It’s no secret to CIOs and their teams in organizations across Canada that today’s employees are placing enormous demands on their enterprise networks. Not only are workers spread out among remote sites and branch offices, but they’re also continually on the go and expect to collaborate with fellow employees effortlessly, no matter their location. Moreover, enterprise workers want the bandwidth and speed to access cloud applications and rich-media files instantly, on any of their devices.
With unprecedented changes in the ways people approach their work and interact with the corporate environment, IT professionals must challenge traditional thinking about their enterprise networks to keep up with expectations. To address the ever-increasing demands of today’s distributed employees, OnX and VeloCloud formed a strategic partnership to help Canadian organizations make the transition to a better network technology designed to handle the load: SD-WAN.
Together, OnX and VeloCloud networking experts are traveling across Canada to meet with IT leaders at CIO Summit and Executive Briefing events to discuss the advantages of SD-WAN over the conventional enterprise WAN. During these meetings, we’ve learned from CIOs about the level of expectations within their organizations, and we use our collective expertise to whiteboard solutions based on specific pain points and growth goals. The focus is almost always the same: to ensure employees have quick, secure, and always-on access to the cloud services, SaaS applications, and private data centers they rely on every day to be successful – at every corporate location.
For the CIOs and IT leaders who have not yet attended one of our Canadian events, let’s step through the advantages implementation of SD-WAN brings to the enterprise network:
Better branch and remote site connectivity
In an era of mass adoption of bandwidth-intensive cloud applications like Microsoft Office 365, Pardot, Salesforce, and so many others, traditional router-based WAN VPN and MPLS configurations connecting offices and headquarters can’t keep up with end-user demands for bandwidth and speed. Additionally, these network architectures have proven expensive to maintain, requiring highly-trained personnel to update configurations periodically or troubleshoot issues at individual locations.
VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud, on the other hand, is built specifically to operate in the cloud and uses its proprietary Dynamic Multipath Optimation (DMPO) technology to maximize the performance of cloud-based applications and services. By connecting offices and remote locations to headquarters and data centers directly via the public internet, end-users gain flexibility and unprecedented access to the SaaS tools and corporate cloud software they use every day for collaboration and communications, scheduling and time tracking, office productivity, CRM, sales and marketing functions – everything they need at their fingertips.
Simplified management and maintenance
As a software-focused approach, SD-WAN implementation does not require installing networking equipment at each office or remote location like traditional WAN technology. Instead, with VMware SD-WAN, zero-touch deployment means edge appliances authenticate and receive configuration instructions automatically once connected to the internet. Once in place, internet traffic is analyzed and rebalanced in real time, giving users a better cloud app experience. To address packet loss, often degrading the public internet, SD-WAN uses Forward Error Correction (FEC) technology to ensure throughput remains constant or increasing and delivers brownout and blackout protection to improve application availability.
And by moving network control to the cloud, SD-WAN enables IT staff to access a centralized dashboard for configuration and maintenance, and for proactive management of their entire corporate network–without the expensive and time-consuming site visits for updates or troubleshooting.
Strengthened network security
Traditionally, to lock down the enterprise network, highly skilled security specialists deploy firewalls and intrusion protection systems and set predetermined policies for groups and departments at each corporate location. With SD-WAN, security functions are built in and managed centrally via the cloud, giving IT personnel the flexibility and control to protect data and traffic across the entire network, even in the most sensitive environments. User data is protected without compromising the speed of their cloud applications and services.
More specifically, for VMware SD-WAN, intelligence resides in the programmable control plane versus in the data plane. This change means the architecture is transport independent, operating in any combination of public or private circuits and bringing secure connectivity to data centers, cloud and edge compute, and SaaS applications. Encryption is standards-based, providing secure connectivity over transports and forming a highly secure cloud network. User devices are authenticated in the management plane, and only if they adhere to business policies, preventing rogue players from infiltrating connections.
Ability to engage a managed SD-WAN partner
Even with the cost and operational benefits of SD-WAN, and the simplicity of implementing and managing SD-WAN architecture, enterprise organizations can only invest so much in network-dedicated expertise. This reality is especially true when the enterprise network stretches across regions, countries or continents.
That’s where the OnX and VMware partnership for VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud proves beneficial. By aligning with leaders in SD-WAN technology and managed services, corporations reap tremendous benefits of the combined expertise and experience in design and implementation, ongoing management and support, along with continuous monitoring of their entire networking environment. By offloading network responsibilities, IT staff are freed to focus on the initiatives driving growth or creating efficiencies to stay ahead of the competition.
Together, OnX and VMware optimize SD-WAN performance for your specific business needs and ensure your distributed and mobile workers have quick, uninterrupted, and secure access to the SaaS and cloud applications and services they need to be successful.
Learn more about OnX and our combined SD-WAN expertise with our sister company, CBTS, a 2018 VMware Partner Innovation Award winner in the VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud Solution category, at SD-WAN.
