”Problems with the former SD-WAN supplier arose because everything was correct on paper, but in practice, the right ‘dots on the i’ were not put in place, says Arne. “Despite the fact that we had redundant connections, for example, the second line that is intended to provide continuity to the network if a connection goes down did not work. During the test period, everything still worked well, but because different technologies were used together, the failover mechanism to the second access line turned out to be unstable in practice. My conclusion afterward was that different technologies, with their own updates, will eventually interfere with other systems because they do not understand each other.”
Arne also says that the global transition to fully move to SD-WAN took two years at the time.
“IPknowledge, together with Cato Networks, transferred our entire international network to SASE SD-WAN within just three months, which is a great achievement.”
ARNE VAN VUUREN
HEAD OF IT OPERATIONS
”Freudenberg is a global leader in high-performance materials sold in more than 60 countries around the world and
manufactured in Europe, North America, the Middle East and China. We design and manufacture advanced, high-performance materials.
With Telco MPLS, the delivery of new sites or changes was not always smooth.
International network performance varied widely between countries. IPknowledge’s ‘co-managed’ model really appealed to us.
I now have control over flexibility and scalability, which is better for us than a fully managed environment from a traditional Telco.
We chose IPknowledge because they could offer more at a lower price, but mostly because of their excellent service,
greater flexibility and scalability. They are a small organization with great global performance.”
PAUL VISSCHER
HEAD OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND SECURITY
Maaike told us during her presentation at our summer event: “We are very happy with IPknowledge and the easy transition. It is easy for us and we have fewer worries as an IT department. They think along with us, they are always there for us and we can really rely on them”
MAAIKE VERGOUW
INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGER
”I wanted one reliable partner, not 20 different contracts, and I wanted to outsource 24 X 7 surveillance.
The solution had to be simple and sustainable, and it had to just work.”
The solution had to be simple and sustainable, and it had to just work.”
”Monitoring and maintenance have improved a lot with Cato and IPknowledge.
And where there were hiccups every month with our previous infrastructure, now our network has been absolutely stable, fast, and available.”
And where there were hiccups every month with our previous infrastructure, now our network has been absolutely stable, fast, and available.”
REIN DROOG
CIO
”The relationship between our companies goes back to even before I was with Bugaboo. We have always trusted IPknowledge engineers to work on the most precious parts of our networking infrastructure.”
”They are network- and technology independent and really understand how corporate application performance and global collaboration depend on the network. It is only logical that we have selected IPknowledge to provide us with a fully managed and secure global connectivity solution. The IPknowledge OneWAN ‘Network as a Service’ will provide fast and safe connectivity to the Bugaboo sites and users worldwide.”
BERT GROOT-HULZE
ICT-MANAGER
”What I value most about IPknowledge is their know-how on applications and networking, They are highly focussed on our needs as a customer. As our trusted partner, they handle the most precious parts of our infrastructure. They definitely play the champions league.”
FRANK KEESSEN
IT DIRECTOR
”Darling Ingredients maintains currently 200+ locations across 5 continents worldwide, with over 10,000 employees. Many of our plants produce 24 hours per day. When I joined as IT Infrastructure Manager we had already selected another partner for SD-WAN.
We asked IPknowledge to provide us with managed Internet access, as this is very important to our business and its continuity.”
We asked IPknowledge to provide us with managed Internet access, as this is very important to our business and its continuity.”
”For most of our sites, we already have a primary line, so we asked IPK to deliver the second (‘backup’) line. For certain sites we needed to be up and running asap, I am pleased that IPK was able to provide us with a high-speed 4G line at short notice. For some sites, the high-speed IPK line will become the primary line. The main reason I am satisfied with IPknowledge is because I know I can trust them.”
”Not only for the selection of the right local internet line at the right price, but also the provisioning, implementation and maintenance of the service within our global network. By contrast, I have noticed that incumbent Telecommunications Operators often display the mindset/attitude of a monopolist, which is too rigid to suit our needs. Often they are also very expensive.”
”IPK is independent from the Telcos and ISPs, and will really do its best to find an alternative to the Telco ‘last-mile’. They have more focus on meeting our precise needs for connectivity, speed and up-time. For my IT department they are a good fit, as we are now more agile, and we can focus on serving our business better. IPknowledge delivers the internet connectivity that we need.”
MANFRED VOSS
IT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGER
”’Why am I satisfied with IPknowledge? They are good guys who always want to help.
Connecting new locations was always a lot of hassle and took a lot of time. This has now become easy, also because of the Cato solution, which is very flexible.
For example, I was able to very quickly connect an offshore drilling rig with 4G connectivity.
An additional advantage is that I have much more insight into my data streams, useful for analyzing trends and solving problems quickly.
If there’s something wrong with a key connection, I can see it right away!
The Cato “Software Defined Perimeter” (SDP) provides a “Zero-Trust” approach, to, for example, collaborate securely with 3rd parties.
Practical example? I no longer have to arrange laptops for our external contractors: they now access our internal web applications via the Cato Clientless portal.
This web portal is new, by the way. There are still things that can be further improved.
Connecting partner organizations (suppliers) can be done via IPsec or by simply sending an SD-WAN ‘socket’: grab the box, connect, and go!”
RIEN LEMSOM
IT MANAGER
”Why did we choose Network as a Service? We can build on the expertise and cooperation of IPknowledge. They are a one-stop shop since they supply both the overlay (SASE SDWAN from Cato Networks) and underlay connectivity (Internet lines).
DICK SANGERS
ICT MANAGER
”Why did I choose IPknowledge? I keep everything in my own hands, but I can always fall back on their know-how and skills.
Since 1937, Roba Metals has grown into an international company for steel, aluminium and stainless steel, with offices and service centers in six different countries. Our goal is to regain full control when it comes to connections and to be able to safeguard an SLA for our internal clients ( the business) when it comes to our IT infrastructure.
We have now switched from MPLS to Cato SD-WAN, which means that in addition to the higher bandwidths, we have also realized a much better insight, control and security level, which supports our IT operations team much better. IPknowledge has connected every branch with multiple internet lines, as redundancy is crucial for the continuity of our business processes.
We also use ‘Silver’ support for network registration and monitoring. This enabled us to phase out our open-source performance (Zabbix) and monitoring tool (Cacti). It’s nice that everything runs through 1 party who are also willing to actively think along and develop with us.”
ERIK
ICT MANAGER
”IPknowledge is easy to deal with and brings Mainfreight connectivity across Europe in a seamless and standard way. IPknowledge provided services managing performance and availability are key to Mainfreight’s way of doing business”
ROB VERHEIJEN
EUROPEAN IT MANAGER
”Cordaid combines relief and development aid to help people in the world’s most fragile areas move beyond survival and live in dignity. We often work in locations that are very remote. Our local team is essential for our corporate processes. Transparency, accountability and efficiency are key.”
”When there is no local telecommunications infrastructure, we may deploy satellite links as a last resort. This affects the performance of certain mission-critical applications. Also, a satellite is expensive. IPknowledge implemented WAN optimization for remote sites in Africa. The IPknowledge solution was integrated within our existing Cisco Meraki network.”
”Now our local team can make better use of our financial applications. And we are saving satellite costs.
The less we spend on IT, the more we can give to the people who really need it!”
The less we spend on IT, the more we can give to the people who really need it!”
ROLAND HEELING
HEAD OF ICT
”VOS Logistics currently has more than 35 locations in Europe, employing around 3,000 people. IPknowledge provides us with backup Internet Access for all main locations throughout Europe, mostly via business 4G. Why did we choose IPknowledge? In the first place because they unburden us as an IT department, in the second place because they do this at the most competitive price. We chose Edge SD-WAN & security from another partner”
BOB MULDERS
IT HEAD OF CORPORATE INFRASTRUCTURE & NETWORK
”During an interview with Markus, he says the following: ‘If you need help, where you can’t get on your own, they are there for you. Always”
MARKUS MALINA
IT MANAGER
”Since IPknowledge connected our clients with SD-WAN we have no more Telco lock-in and we can sustain even link outages.
We are now considering replacing MPLS altogether.”
REMKO BRILMAN
CEO AND FOUNDER VIDEOBUTLER
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