Tag Archives: FatPipe

01 Oct

SD-WAN can jump start digital transformation initiatives

SD-WANs can jump start digital transformation initiatives

ZK Research data shows that 94% of companies have at least one digital transformation initiative underway. The research firm also found that a shocking 75% of CxOs admittedly do not know what their industry will look like or who their competitors will be in five years. This means that success in the digital era isn’t based on the company that has the lowest prices, best products, or even the top people.

Sustaining a market leading position is predicated being agile and having the ability to quickly adapt the business to seize new opportunities faster than the competition. The digital era is Darwinism at its finest – it’s the most adaptable that survives and the rest are fodder for the winners. This is why the transition to digital is at the top of every CxOs priority list.

While the concept of becoming digital makes sense, executing a plan to transform can be quite intimidating for most organizations, particularly well established businesses that haven’t relied on technology in the past, as there’s a perception that digital transformation requires big moonshot-like initiatives and investments.  Retailers believe they need to Amazon over night while taxi and car service companies want to Uber up. The fact is, while there is urgency, there’s no need to try and make that hard pivot overnight.  In fact, moonshots often fail and business and technology leaders need to understand that digital transformation is more about executing manageable chip shots rather than complex moonshots.

The chip shot reference should make it clear that I’m an avid golfer and I’ll extend the analogy further by pointing out digital transformation should be done one shot at a time and SD-WANs can facilitate that. For example, a bank might put a futuristic plan together for “digital banking” that involves a number of new technologies, such as virtual reality, digital signs, Internet of Things, digital mirrors and other advanced technology.  One might look at the end game and find the journey so daunting that it paralyzes them.

A better way to approach this type of digital plan is through a series of smaller initiatives where the deployments can be controlled and managed the ROI easily calculated. For example, the bank may choose to put video terminals in an office at all branch locations, allowing customers to talk directly to product experts, even if that branch has no local personnel with that knowledge base. This is a small, manageable change that’s easy to implement with a measurable ROI.  Without video, experts travel from branch to branch limiting the number of appointments per day to just a few.  With video, product experts can be available all day long giving the bank the ability to sell more products to more people.

What does SD-WAN have to do with this?  The answer is everything! We live in a customer experience driven world where a good customer experience leads to loyalty and a higher share of wallet.  A bad experience will drive customers away, perhaps never to return. One interesting factoid that supports this, comes from ZK Research, which found that two-thirds of millennials changed loyalties to a brand in 2018 because of a single bad experience.

Here is where a little SD-WAN will pay big dividends as video requires a high quality, low latency and jitter free network. Imagine being in a bank, sitting a high end customer down in front of a terminal only to experience a horrible video experience. That customer may never try and service again.  Instead of fueling customer acquisition might be chasing them away.  Also, the bank may be less likely to recommend it, giving the impression the project was a waste.

The key takeaway here is that success with digital transformation is dependent on network modernization, particularly the WAN where bandwidth isn’t a bountiful commodity. Businesses require an agile, secure and dynamic network capable of supporting whatever applications are deployed.  Legacy WANs cannot support digital businesses, but SD-WANs are built from the ground up with agility and flexibility in mind. With the banking example, the video service requires flawless connectivity and SD-WANs can automate the process of prioritizing traffic or reserving bandwidth to ensure the quality remains high. When the call is over, the reservation on bandwidth needs to be removed to not impact other applications. These processes on a legacy network, using manual processes are slow, time consuming and error prone and will likely lead to application problems. SD-WANs make this touch free.

The digital era has arrived and IT leaders need to be prepared.  This requires agility and dynamism at the network layer as it’s the resource that connects everything. SD-WANs create a foundation that enables businesses to accelerate their digital efforts.

FatPipe Networks have been developing and innovating SD-WAN solutions for 18 years.  For the best of breed SD-WAN solutions, call FatPipe today at 801-683-5656.  FatPipe Networks www.fatpipeinc.com

 

 

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

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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.

29 Mar

The Intelligent Edge-where are we today?

What is it, and where is it going?

Most WANs of today still use routers and technology that, at the time, served a purpose and provided a mechanism to expand the network to remote branches and locations across the world using MPLS or similar protocols.

But times have changed.  Traffic on WANs has increased by almost 10 fold in the last 15 years.   T1 was “revolutionary” many years ago, providing speeds of a blistering 1.5Mb/s.    Today, this throughput is not going to make the grade in 99% of WANs.   Fiber, or optical networks can reach speeds of over 100Gbps.   It is like buying a new car every 5 years.   You see the features and you want them, as do network administrators.  

So what is the “Intelligent Edge?”  

First, what really is “the edge”?  A definition from Wikipedia is “an edge device provides an entry point into enterprise or service provider core networks.  It can be thought of as a router that provides authenticated access to faster more efficient backbone and core networks.”     Essentially, “the edge” of any network is thought of to be a place where you generate, collect, and analyze data on the edge of the network where the data is generated rather than in centralized servers and systems.   Computation is largely or completely performed on a distributed device node known as smart device or edge device.  

OK – so now we understand “what” the edge is, so what is the “intelligent edge?   As Wide Area Networks grew and became more complicated with more and more devices being attached, both hard wired, wireless and remote, the need for bandwidth increased, dramatically. 

Today – there are almost 24 Billion devices connected to the internet with the expectation of 50 billion by 2020.    Think of the “intelligent Edge” as a place where computing occurs.   It is “intelligent” because there is technology there that has ability to control, analyze and compute.   This can be a manufacturing floor, a farm crop field, a city, your home, power plant, sports arena, your car, in the air, or under the sea.  These interrelated computing devices or objects are referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT) and these devices are driving how and why the “intelligent edge” is becoming a key focus for network managers.   This intelligent edge connects these devices, performs analytics, computes, and can control actions that were formerly confined to the central or cloud based data centers. 

The usage and access demand is what is driving “edge” technologies and solutions.   It is much better to access the information and data as close to the connection point as possible.  

On average, users have 5 different devices to attach to the network.    Of course they expect to attach to a network and access the applications and data they need, instantly.   But this requires a network with agility, flexibility and “intelligence” to understand where the requests are coming from, how to manage the requests in the most efficient and effective manner possible and to provide reliable connectivity which, after all, is why sensors and monitors are being installed in machines such as wind turbines, to monitor vibration, wear and operating effectiveness, and help prevent brownouts or blackouts.    However, without constant and reliable connectivity, the data provided by these sensors would be “lost”.

The un-intelligent router in all its forms is struggling to find relevance in this scenario. The availability of ethernet handoff is killing the router business. They are trying hard to find relevance in this scenario.

So where next for the “intelligent edge”?  

As stated earlier, more and more devices are being connected and more and more data being collected on a multitude of things to help streamline decision making to prevent downtime or in the worst cases, failure.    

Networks of the future are going to be driven by the need for instant information, instant decisions, and instant remediation.   All of which is why the “intelligent edge” will become a mainstream “product” in the design and implementation of ANY network.      Having said that, what does this mean for networks of today, and what should the administrators plan for to embrace these changes?

Let’s look at the current most important issues faced by network administrators and how embracing intelligent edge devices will affect how these issues might be dealt with.

Firstly – Security:

Many recent surveys suggest the number one issue faced by network administrators worldwide is, security.  Security of data, whether in transmission or stored somewhere is critical.    We just have to look at the problems faced with social media company data breaches, credit card company breaches and others to know that data security is by far and away the number one issue.  Can the “intelligent edge” help?  Yes and no.   It is not the “edge’ that can prevent hacking, it is the underlying software that transmits the data that is key.    The transmission of data across the network, from edge device or user to data center to other devices, needs to be secure.   Administrators need to deploy software solutions that provide highly secure data transmission, and that includes data from the edge.    The intelligent edge, does however, compute locally and provides a more local management issue, rather than a broad network security issue.

Second:- Ease of Management:

Believe it or not, the costs of recruiting, training, certifying and managing skilled IT staff is becoming a major issue for any business.   The days of paying for continuing education and propriety certification are waning.   Today, administrators are looking for solutions that are easy to manage, especially when devices and or offices are remote.   The Intelligent Edge should be simple, easy to install and manage remotely, and for the most part, this is true once the devices are installed.

Third: – Compatibility with existing networks:

Organizations are reluctant to rip and replace their networks.   If a solution can augment existing installations, administrators will look favorably at these recommendations.  So, does the intelligent edge help with these decisions?    Certainly, as they can use existing infrastructure provided there is an underlying software that can manage data transmission and device access securely and reliably.  

Fourth: – Network performance:

Latency, bandwidth, reliability, duplication and overall cost of the network are all top of mind.  Intelligent edge devices cannot perform or provide the benefits they claim to bring to a business if the underlying network is slow, unreliable or using legacy systems that are slow and difficult to manage or update.    The Intelligent Edge is only going to be as good as the network infrastructure it is connected to.  The bottom line here is to make sure the network is configured to take advantage of intelligent edge device data.    

So now what?

The Intelligent Edge is certainly something that can help network administrators predict the future more accurately.  The more data these devices provide, the better the decision will be on how to use this information, and with the advent of AI, this information can be acted on immediately, providing “instant” remediation or feedback that helps businesses learn what we like, when equipment may malfunction, where to route data to avoid a line failure, how to prepare for the best solution, and even where we might choose to travel to next.

So just install intelligent edge devices and move on?   Stop!    Read this first!

Earlier in this article, we mentioned the need for the underlying network infrastructure to be “intelligent edge” ready.    Remember, you can have all the sensors and monitoring services available, but if the data they produce is not getting to the right places at the right time, you are back to square one.    Adding more devices or “edge services” does not make network administration easier unless you have the right network solution to take advantage of these benefits.

Without installing software solutions to monitor and manage your edge devices, the “intelligent edge” becomes another user on the network.   In order to take advantage of the many benefits the “intelligent edge” provides, you need to make sure your network is ready.   

It must be ready to:

  • Transmit data from all devices, including the intelligent edge devices, securely and effectively, without user intervention.
  • Proactively route data on the best available link in times of congestion
  • Automatically failover in a sub second if a connection should fail
  • Use all and available bandwidth proactively and intelligently, without having to reconfigure the network
  • Automatically detect and remediate attempts to breach the security of the network
  • Be managed easily and simply from a single point, with zero touch provisioning for remote branches.

FatPipe Networks has been providing network solutions for over 15 years and is the only company with a patented security module that is FIPS 140-2 certified, providing military grade security for traffic across the WAN or across broadband networks.   FatPipe solutions give administrators the comfort of the highest SD-WAN security available.

Fatpipe patented technologies have eliminated the need for BGP routing, and with it all the delays in inefficiencies of route propagation. Fatpipe brought intelligence to the edge.

Using FatPipe’s single pane GUI management tools, administrators can not only see exactly what their network looks like, but with FatPipe’s QoS, they can prioritize application access no matter where the application resides, in the cloud or locally.   In addition, FatPipe’s solutions allow for load balancing over multiple links, including Cable, DSL, MPLS, DIA, 3G, 4G, 5G LTE and satellite.  FatPipe’s management tools are easy to use, requiring basic IT skills saving companies’ significant time and IT staff educational costs.

FatPipe has always been a company serving network administrators.   FatPipe was providing WAN 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:  801-683-5656 x1224.