What exactly is the urgency to migrate to SD-WAN?

A discussion about
digital transformation and
the role of the international network

We asked this question to Bert-Jan Kamp, our own CTO. We described this answer and more answers to a number of challenging questions below: Many globally operating organizations are currently considering replacing their traditional MPLS network with SD-WAN. But what exactly is the urgency to migrate to SD-WAN? We posed this question to Bert-Jan Kamp, our own CTO. We have described this answer and more answers to a number of challenging questions below:

The urgency to migrate to SD-WAN

Why organizations migrate to SD-WAN has to do with developments in the field of security; the old network offers fewer options for being sufficiently digitally secure and cannot cope with the increasing number of cyber attacks. On the other hand, SD-WANs can be set up flexibly, you need less management and the security level can not only be raised to a higher level, but also faster. “That is because in traditional networks quite a few things, as separate units, are generally linked together”, is how Bert-Jan puts it. It is precisely speed that is required when there is yet another cyber attack.

What if you don’t transform digitally and keep the old?

According to Bert-Jan, you then run into a number of serious challenges. Organizations move many of their applications to the Cloud, which becomes much more difficult with a closed traditional MPLS network. MPLS is mainly designed to stay within the walls of our own network, while we as a user, anywhere in the world, want to have contact with our applications in a safe way. With SD-WAN you can easily and securely connect any location or international branch to the Cloud.

Why is IPknowledge OneWAN different from other SD-WAN solutions?

With many SD-WAN solutions, the CPUs are located at the company location and processing is still performed ‘on-premise’, i.e. in hardware at the edge of the network. Connections between locations are ‘any-to-any’. Internet ‘breakout’ from the location is done with everyone’s own IP address, directly from the location. We call this architecture ‘edge SD-WAN’, which results in all kinds of limitations, for example in terms of robustness and scalability.

What makes OneWAN very efficient is that it is one fully integrated cloud service, according to the so-called ‘SASE’ architecture: All services are delivered from the cloud, making this solution much more powerful and complete, and always up-to-date. VPN users, standard firewall rules and security improvements, such as malware detection and intrusion prevention, are all part of our OneWAN solution. Interestingly, customers can also purchase a Security Operations Center (SOC). “Because OneWAN is delivered from the cloud, you can choose a security service, see the costs and activate it immediately and easily,” adds Bert-Jan.

IPknowledge transformed as well, how did that go?

We originally came from a situation where we put down solutions to improve the traditional MPLS network. This involved improving low bandwidth and high latency: the delay in data transfer over a data communication network. As a result, we were able to learn a lot about applications and performance and the name IPknowledge was also created.

Due to the need for digital transformation of our customers and the accompanying movement of applications to Cloud, we have now grown into a fully-fledged ‘as-a-Service’ company that provides a continuous service, worldwide. So we have the knowledge and experience to keep both ‘on-premise’ applications and cloud services accessible to customers in a safe and fast way, anywhere in the world.

What are additional reasons for customers to discuss network transformation?

In addition to security, flexibility is an important reason. Organizations sometimes appear to be too dependent on telecom organizations due to vendor lock-in. “We are not familiar with that lock-in, you stay as long as you are satisfied and with an average score of 9 we are currently doing fine.” Incidentally, this score is measured externally on behalf of CATO Networks. Due to the highest partner status, we are also part of their development programs; we help customers move forward together.

OneWan
is one fully integrated cloud service
Digital transformation international networks

A third reason to start a conversation is if there are performance problems somewhere. Because we have a long history, so we also know the traditional networks well, we are able to quickly analyze performance problems and understand why problems arise. We know how applications behave over a network. Sometimes this can involve very large distances.

A sweet spot for us is China. We work for internationally operating manufacturing companies that have their factories there. Traditional SD-WAN solutions set up an encrypted tunnel between two sites, but must pass through the Chinese firewall. OneWAN does not require a separate network for China. Our solution works in exactly the same way as for other countries in the world. This is controlled by the Cato Networks backbone, ensuring safe contact with production locations anywhere in Asia or in other parts of the world. “I would be happy to explain it personally to anyone who wants to know how we do that,” concludes Bert-Jan.

A secure, fast and flexible network fully suitable for multi-cloud environments?

Contact us for more information.

Here to help, proactive and keeping promises

Every organization is unique. Manufacturing companies want continuity in production, with financial institutions it is mainly about compliance, with internationally operating marketing organizations it is about performance and trust towards brands and in the medical world the protection of personal data plays the greatest role.

The challenges are different, but we are happy to help in a proactive role with all those different challenges.