliminating the need for Internet Service Provider (ISP) management. As a result, smartphone users get more self-service options on a hybrid network that’s flexible and can accommodate new cloud-based applications.

Contact FatPipe Networks at 801-683-5656 x 1224 for more information.  www.fatpipeinc.com.

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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29 May

LTE Intelligent Edge device from FatPipe now available

FatPipe Announces General Availability of Integrated LTE to its Intelligent Edge SD-WAN Devices

FatPipe technology allows for seamless failover of sessions including VoIP to LTE without dropping sessions.

MAY 22, 2019 (Salt Lake City) FatPipe Networks, the inventors and multiple patents holder of key SD-WAN technologies, announced the availability of integrated LTE as a WAN option in its intelligent edge SD-WANs.  This innovation is designed to assist small branches in having a back up to their fixed line solutions. In addition, customers can also use multiple 4G/LTE connections in locations where they do not have fixed line options.

FatPipe’s SD-WAN provides automatic failover and intelligent load balancing from one line to another without dropping a session or VPN connection. This ensures that a session or a VoIP call is not dropped when a line fails and the session is carried over to another line.

“This is of great value to retail and financial institutions as they do not have to re-start a session or double charge a customer by mistake,” said Dr. Ragula Bhaskar, CEO of FatPipe, “FatPipe’s LTE option has been available to early adoption customers for a year and now we are formally announcing the general availability. FatPipe is also 5G ready.”

FatPipe’s Integration of LTE into its Intelligent Edge SD-WAN leverages three of FatPipe’s previous innovations:

  1. FatPipe’s superior patented SD-WAN technology enables data to be placed on a single line and failed over seamlessly to a second line without dropping the session or packets vs other SD-WAN technologies that either drop the sessions and have to be re-started or have to duplicate the packets on two lines, which places undue burden on bandwidth by double bandwidth needs. Such duplication technology is especially detrimental to LTE and 4G transmissions.
  2. FatPipe’s patented Dynamic IP addressing scheme technology, which can use dynamic (not fixed)  IP addresses of LTE and aggregate the line with a fixed IP. This reduces monthly costs, especially for LTE cards. 
  3. FatPipe WAN Optimization reduces the amount of data transmitted by 40% to 90%,  further reducing LTE costs.

FatPipe’s SD-WAN solutions simplify multi-vendor interoperability and include key features that transcend WAN failures to maintain business continuity, including zero-touch branch deployment, hybrid WAN connectivity, tuned application performance, easy integration, granular network visibility, multi-path security, secure full mesh VPN connectivity and flexible centralized policy deployments.

“FatPipe’s intelligent edge with 4G directly addresses market demand in our customer base,” said Dante Passalacqua, “FatPipe’s unparalleled SD-WAN with an integrated modem further simplifies the ease of deployment and creates a cost-effective solution for our customers, especially in retail. We are pleased that FatPipe is very responsive to market needs; FatPipe makes it easy for us to offer our customers the best in class solutions.”

About FatPipe Networks

FatPipe Networks invented the concept of software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) and hybrid WANs that eliminate the need for hardware and software, or cooperation from ISPs and allows companies and service providers to control multi-link network traffic. FatPipe currently has 11 U.S. patents and more than 180 technology claims related to multipath, software-defined networking and selective encryption of broadband networks. FatPipe technology provides the world’s best intra-corporate wide area network solutions that transcend Internet and other network failures to maintain business continuity and high transmission security. FatPipe, with several thousand customers, has offices in the United States and around the world, and more than 700 resellers worldwide including almost all national resellers in the US. For more information, visit www.fatpipe.com. 

19 Apr

FatPipe at Channel Partners 2019

Vegas Channel Partner

I find most modern day IT conferences pretty much the same.   Arrive, set up the booth, meet and greet, wine and dine and listen to presentations, some inspiring, some not so much.   But, with so many attendees, it is important to be seen, be present and tell your targeted audience exactly what you can do for them with your solutions.

Channel Partners Expo in Las Vegas April 9-12 this year was a show to remember for several reasons. It was well attended, it had a lot of products for resellers to look at and above all, it was warm outside and that in of itself was comforting coming from a cold and snowy Salt Lake City Utah. 

FatPipe Networks had steady traffic to the booth, with a large amount of interest in our current technologies.  Some patrons knew about FatPipe networks and were pleasantly surprised at how our SD-WAN solutions have evolved and developed.   FatPipe is known for being the first to market with networking solutions that helped shaped what SD-WAN is today, and the veterans in the reseller industry were cognizant of how FatPipe leads the industry with the concept of load balancing, redundancy and failover.  

Today, however, the SD-WAN market has changed and FatPipe has too.   The demand for the digital transformation which includes cloud based applications, IoT, AI, mobility, and secure management of data across the network is increasing dramatically.   There is still reluctance to fully embrace SD-WAN technologies perhaps because of the legacy systems still in place, which are expensive to maintain and difficult to change.   However, it is now well known that with SD-WAN, companies can take advantage of less costly connections, including the internet, but are wary of security.  In fact, several recent surveys have identified security as the number 1 issue for network administrators, but what might not be apparent is that it is the talent to implement and manage SD-WAN that ranks a close number 2.  

FatPipe’s highly secure, easy to manage SD-WAN solutions are once again leading the industry

It was really encouraging to talk to resellers of all shapes and sizes at Channel Partners this year and explain how FatPipe is once again leading the SD-WAN charge with solutions that meet both these, and many more, key concerns of network administrators.   FatPipe’s latest software release has a patented security module that is FIPS 140-2 certified, making FatPipe a leader in secure data transmission across the WAN.

The concern about implementing SD-WAN solutions with unqualified IT staff is an interesting factoid that can be successfully addressed with FatPipe’s Enterprise View.  A single pane view of the network allows FatPipe users a very simple and easy methodology to change settings, apply prioritization to application access, set automatic failover thresholds based on user defined criteria and manage the WAN traffic easily and effectively.   And all this requires basic IT skills, no propriety certifications, retraining or refresh.   In fact, FatPipe has installations at thousands of institutions across the globe where the skills of IT personnel varies from highly certified to very basic, and each site manages their network traffic using this easy to use tool from FatPipe.  

FatPipe has developed solutions for the modern day SD-WAN environments with a suite of SD-WAN products that are secure, very easy to use and have the very best ROI in the industry. 

Channel Partners was enlightening and exhausting, but at the end of the day, it was great to see old friends and meet new people, share ideas and above all, let all know that FatPipe is once again leading the SD-WAN market with innovative, industry leading solutions.