MPLS to SD-WAN Migration Archives - Aryaka The Cloud-First WAN. Tue, 17 Sep 2024 11:26:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 Cisco + Viptela: WAN Optimization on Everyone’s Mind But Who’s Getting it Right? https://www.aryaka.com/blog/cisco-and-viptela-where-is-wan/ https://www.aryaka.com/blog/cisco-and-viptela-where-is-wan/#respond Sat, 06 Nov 2021 07:42:53 +0000 https://www.aryaka.com/?p=17454 It was the mid-80’s when the epic Wendy’s ‘Where’s the Beef’ commercial first aired. The catchphrase immediately took the country by storm and has been engraved into American pop culture ever since. For those who do not get the reference, back in the 80s, the burger chain Wendy’s put out this commercial that had three […]

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It was the mid-80’s when the epic Wendy’s ‘Where’s the Beef’ commercial first aired. The catchphrase immediately took the country by storm and has been engraved into American pop culture ever since.

For those who do not get the reference, back in the 80s, the burger chain Wendy’s put out this commercial that had three elderly ladies questioning an absurdly large bun sitting on top of a peanut sized patty. The idea was to cut down the fluff and question the substance of an offering, and what precisely does it bring on the table? The vintage ad had Wendy’s taking on the problem of customer satisfaction, not by bringing in fancier buns, but beefing up their patties.

cisco viptela Merge: Where is the WAN?

SD-WAN: Everyone Wants a Bite

Touted as the network that can think for itself, SD-WAN marks its arrival as one of the most pioneering technologies of the WAN era and has successfully grabbed the attention of all the networking honchos. A software fuelled network that gives you the ability to use all your network links and slingshot your application performance out of the latency wormhole.

While all this buzz can be attributed to an exemplary marketing strategy, it can be tough as an IT Leader of a global enterprise to leave behind your trusted legacy service provider and take a leap of faith on to the SD-WAN bandwagon. Especially, if you cannot see the ‘beef.’

Cisco viptela Acquisition

The $610 million acquisition of Viptela by Cisco in 2017 affirms the fact that the market leaders are re-thinking how WAN is done, and amping up their efforts to stake a claim in the SD-WAN market category.
This acquisition though, raised many eyebrows and the move was dubbed as Cisco’s attempt to fill the gap in their own solution. After all, it was not the first time Cisco had tried to repackage and rebrand the same old stuff. We are looking at the 1Billion+ Cisco Meraki acquisition — where Cisco is desperately trying to repackage Meraki’s firewall products for large enterprises.

If network experts like Tom Hollingsworth, organizer of Tech Field Day and an Interop ITX Review Board member are to be believed, Cisco’s IWAN is far from being a true SD-WAN and is more on the lines of trying to retrofit disparate moving parts together.

While Cisco continues to fluff up the bun there is an obvious question to be asked. Where is the beef? What functionalities rule the day? How, when, and which features will be phased out or in? How do you plan on addressing the middle-mile? What happens if the standalone product is reduced to becoming a feature in a legacy product?

Legacy Network & Solving Middle-Mile Issue

The elephant in the room that no one wants to address is the middle-mile. While a decade ago the last-mile was the bottleneck, the recent high level of global broadband penetration has raised the stake for rest of the internet infrastructure to keep up.

A recent study states that latency is largely a middle-mile issue. Yes, the last-mile is complicated too, but is extremely short compared to the middle- mile. Most of the times between the office premise to the local ISP’s network. Hence, the effects are negligible.

Middle-mile on the other hand stretches across international internet regions for connecting the edge to the current centralization points of data centers and cloud. A core network which is far from being intelligent and no routing calls are made based on application-requirements. Be it Viptela or Cisco — they are trying to solve the network equation from the edge, while the answer lies in the middle mile. If you really want to break the wheel — you got to replace the internet core with a managed network.

Some might argue in favor of MPLS. There are large service providers that position themselves as global MPLS, but their solution is far from being ‘global.’ In fact, the term ‘global’ is itself a misnomer, as it refers to MPLS providers having multiple partnerships in place that allows them to sell you a network made of different links with a single bill. This may work out well for the largest of enterprises but is prohibitively expensive for the mid-market.

So, the Cisco + Viptela alliance can toot their horns all they want but unless they re-invent the WAN, three major hurdles lie in their way.

Deployment
The global multinationals don’t just demand a network which is reliable and fast, they also want a network which is equally agile. And why blame them? After all they are shedding substantial amount to get these services. This is the first of many checkpoints where MPLS fails to deliver. Expansion is not easy and it’s undeniably not fast. In fact, setting up a MPLS line to places like India, China or Brazil can take months.
On top of it you are expected to manage and maintain the edge devices and WAN optimization hardware separately at each location. That doesn’t look much like the promised futuristic solution, does it?

Application Performance
One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if your data spends a good amount of time going back and forth between the origin server and end user riding over the internet — peering through multiple networks, hopping and changing protocol routes, latency and packet loss are bound to take over the application performance. Even MPLS fails to address the performance challenges when the applications are delivered globally.

Connectivity
The Cisco-Viptela solution lacks a unified network that can stitch global sites and cloud providers together. As a result, Viptela relies heavily on installing, or using existing MPLS and internet connections — as the network. Contrary to popular belief, MPLS is not a private network service but a dynamic, shared medium, and no single provider can deliver MPLS end-to-end around the world. Global MPLS networks are mostly cobbled together using a range of service providers. This leads to service problems when issues arise and complicates the ability to provide adequate network redundancy and SLAs.

Aryaka WAN Optimization: Global SD-WAN

No hiding behind fluffy buns, no marketing rhetoric, and pure performance. Just point the router to one of our global PoPs, and board our global private network to connect to all your branch offices and cloud-based applications.

Aryaka’s global SD-WAN is the only SD-WAN that includes a global private WAN. Aryaka has 30+ points of presence (PoPs) across six continents, each less than 30 milliseconds away from 95% of the world’s business users. These PoPs are interconnected by a backbone of private network connections delivered by top service providers.

Aryaka Global PoPs

What you get is a network with MPLS-grade reliability, security, and QoS, along with WAN optimization and private connectivity to all third-party cloud platforms, like AWS and Azure as well as all the top SaaS applications.

For a free demo, click here.

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How to Accelerate Remote Access with CDN Technology https://www.aryaka.com/blog/accelerate-remote-access-cdn-technology/ https://www.aryaka.com/blog/accelerate-remote-access-cdn-technology/#respond Mon, 01 Nov 2021 14:01:02 +0000 https://www.aryaka.com/?p=17942 The enterprise ecosystem has become exceedingly global and mobile over time, while the need for collaboration is stronger than ever. Partners, suppliers and customers have become a part of an integrated supply chain that needs access to these centrally hosted applications from anywhere in the world. As a result, client server access and WAN needs […]

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Accelerate Remote Access with CDN

The enterprise ecosystem has become exceedingly global and mobile over time, while the need for collaboration is stronger than ever. Partners, suppliers and customers have become a part of an integrated supply chain that needs access to these centrally hosted applications from anywhere in the world. As a result, client server access and WAN needs have changed. IT teams are now faced with the unique challenge of making these applications, that have traditionally been behind the firewall, available to public users.

This raises two major issues that must be addressed:

Outside of the Firewall

In some cases, applications can be migrated to the public Internet, and, in those instances, content delivery network (CDN) solutions become a “must have.” CDN solutions provide acceleration for outside-of-the-firewall websites. Traditional CDNs use DNS-based load balancing and edge caching to provide an optimal experience for static websites. However, as dynamic applications have become more common, the need for next-generation CDNs has intensified. For a next-generation CDN to solve the problems raised by dynamic applications, it must provide additional features like stable middle mile performance, end-to-end bi-directional traffic acceleration, and optimization for non-HTTP applications.

Behind the Firewall

Applications that sit behind the firewall for security reasons have remained stuck in the 90’s. The standard practice is to setup a VPN concentrator and have the end users securely access their critical applications via VPN. This approach suffers from the same problems that plagued the web sites in the 90’s: slow performance over large distances when using the Internet.

This is because the middle mile over the Internet is a shared medium. And even though its availability within a region may be plentiful, across peering points and during rush hour there is still tremendous congestion, packet loss, and poor performance. Poor application performance, especially in the enterprise space, results in low adoption rates and lost productivity.

One option enterprises have turned to is the deployment of multiple VPN concentrators. But this method adds layers of complexity and cost, harkening back to the era where web sites deployed web servers in every region.

Instead of deploying tens of concentrators around the world, the ideal solution is to provide optimal performance and connectivity to a centralized VPN concentrator. This can and must be achieved by next-generation dynamic CDN solutions.

Requirements for a Remote Dynamic Content Delivery Network Solution

If you are looking for an ideal solution for delivering dynamic application acceleration to remote and mobile users, consider the following issues before making a decision:

  • Are your users regional or truly global, with a footprint into the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe? If global, the best solution is one built over a dedicated private network, to completely bypass the unreliable public Internet for IP application delivery. This would enable end users to experience stable latency and consistency in application performance.
  • For dynamic applications, ensure that the solution includes intelligent features like TCP optimization and persistent connection capabilities to provide acceleration benefits.
  • Ensure the solution is application agnostic and not limited to only one or two applications like SSL VPN, as some vendors provide other possible use cases like Citrix, FTP server and RDP.

The First Clientless SD-WAN: SmartACCESS

As of now, there is only one such next-generation solution on the market. Aryaka’s SmartACCESS is the first clientless SD-WAN solution with built-in dynamic CDN. It delivers:

  • Up to 3x faster application performance for remote and mobile users
  • Consolidated and simplified VPN infrastructure
  • Enhanced security and visibility of all remote and mobile user activity
  • Global deployment in hours, with the ability to scale in minutes

SmartACCESS_diagram
Aryaka SmartACCESS: The First Clientless SD-WAN for Remote Access

The SmartACCESS service is built over Aryaka’s global private network, which enables remote and mobile employees to bypass the unreliable public Internet.

SmartACCESS uses dynamic CDN capabilities in the following ways:

  • Global Load Balancing: Remote and mobile employees can use a single domain name to connect to the VPN concentrator (and corporate resources) without having to change local VPN settings or worrying about where they are.
  • Dynamic IP App Acceleration:
    • SmartACCESS accelerates all IP-based (HTTP and non-HTTP) traffic to global users. The acceleration is application agnostic.
    • It includes TCP Optimization, which speeds up application delivery through more aggressive TCP transfers, improving congestion control and congestion avoidance.
  • Intelligent DNS-Based Routing: Mobile and remote employees automatically get directed to the most optimal POP for the best application performance.
  • Clientless Mobile Acceleration:
    • The end user doesn’t need to go through additional security hoops, as SmartACCESS works in the background. This also prevents user error.
    • There is no need to deploy multiple VPN concentrators or load balancers, significantly reducing your IT department’s global hardware and software investment.
  • BYOD Support: SmartACCESS works with all devices and operating systems.

Your remote and mobile workforce, as well as customers, partners, and suppliers, deserve the same quality connectivity that you provide for your employees in branch offices or at your headquarters. And now you can provide it with SmartACCESS, the first clientless SD-WAN that allows you to optimize your network for dynamic content over VPN.

To learn more about SmartACCESS, download our latest data sheet.

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SDWAN over MPLS: Is SD-WAN Better than MPLS? https://www.aryaka.com/blog/sd-wan-vs-mpls-is-sd-wan-better-than-mpls/ https://www.aryaka.com/blog/sd-wan-vs-mpls-is-sd-wan-better-than-mpls/#respond Wed, 02 Jun 2021 13:18:22 +0000 https://www.aryaka.com/?p=26820 There is a steep rise in the dopamine level of comic fanboys when they ponder upon the classic debate of Batman vs Superman. A perfect David vs Goliath setting. Who wins when the world’s finest are pitted against each other in an all-out brawl? Can a ninja, trained to the pinnacle of human conditioning, go […]

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SD-WAN vs MPLS or SuperWAN vs. BadWAN: Is SD-WAN Better than MPLS?

There is a steep rise in the dopamine level of comic fanboys when they ponder upon the classic debate of Batman vs Superman. A perfect David vs Goliath setting. Who wins when the world’s finest are pitted against each other in an all-out brawl? Can a ninja, trained to the pinnacle of human conditioning, go toe-to-toe with an alien possessing god-like powers? Undoubtedly one of geek culture’s greatest philosophical dilemma.

Let’s park this one for a while. Network connoisseurs have a similar debate of their own. Should they put their money on SuperWAN? Or BadWAN?

Confused? Allow me to rephrase — should they put their money on Software defined wide area networking (SuperWAN) or Multiprotocol Label Switching (BadWAN). We are talking SD WAN vs MPLS. While MPLS has reigned as the go-to choice of connectivity for enterprises — things have changed over the years. Especially with the advent of cloud technology, that led to the rise of SuperWAN.

If you ask us, we will place our bets on SuperWAN. Any day, every day, and twice on Sundays.

Allow us to explain what is the difference between SD WAN and MPLS, and why is SD WAN better than MPLS.

SD-WAN vs MPLS: The Optimization Superpower

Heat vision, freeze breath, super strength, super speed and practically indestructible. With all those fancy power in Superman’s fanny pack, Batman is completely outmatched and will barely put up a fight.

So how does SD WAN differ from MPLS? Whether you are trying to dress up the MPLS network to rise to the occasion, or using internet service to supplement WAN connections, you need additional optimization tools to extract every ounce of bandwidth available across the WAN links. More so, to improve the throughput of your TCP, for delivering consistent user experience regardless of the user location.

Though MPLS bandwidth speeds has been its main USP, optimization is not native to MPLS and comes as an add-on technology. This means optimization calls for separate investment and management. Even then, it might not adequately address the performance issue, especially for international use-cases.

Aryaka’s fully-managed networking and security services, on the other hand, boasts a plethora of network optimization techniques such as compression, TCP and UDP Optimization, data de-duplication, SSL & CIFS acceleration, load balancing, path selection, packet loss recovery and error correction.

SD-WAN: Built for the Cloud

Flight abilities! Probably the most prominent difference between SD WAN and MPLS, and the most significant advantage Superman has over Batman. The latter cannot take to the clouds, and neither can MPLS.

In the past, MPLS connections have been synonymous with SLAs, Quality of Service, and stable connectivity. Multiprotocol Label Switching lifted the limitations of public internet around business-critical applications. But that was until enterprises took to the cloud. BadWAN was designed to secure point-to-point links between enterprise branch offices and data centers. Connectivity to SaaS-based applications and services came as an afterthought.

The result? It causes more problems than it is worth for the network architects who want to optimize and simplify their infrastructure. The traditional backhauling model of routing traffic dramatically increases the costs of cloud access, comes with performance penalties and kills all the benefits of optimization, irrespective of whether or not the network is layered with WAN Optimization.

MPLS- A legacy wan application delivery

SuperWAN addresses these key gaps. Not only does it connects an organization’s branches, remote locations, and data centers but also provides direct connectivity to the most widely used IaaS or SaaS providers.

SD-WAN over MPLS: Super Speed Powers

Faster than a speeding bullet! While SuperWAN facilitates bandwidth scaling, adding new branch office locations, and such chores, at the click of a button, it is not MPLS’s strong suit.

Bringing up a new site is a slow and rigid process. Getting a quote can take weeks, and setup can stretch into months. Enterprises with global locations may have to deal with multiple providers and agreements that come with rigid contract commitments and with multi-year terms.

If that was not enough, the bandwidth is expensive and hard to scale. Supporting a bandwidth-hungry ecosystem that feeds on multiple devices and SaaS applications via a high per-megabit cost model of MPLS can be a bottleneck. In fact, upon comparing MPLS vs internet, broadband internet connection is a more viable replacement to meet the bandwidth needs — from a cost and scalability standpoint.

SD-WAN vs MPLS: MPLS has slow speed

MPLS: Helping the Road Warriors

MPLS was provisioned for static branch offices, and not for the remote workers and road warriors who map continents in search of new business opportunities. Consider the Covid world order, which pushes most (if not all) employees, universities, financial institutions and other businesses to work from home. A gap that MPLS miserably fails to fill. Even the VPN solutions that most companies are falling back on, fails to meet the sheer scale of this crisis. VPN servers are getting overloaded with the number of connections and amount of throughput required to support such a large workforce.

Aryaka’s SuperWAN offers a unique solution which can significantly improve any existing remote VPN solution deployed by the customer. It provides Aryaka’s global private network for remote users to connect to any corporate VPN server in the world. This makes the existing VPN solution easily scalable for the customers.

So What Makes SD-WAN win over MPLS?

Okay…we can go on and on about the reasons why SuperWAN wins over BadWAN, but quite sure you understand who wins the bout between MPLS network vs SD WAN. Let’s call it a day and talk more about the ingredients that go into the making of a SuperWAN.

  • TCP Optimization – Offers more benefit that we can count. Packet payload sizes are bigger, packets are closer together, throughput ramps up much faster, and your first byte transfers faster. TCP Optimization is a must for any data application.
  • Packet loss should be addressed using a full set of SD-WAN algorithms, not just one or two.
  • Agility- Enterprises want their branch offices up and running and they want it now. The network must provide optimal agility to facilitate moves, add or change sites, and disconnect quickly.
  • 24x7x365 Support
  • Built-in redundancy should be delivered at all levels in the infrastructure.
  • Visibility into not just in/out bandwidth, but application level usage and performance metrics and statistics.
  • A single hand-to-shake model.

What you need in your SuperWAN is for it to be a managed service, which you consume instead of building yourself. Not point solutions, but a holistic approach that can accommodate rampant bandwidth growth, support digital initiatives, and let you fly business class in the cloud.

Click here to see SuperWAN in action.

To know more about what works best for your business, check out our white paper on SD-WAN vs MPLS, where we measure the pros and cons of both and discuss how a fully-managed Cloud-First WAN can be used to replace and augment existing MPLS services for enterprise connectivity, increasing business agility, while reducing WAN costs.

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Is MPLS dead? Understanding Need For MLPS Network Technology https://www.aryaka.com/blog/are-we-witnessing-the-death-of-mpls/ https://www.aryaka.com/blog/are-we-witnessing-the-death-of-mpls/#respond Fri, 01 Jan 2021 10:42:09 +0000 https://www.aryaka.com/?p=23470 Bridging the era before and after the advent of the World Wide Web, the 90s remain special for various reasons, be it the sleek gadgets that could still give designers a run for their money, or the fashion and pop culture that are slowly making a comeback and are still a sell-out — almost two […]

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Is MPLS Dead? Do We Still Need 90s mpls Network Technology?

Bridging the era before and after the advent of the World Wide Web, the 90s remain special for various reasons, be it the sleek gadgets that could still give designers a run for their money, or the fashion and pop culture that are slowly making a comeback and are still a sell-out — almost two decades later. The 90s also come to mind as the period when technology took a quantum leap into the future and laid the foundation of the world we are a part of today. From the official incorporation of Google and the game changing open source operating system Linux, to the emergence of Nokia mobile phones and the Sony PlayStation, it’s hard to pick one, single, culture-defining moment from the 90s.

What is MPLS?

One such disruptive innovation in the field of networking was MPLS. What does MPLS mean, you ask? Multi-Protocol Label Switching was first introduced in 1997 by the Internet Engineering Task Force, it emerged as a worthy replacement to multilayer switching and IP-over-ATM. It didn’t take it long to become the staple of enterprise connectivity.

Call it the lack of information, the act of playing safe, or pure reluctance, but MPLS still serves as a network mainstay for many global enterprises. Relying on 90s tech in 2020? Do you spot a problem in that statement? Good. Let’s talk.

old tv

The Death of MPLS

The point that we are trying to make here was foreseen and validated by Gartner back in 2013, when they published a research document titled “Is MPLS Dead?” Blame a cost-competitive market, changing traffic patterns, or mission-critical applications leaping out of the corporate data centers to the cloud — MPLS was destined to fade out. Moreover, with upcoming trends such as SASE, encompassing all things security, will MPLS be able to keep up? Is MPLS secure enough compared to its SASE counterparts?

According to a recent study, 93 percent of enterprises currently use cloud-based software, and it only took an year for the number of hybrid cloud systems to jump from mere 19 percent to 57 percent. But migrating to the cloud is only the first step. To harness the full benefits of SaaS applications requires integrating the cloud data with a robust network architecture. A requirement that cannot be met with MPLS.

Yet some traditional enterprises choose to sign 2-3 year contracts with their MPLS providers. It’s understandable that investing in new solution can be an expensive and at times a harrowing experience, but it is no excuse to bury your head in the sand and rely on the laws of luck and probability for achieving success.

Not So “Global” After All

There is no question that globalization has worked well for most businesses. They are exploring markets that were once considered out of bounds. Unfortunately, it’s not a great news for MPLS customers.

Despite price drops within the US and Europe over the past few years, global MPLS remains frightfully expensive. Things can get even more frustrating if you are trying to connect to places like China, Brazil, Australia, and India. (PS: These are the hotspots for global offshore development)

Not only are you looking at an upfront cost of tens and thousands of dollars, but also, being carrier-dependant, the configuration and connection of dedicated proprietary hardware will take months of lead time.

Secondly, when you use the words “global” and “MPLS” in the same sentence, it doesn’t add up. The concept of “Global MPLS” is a farce. Just because they say they are global, doesn’t mean they sell unified global solutions. What it basically means is a combination of MPLS and point–to-point L2 links and L3 links, depending on where in the world you’re trying to connect. Lingering on multiple partnerships, you are sold a network made of disparate links with a single mammoth sized bill.

The point? A Nokia 5110 might be the synonym for “cool” in 1998, but not today. No more. The market is filled with choices and alternatives, better suited for the job. The same goes for MPLS.

The Cloud and MPLS

Nothing pinpoints the gap in MPLS the way cloud services do. Those who know what is MPLS network and how does it work, know what I am getting at. The major limitation of MPLS is that it requires a termination point for access, and you need WAN Optimization appliances on each end to witness real application performance improvements. It is one thing to host a device in your own corporate data center; however, dealing with cloud and SaaS application is a different ballgame. Cloud services do not work well with a closed network like MPLS either. IT teams responsible for branch-office productivity are looking to open up and access cloud services directly in order to ensure a good user experience and to avoid the trombone effect.

Coming to the bandwidth aspect of things. Despite the plummeting internet bandwidth costs across the world, international internet access still remains expensive, prone to latency and performance issues, thanks to hot-potato routing.

If it were the 90s and things were less “cloudy”, MPLS could have been your best bet for network connectivity. MPLS was designed to support a site-site traffic, which is obsolete under the current enterprise scenario. Today the business needs to be collaborated between any-any data centers. MPLS was never designed for transactional, TCP- and HTTP-based interactive applications that leverages the cloud.

Aryaka: Making the WAN Work Globally

On-premises applications, SaaS, hybrid clouds, remote workers, international offices, global partners and what have you. We have enough arguments for why a 90s born network technology is no fit for today’s mutating business and connectivity needs. Now, let’s see what current generation technology has in store.

How does a fully managed Cloud-First WAN that can provide an MPLS-like secure global network – even across and between continents – without the high costs and rigid architecture of MPLS sound?

traditional-hybrid-simplified

With our global private network, we can provide end-to-end orchestration and control. The customer onboards our network and gets redirected to the nearest PoP. These PoPs are interconnected by a backbone of private network connections delivered by top service providers. What you get is a network with MPLS-grade reliability, security, and QoS, along with WAN optimization and private connectivity to all third-party cloud platforms, like AWS and Azure as well as all the top SaaS applications.

Towards the Future

So, why use MPLS? As a global service provider (or even regional for that matter) there is an obvious question to be asked — are you okay relying on the technology of yesteryear for solving the business problems of tomorrow? MPLS might not be fully dead, but its applicability across the enterprise WAN is certainly eroding. Then, of course, there are the purely technical downsides, which include, but are not limited to, latency, packet loss, data loss, data security, cyber-attacks and so much more.

Alternatively, you can avoid going back to the “old world” and ensure that improvements in technologies means improvements for your business. Click here for a free demo with Aryaka and experience a network which combines the agility and flexibility of SD-WAN, the reliability and stability of a global private multi-tenant network, world-class optimization and application acceleration, and delivery of all of this as a cloud-based, fully managed service.

If you want to read more about how does MPLS work & what is MPLS connection, and what are the other available network architecture, I strongly recommend reading our whitepaper “SD-WAN Architectures Explained”.

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MPLS Network Pros and Cons: Factors to Weigh for Your Global Business https://www.aryaka.com/blog/mpls-network-pros-cons-factors-weigh-global-business/ https://www.aryaka.com/blog/mpls-network-pros-cons-factors-weigh-global-business/#respond Mon, 21 Dec 2020 16:34:43 +0000 https://www.aryaka.com/?p=19101 Many global organizations are faced with the decision of whether to move away from MPLS in favor of other alternatives. Unfortunately, there’s no one size fits all solution to this question. The answer largely depends on the organization’s goals and the current state of the nation. When MPLS entered the market in the 90s, many […]

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mpls advantages and disadvantages: Weighing Pros & Cons on scale

Many global organizations are faced with the decision of whether to move away from MPLS in favor of other alternatives. Unfortunately, there’s no one size fits all solution to this question. The answer largely depends on the organization’s goals and the current state of the nation.

When MPLS entered the market in the 90s, many CIOs and IT professionals who saw it was a pathway to drive growth in the burgeoning digital age. However, the technologies that MPLS supported eventually began to outgrow the network that housed them, and MPLS has been struggling to keep up ever since.

Those same organizations that welcomed MPLS two decades ago are now wrestling with the decision of whether to keep it or change to a solution that can accommodate cloud applications and remote teams.

Even those solutions are not always cut and dry. VPNs can now be delivered as a software overlay that does not require specialized MPLS hardware or services. MPLS may still hold some advantages for enterprises that would like to maintain a hybrid WAN environment.

So, what’s an organization to do? Like any good business decision, the choice about whether to stick with MPLS or explore other options should come only after weighing the advantages and disadvantages of MPLS with other network options against goals and other constraints.

Only the organization itself can make the final decisions, but this list of MPLS pros and cons can help plant the seeds for further discussion:

MPLS Advantages & Benefits

Here are a few of the reasons why it might make sense for an organization to keep or adopt an MPLS network solution:

  • It’s a reliable technology that has served enterprises for years with direct routes from one edge to another.
  • It’s a quality connection that offers a consistent user experience with no packet loss, fixed latency, and low jitter.
  • It’s the safe bet for organizations that are averse to change and do not require higher-level functionality

MPLS Disadvantages

On the flip side, here are a few of the drawback associated with MPLS:

  • It’s optimized for point-to-point connectivity and not point to cloud, meaning there is no way to directly access every cloud or SaaS application with MPLS. Only 2% of cloud services provide this access and with a significant premium
  • It requires WAN optimization to streamline the delivery, which adds extra cost on top of a solution that can already be pricey.
  • It takes a long time to deploy, especially when office locations are spread across different states or countries. It can take up to 6-8 months to get each new site up and running
  • The cost is high because of limited competition in the marketplace

MPLS vs SD WAN: Weighing the Options for an Enterprise

Considering the pros and cons of MPLS is a first step in determining the right network solution for an enterprise, but it should not be the only step in the process.

Changing a network is a big investment and not a decision that should be taken lightly. The choice an organization makes will be in place for years to come, if not even longer than that.

sd-wan vs mpls benefits

mpls disadvantages- high costs vs Global SD WAN by Aryaka

Read Aryaka’s white paper on key considerations for MPLS vs. SD-WAN for more information all of the factors an organization should consider when deciding on the best network solution for their current and future needs.

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5 Questions MPLS Providers Hope You Won’t Ask https://www.aryaka.com/blog/5-questions-mpls-providers-hope-you-wont-ask/ https://www.aryaka.com/blog/5-questions-mpls-providers-hope-you-wont-ask/#respond Fri, 18 Dec 2020 13:48:06 +0000 https://www.aryaka.com/?p=13825 For 20 years, MPLS has been the enterprise answer to providing the organization with stable and reliable connectivity. Today, MPLS providers still serve a $30 billion+ market. However, though a lot has changed with the enterprise WAN over the past two decades, it seems not much has changed with MPLS. MPLS was designed to provide […]

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For 20 years, MPLS has been the enterprise answer to providing the organization with stable and reliable connectivity. Today, MPLS providers still serve a $30 billion+ market. However, though a lot has changed with the enterprise WAN over the past two decades, it seems not much has changed with MPLS.

MPLS was designed to provide a stable, predictable, and reliable connection from one site to another. But it was not designed to address the needs of today’s enterprise WAN and the type of connectivity expected to to deliver applications to users worldwide.

The massive adoption of enterprise cloud services is revolutionizing how businesses use the WAN. Since access to mission-critical cloud services and SaaS applications is primarily the public Internet, speed and performance takes a hit. And MPLS cannot help.

If you’re considering connecting your branch office to your headquarters via MPLS, here are some questions you should ask potential service providers before you do:

1. Why is MPLS so much more expensive than alternatives?

money

What MPLS providers will say: Over the life of the contract, MPLS will pay for itself. It’s hard to put a price on productivity.

What they won’t admit: Their argument overlooks the fact that MPLS is no longer cost-competitive with emerging SD-WAN solutions. Moreover, MPLS comes with additional costs.

For starters, you’ll typically be locked into a three-year contract.

Next, since MPLS is so expensive, most organizations need to invest in WAN Optimization hardware, which must be deployed at each site and managed by your IT team.

2. How long will it take to deploy?

waiting

What MPLS providers will say: Here’s our implementation guide, which will walk you through a week-by-week timeline.

What they won’t admit: Okay, we should leave it right there. The fact that they have multi-page deployment and implementation guides should be enough to scare you away from this outdated approach.

MPLS can take weeks or months to deploy. In some remote international locations, it can take over a year.

3. Do I need WAN Optimization hardware to go along with this service?

WAN_Optimization_Hardware

What MPLS providers will say: No, but many organizations prefer to optimize their MPLS connections.

What they won’t admit: Most organizations find that WAN Optimization is absolutely required. MPLS is expensive – really expensive, especially for overseas connections. Unfortunately, in our Internet-saturated world, MPLS dumb pipes fill up quickly. WAN Optimization is required to conserve bandwidth, overcome congestion, speed up file transfers, accelerate application delivery, and more.

Note, however, that most SD-WAN is not a perfect fix, as you must deploy, pay for, manage, and maintain WAN Optimization hardware separately at each location. In response to those shortcomings, there are alternatives, such as Aryaka global SD-WAN, that solve these issues more completely.

4. What about last-mile issues?

last_mile

What MPLS providers will say: The last mile is the place where our competitors fail. They can’t provide you with an end-to-end connection.

What they won’t admit: While that was true several years ago, it’s not the case now and hasn’t been for some time.

In most of the world, the last mile is not a major problem. The last mile is fairly good in most places and continues to improve. What isn’t improving is the middle mile, which is congested and not designed to support modern enterprise-class applications. MPLS will help you overcome the middle-mile problems, but you’ll pay a steep price to do so.

5. With the shift to cloud, SaaS, and mobile, isn’t MPLS now an outdated technology?

floppies

What MPLS providers will say: Well, you’ll never get fired for buying AT&T (or Verizon or BT or whatever MPLS incumbent you’re talking to)! Plenty of Fortune 500 business rely on MPLS, day in and day out, to connect their knowledge workers to centralized resources.

What they won’t admit: MPLS is a near 20-year-old platform, and a lot has changed with the enterprise WAN. Back then, mission-critical applications were not in the cloud, and users were not accessing corporate apps from mobile devices.

MPLS was a good fit for yesterday’s challenges. Today? Not so much. Today’s knowledge-based, cloud-fueled, global, and mobile enterprises need a solution that is application-agnostic, quick to deploy, affordable to own, and easy to manage.

Learn more about the better alternatives to MPLS. Discover what Aryaka’s global SD-WAN can do for your business.

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The Slow Death of MPLS https://www.aryaka.com/blog/slow-death-mpls/ https://www.aryaka.com/blog/slow-death-mpls/#respond Thu, 26 Nov 2020 14:18:30 +0000 https://www.aryaka.com/?p=17041 Sometimes, I feel sad for technologies. When they first emerge they are exciting, new, and innovative. But eventually every technology, no matter what problem it was initially created to solve, will be surpassed by something better. Such is the case with Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS). The Once-Gold Standard in Secure WAN MPLS was invented and […]

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slow_death

Sometimes, I feel sad for technologies. When they first emerge they are exciting, new, and innovative. But eventually every technology, no matter what problem it was initially created to solve, will be surpassed by something better. Such is the case with Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS).

The Once-Gold Standard in Secure WAN

MPLS was invented and standardized by the Internet routing community, driven by equipment suppliers like router vendors who wanted a better way to deliver Quality of Service (Qos) using IP-based technologies. By introducing MPLS, service providers and enterprises were able to build secure, “fast lanes” for applications transferring data, rather than requiring more intensive network routing.

This technology was useful and enjoyed wide adoption. MPLS became the gold standard for high-quality managed wide area networks (WAN). The equipment suppliers sold the routers to enterprises and service providers who then built VPNs and leased-line services based on MPLS connections. All was good.

But The Market is Changing

Cloud computing

The surge of cloud services, remote workers, and the shrinking of corporate data centers has changed traffic patterns – meaning that the era of a large, homogenous enterprise network is waning. Employees and network users are grabbing their data from everywhere: The cloud, the Internet, and public and private data centers, in addition to their own corporate network.

At the same time, corporate IT managers are embracing the cloud model, in which they outsource their operations to an organization with more focus and scale to deliver what they need at lower cost.

Though MPLS is a reliable technology that has served enterprises for years with direct routes from one edge to another, it’s only a reliable technology if your information isn’t being accessed remotely or through the cloud. In addition, though it is good for regional networks, deploying global MPLS takes significant time and capital, because reaching remote areas raises costs and requires that your team manage several different MPLS vendors.

MPLS network vendors secrets

SD-WAN: The Next Frontier?

This dynamic has set the stage for software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) and cloud-delivered network functions virtualization (NFV) to represent a growing MPLS alternative — with the potential to reduce costs and increase flexibility for the user. By adding application acceleration, traffic prioritization, and secure encryption, SD-WAN can meet many enterprise WAN requirements at a lower cost than traditional leased-line or MPLS circuits.

Keep in mind that not all SD-WAN technology is created equal. Though it has the potential to reduce costs, can be delivered from the cloud, and often includes built-in WAN Optmization and application performance capabilities, many technologies still have drawbacks. They may not include the same service guarantee as MPLS, and they sometimes use a shared network or the Internet, so performance might not match a private line that can deliver guaranteed performance for mission-critical applications.

What is needed in a future solution that combines the best of both worlds. In the coming years,  here’s where the market will be focusing:

  • Flexibility of Internet
  • Consistency of MPLS
  • WAN Optimization built-in
  • SD-WAN functionality
  • Content Delivery Network (CDN) included
  • Deployment for any application, anywhere in the world within days
  • Delivered as a service, from the cloud

Expect this trend to grow as a range of SD-WAN services emerge to replace and rival MPLS services. It’s clear that service providers already recognize this change, which is why they are beginning to role out their own SD-WAN services.

You don’t have to feel too sorry for MPLS — it had a great run, and it’s not going to disappear overnight. But the enterprise world is pushing demand for new, cloud-based WAN services that leverage SDN’s flexibility, management, and cost reduction.

Download our free white paper What MPLS Providers Don’t Want You To Know to learn more.

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MPLS Alternatives & MPLS Replacement That Meet Enterprise WAN needs https://www.aryaka.com/blog/mpls-alternatives-telcos-dont-want-you-to-know-webinar-recap/ https://www.aryaka.com/blog/mpls-alternatives-telcos-dont-want-you-to-know-webinar-recap/#respond Tue, 24 Nov 2020 17:02:23 +0000 https://www.aryaka.com/?p=17740 MPLS is entering its sunset, and yet telcos aren’t ready to let you go. Rather than see you invest a few more years in a legacy technology that needs to be retrofitted with WAN Optimization, SD-WAN, and more, we held a webinar to discuss your mpls alternatives. We were joined by Jim Metzler, Founder and […]

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Enterprise WAN Model Comparison: MPLS and the new mpls alternatives

MPLS is entering its sunset, and yet telcos aren’t ready to let you go. Rather than see you invest a few more years in a legacy technology that needs to be retrofitted with WAN Optimization, SD-WAN, and more, we held a webinar to discuss your mpls alternatives.

We were joined by Jim Metzler, Founder and Vice President of Ashton, Metzler, and Associates, along with Yohan Beghein, System Integration Manager at Skullcandy, to discuss how network admins like you can optimize the enterprise WAN without turning back to MPLS.

Here are the key takeaways from the webinar. You can access the complete webinar here.

The Reality of Modern Networking & Enterprise WAN

One of the biggest concerns for any IT team can be summed up in one single image, as shown in the diagram above. The happy days of a simplified, traditional “hub and spoke” model of branch office connectivity (shown on the left) are, unfortunately, over. The current IT landscape is more complex than ever, and IT teams find themselves responsible for not just the users at branch offices, but also an influx of remote users, an eclectic mix of applications and delivery models (both on-premise and Cloud/SaaS applications), and myriad devices.

Metzler described how most of his clients are facing intensified global pressure from organizations whose business models now completely rely on IT to gain a competitive edge, capture new markets quickly, and provide customers with fast and reliable service. The CIOs are expected to deliver these results while dealing with a lack of IT resources and keeping costs low.

As the IT landscape becomes more complex and the cost and time taken to run and maintain the systems skyrockets, this snowballs into a mammoth task for the IT leaders and their teams.

It is then of little surprise that when Metzler polled the webinar attendees about the top factors that will drive changes in the enterprise WAN, a staggering 47% chose the “need to reduce cost” as a primary driver. An additional 29% chose “increasing security and improving performance for real time applications,” and 26% and 24% chose “better access to cloud” and “increasing availability” respectively.

Why look for mpls alternatives?: Melzler Enterprise WAN Poll Results

Problems with MPLS

One of the fundamental problems in the enterprise WAN space today is that, while IT and business have undergone a 180-degree change in the last two decades, there has been negligible innovation in the networking fundamentals. As a result, 66% of IT executives today are not/or only moderately happy with their WAN architecture, as Metzler explained.

MPLS made a massive commercial debut in the early 2000s and became the gold standard for connectivity. The problem is that MPLS was not built to handle the cloud intensive, demanding workloads of today.

While MPLS did its fair bit in providing a reliable connectivity to global enterprises, it is clear now that it can hardly match up to the current connectivity demands.

For example, MPLS is slow to deploy, as it can take months or even years to set up a new link. The results of another poll during the webinar confirmed that this is a top concern for IT executives.

Why find MPLS replacement?: Biggest Concerns in Deploying MPLS

The poll also revealed that complexity and accessing cloud and SaaS applications were the second and third concerns on IT executives’ minds regarding MPLS. All of these concerns can be addressed by bypassing MPLS and using the public Internet, but the Internet cannot be trusted for critical enterprise traffic due to high latency, congestion, and security concerns.

In a world where most global organizations are adopting a cloud-first approach, MPLS is poised to become irrelevant soon. The reasons are manifold: few cloud/SaaS vendors have MPLS connectivity options and most MPLS vendors do not own cloud/SaaS vendor infrastructure or provide support for applications hosted in the cloud.

Most global companies today are feeling the pressure to find a suitable MPLS alternative and the Internet. What they need is an enterprise-grade connectivity solution that is intelligent, secure, quick to deploy, cloud-ready, and cost-effective.

Enterprise WAN Alternatives & Transformation: Skullcandy Case Study

To emphasize the importance of rethinking the WAN strategy and the benefits it can bring to the enterprise, Metzler then invited Yohan Beghein, System Integration Manager at Skullcandy to share a case study. Beghein discussed how Skullcandy, one of the global brand names for high-quality headphones, earphones, Bluetooth speakers, and related accessories, replaced their MPLS circuits with Aryaka’s global SD-WAN to connect offices in the United States, Canada, Germany, China, and Japan.

Beghien explained how Skullcandy was facing a challenge that many organizations across the world deal with: a spike in enterprise bandwidth requirements during the winter holiday season. The company was facing latency and application performance issues over MPLS in Germany, China, and Japan. Executive teams across different regions around the world could not collaborate effectively, as their telepresence solution was unable to keep up with the high latencies. Moreover, MPLS bandwidth was prohibitively expensive, and it took “forever” to scale up or down.

Skullcandy realized that they needed to move beyond the conventional solutions to a more flexible and reliable connectivity solution. By choosing a cloud-ready SD-WAN solution, Skullcandy could achieve up to 10x better application performance improvement, 93% data reduction across all applications, and about 40 Mbps peak bandwidth savings. Read the full Skullcandy case study to learn more.

Global SD-WAN Gains Traction as the MPLS Alternative

In recent years, SD-WAN emerged as the saving grace for most enterprises grappling with connectivity issues. However, not all SD-WANs can provide a complete replacement for MPLS.

When evaluating SD-WANs, you should look for a holistic solution that provides:

  • Short deployment intervals
  • Alternatives to MPLS pricing without sacrificing QoS or security
  • End-to-end multi-layered security functionality
  • Built-in WAN Optimization
  • Secure, high-performance access to cloud applications and services
  • End-to-end visibility and holistic control of the entire network
  • Reduced complexity
  • Managed service option

Metzler ended the webinar with a call to action for global enterprises struggling with connectivity issues: He suggested that companies need to start evaluating and write down the key challenges that might mean it’s time to re-evaluate the enterprise WAN. CIOs and IT leaders need to start weighing out alternative WAN solutions with a focus on whether their solution can truly respond to those key challenges and support their global operations. Most IT teams need a solution that can help them reduce or avoid complexity and relieve the team by providing support in the form of managed services.

To discover if global SD-WAN can address your connectivity challenges and transform your enterprise network, sign up for a proof of concept today.

Watch on-demand webinar on MPLS alternatives.

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What’s Driving SD-WAN Migration for Global Enterprises https://www.aryaka.com/blog/sd-wan-migration-for-global-enterprises/ https://www.aryaka.com/blog/sd-wan-migration-for-global-enterprises/#respond Mon, 23 Nov 2020 16:32:44 +0000 https://www.aryaka.com/?p=19402 Legacy WANs are unfit for the digital era. The public Internet continues to be plagued by congestion and reliability problems caused by exponential traffic growth, bandwidth-intensive applications, and expanding network complexities. MPLS was designed before the cloud and brings along with it high costs, inflexibility, and long deployment times. These deficiencies have given rise to […]

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sd wan migration

Legacy WANs are unfit for the digital era. The public Internet continues to be plagued by congestion and reliability problems caused by exponential traffic growth, bandwidth-intensive applications, and expanding network complexities. MPLS was designed before the cloud and brings along with it high costs, inflexibility, and long deployment times. These deficiencies have given rise to a technology known as SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network).

As enterprises embark on their transformational journeys, they are experiencing key business and technology trends causing them to migrate to SD-WAN. Specifically there are five driving forces behind this movement:

  1. Globalization is having an impact on virtually every enterprise: incorporating mergers and acquisitions; expanding into new markets and geographies; working with partners, suppliers, customers across time zones. To maintain competitive advantage in this environment, enterprises need global networks that can be deployed quickly and deliver performance for applications.
  2. IT outsourcing helps increase agility and reduce capital and operational costs. Also, enterprises may not have the required resources or interest in maintaining complex infrastructure. Just look at cloud computing and its prevalent use. A managed network takes the operational burden off so companies can focus more on running the business.
  3. Cloud adoption changes everything. Business applications that used to reside exclusively in the corporate data center have been shifting to the cloud. In fact, over 50% of enterprise WAN traffic can be attributed to cloud. A network that is optimized for multi-cloud connectivity and application delivery is paramount.
  4. New applications such as team collaboration – voice and video conferencing, IM, file transfer, project management – are commonly used by enterprises daily to increase productivity. Many of these applications are cloud-based. Delivering a consistent, high-quality experience to users anywhere in the world should be a key capability of the network.
  5. Mobility has increased dramatically as enterprise users utilize multiple devices and connect from remote locations. Wi-Fi or other public networks are typical used for access which introduces a whole set of security risks. To protect users, data, and applications, the network should have multi-layer security.

Key Attributes to Consider in Selecting the Right SD-WAN

It is important to realize, however, that not all SD-WANs are created equal There are three key attributes to consider when looking to achieve the full benefits of SD-WAN.

The SD-WAN must be purpose-built and optimized for application delivery

Most do it yourself SD-WAN offerings do not meet this criteria. Aryaka’s SD-WAN as a Service has been designed to deliver any application, anywhere in the world in hours. It offers WAN optimization, QoS, multi-cloud connectivity, SaaS acceleration, and multi-layered security.

The network should be private, and not shared like the public Internet

An SD-WAN that keeps up with the pace of digital will operate over a global private network rather than the Internet or MPLS. Aryaka leverages a software-defined, Layer 2 network that reaches 95% of the world’s business population in 30 milliseconds or less. It’s secure and purpose-built for application delivery.

SD-WAN should be offered as a fully managed service

Enterprise networks are complex, so you have to weigh the time and dollars involved in design, deployment, management, and monitoring. And what about handling multiple network contracts and inconsistent customer support. Aryaka provides the only SD-WAN as a Service that is backed by a 99.99% reliability SLA. Cloud, new applications, mobile and global users – you leave all that to us.

Today’s networks are going through a rapid evolution to keep up with ever-growing and changing demands of a digital enterprise. A global SD-WAN as a Service that is purpose-built for application delivery can meet these demands. We have seen the limitations and frailties of the public Internet, broadband networks, MPLS and hybrid networks, and indeed, the game has changed for global network connectivity. Welcome to the new world as delivered by Aryaka’s SD-WAN as a Service.

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Global MPLS Alternatives: What You Need to Know https://www.aryaka.com/blog/mpls-alternatives-what-you-need-to-know/ https://www.aryaka.com/blog/mpls-alternatives-what-you-need-to-know/#respond Sun, 15 Nov 2020 19:20:12 +0000 https://www.aryaka.com/?p=18451 As we look to the future of business, globalization is not going anywhere. In fact, your company is likely to grow its global footprint in the coming years as more and more organization increase their footprints outside the U.S. With that in mind, it’s more important than ever to have a network that can keep […]

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MPLS Alternatives for Global Enterprises

As we look to the future of business, globalization is not going anywhere. In fact, your company is likely to grow its global footprint in the coming years as more and more organization increase their footprints outside the U.S.

With that in mind, it’s more important than ever to have a network that can keep up with the pace of a truly global business environment. We’ve written before about the current state of enterprise WAN and the pros and cons of SD-WAN; now it’s time to take a closer look at what to consider when evaluating SD-WAN solutions.

Time Is Money

Not only is the market becoming more global, it’s also becoming more competitive. This means that any second in productivity lost to a slow network or poor application performance can impact your bottom line.

This problem is amplified when you have operations in multiple places around the world. For example, a company might be headquartered in the U.S. (as more than a quarter of the top global companies are), but have manufacturing operations in China and sales offices in London and Paris.

Data is constantly moving back and forth between these locations over the company’s global WAN. Delays on these networks can range from 300-350 milliseconds. This might not seem like a lot but it adds up quickly, even taken over the course of a traditional eight-hour workday.

These delays are likely to have an impact on everything from business process to employee satisfaction to customer service if the network can’t keep pace with the demands its users are placing on it. You owe it to your organization, and your customers, to provide a better network alternative.

Some of these same challenges exist for companies that are entirely housed in one place. Information still needs to move from point A to point B, and it might be happening over a hardware-centric network rather than a WAN. Moving to global SD-WAN can provide the feeling of competing on a global scale and give you an advantage over domestic competitors.

Global SD-WAN Features

Cost Comparison - Aryaka vs. MPLS

Save Millions with Aryaka’s SD-WAN

With Aryaka, we’ve measured the impact in terms of costs savings. We’ve saved approximately 2-3 million dollars over a traditional MPLS solution… We’ve also seen a significant increase in file transfers. Anywhere up to 20x increase in speed.
Dustin Collins, VP of Global Infrastructure Services, Platform Specialty Products

There are many global SD-WAN options out there, but like a lot of things, not all of them are created equal. Keep these features in mind as you evaluate options for your organization:

Cloud-ready: Everyone works in the cloud these days, and your network shouldn’t be any different. Look for an option that contains cloud and SaaS connectivity as a default.

Embedded WAN Optimization: This feature helps with latency and other performance issues without additional cost to your company.

Streamlined contracts: A global SD-WAN should eliminate the need to work with multiple communication service providers and vendors to put a network in place. The global SD-WAN provider should be your single point of contact for your new network solution.

Short setup time: Your new network should be up and running quickly, and should be able to grow and scale right along with your business.

Total security: Data and information passing through your network should be secure at all times, no matter where it’s going or who has access to it.

Data replication: Storing information in multiple places allows your users to quickly access information no matter where in the world they are located.

End-to-end visibility: No network is going to operate perfectly all the time, so it’s important to have a plan in place to quickly troubleshoot issues when they arise. A built-in platform for visibility can help your IT team quickly identify and solve problems, and create opportunities for strategic planning.

Reduced complexity: A fully-managed WAN solution takes a lot of the maintenance burden off of your organization, which frees up resources to tackle other projects and priorities.

Zero CapEx and Alternatives to MPLS pricing: A global SD-WAN should not sacrifice quality in the name of cost, and should not require any capital expenditures to get up and running.

Learn More

Read Aryaka’s white paper on MPLS alternatives offers additional insight into the current landscape and how to move to a global option, or check out the other reports on all things global SD-WAN.

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3 Simple Ways for Choosing the Right MPLS Alternative https://www.aryaka.com/blog/3-simple-ways-choosing-right-mpls-alternative/ https://www.aryaka.com/blog/3-simple-ways-choosing-right-mpls-alternative/#respond Sat, 14 Nov 2020 15:46:55 +0000 https://www.aryaka.com/?p=17426 In our cloud-enabled world, MPLS is on the way out – but it’s dying a slow death. Legacy networks have not been made completely obsolete, but as more organizations attempt to access resources in the cloud or connect remote and mobile users across disparate geographies, we’ll find that our networks become more and more difficult […]

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3-ways-MPLS-alternative

In our cloud-enabled world, MPLS is on the way out – but it’s dying a slow death. Legacy networks have not been made completely obsolete, but as more organizations attempt to access resources in the cloud or connect remote and mobile users across disparate geographies, we’ll find that our networks become more and more difficult to manage.

The transition between legacy networks and software-defined networks may not seem like a smooth one, but no matter how ready you are to take the leap, there are a few migration options for keeping the enterprise WAN connected, secure, and performing optimally.

Option 1: Completely Replace MPLS

The most expeditious way to get exactly what you want from the enterprise WAN is to completely replace MPLS. This is easiest if you’re nearing the end of your legacy contracts.

Why would your organization want to replace MPLS right now? While MPLS may still have some utility, replacing MPLS now ensures that you’re ahead of the curve by the time it’s fully obsolete. In addition, the cost savings in both hardware and man-hours using a fully managed network as a service justify software-defining your enterprise WAN sooner rather than later.

The solution is to replace your network with a global private network with built-in WAN Optimization and SD-WAN in order to reduce the need for devices in each location. This not only provides the flexibility and scalability of the Internet but also allows you to keep the reliability of an MPLS-grade network.

Option 2: Utilize Hybrid WAN

If you’re not at the end of your MPLS contracts, or the idea of doing a complete network replacement seems daunting, you might consider a situation in which you use a software-defined private network as a hybrid WAN.

When your regional connectivity is unaffected, but you’ve begun expanding globally or are deploying cloud/SaaS applications, a hybrid WAN that leverages a software-defined global private network can help your organization achieve faster and more reliable global access compared to the public Internet, allowing you to seamlessly integrate cloud and SaaS workloads and applications into your legacy WAN.

A hybrid WAN can either find an interconnect point with your data center/an application origin and/or exist side-by-side with your existing network. The purpose of using this hybrid network is to make it easier for you to receive the same quality connectivity as your legacy network while still enabling you to connect with the cloud or quickly scale to new global offices or remote users.

In time, you may find that it makes sense to move fully to a software-defined global private WAN, but until your contracts expire or legacy technology becomes a less viable option, a hybrid network can support your cloud/SaaS applications and global data delivery.

Option 3: Create Backup Links

Another option is to software-define your backup links. And before you jump to the public Internet, keep in mind that having a primary MPLS link with the public Internet as a backup will not provide the same level of performance as an MPLS backup during outages. Performance expectations over the public Internet suffer due to unreliable latency and packet loss.

Using a software-defined global private network as a backup allows you to avoid reliance on the same primary MPLS provider for redundancy, while leveraging link diversity for better high-availability.

This is also a better option than deploying redundant MPLS links, because that can be expensive, complex, and take several months to deploy. Also, keep in mind that MPLS was not designed to access cloud and SaaS applications seamlessly. To link the network with the cloud, you will have to invest in workarounds, which can lead to higher network costs and a slowdown in productivity.

Global enterprises require a backup network solution that can be deployed instantly and can scale on-demand as bandwidth requirements increase.

The Next Step
Don’t wait for legacy networks to add to your costs as you expand globally and into the cloud. The smartest move you can make is the one that moves your networks closer to software-definition and away from creeping obsolescence.

With options designed to fit your enterprise WAN needs now and in the future, Aryaka’s global private SD-WAN can help you move toward a more reliable, more connected, more flexible enterprise WAN. Find out how by scheduling a proof of concept today.

SD-WAN free trial

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Why MPLS and Cloud Applications Don’t Mix https://www.aryaka.com/blog/mpls-cloud-applications-dont-mix/ https://www.aryaka.com/blog/mpls-cloud-applications-dont-mix/#respond Tue, 03 Nov 2020 20:04:05 +0000 https://www.aryaka.com/?p=17299 If you’re in charge of delivering and maintaining a global WAN, then you know the headache that this chart can induce. Why? Because legacy WAN connectivity approaches like MPLS do not address performance challenges for cloud and SaaS applications. This was not the case 20 years ago. In the past, these types of applications lived […]

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If you’re in charge of delivering and maintaining a global WAN, then you know the headache that this chart can induce.

Cloud native landscape v0.9.3

Why? Because legacy WAN connectivity approaches like MPLS do not address performance challenges for cloud and SaaS applications.

This was not the case 20 years ago.
In the past, these types of applications lived in the corporate data center. All you had to do was deploy MPLS, add WAN Optimization, and you’d be set.

Why doesn’t this model work anymore?
Legacy application delivery modelThe major limitation of MPLS is that it requires a termination point for access, and you need a WAN Optimization appliance on each end in order for it to provide real application performance improvements. Deploying a device in your own corporate data center is one thing; however, when you’re dealing with cloud and SaaS applications, you cannot control those locations since those environments are hosted by other companies.

Businesses relying on mission-critical cloud/SaaS applications are completely at the mercy of local Internet providers and the congested conditions of the public Internet infrastructure.

So, is there a solution besides hoping that the public Internet will be able to support the performance requirements of cloud-based and SaaS applications? In local regional environments, this may not be the case, but it certainly will become an issue once you traverse oceans and continents.

Latency and packet loss: Public Enemy #1 for applications
The public Internet is prone to high latency and packet loss, which results in poor application performance. Over long distances, high latency can result in employees having to wait several minutes to refresh their screens for business-critical and time-sensitive cloud and SaaS applications.

Latency fluctuations

Latency Fluctuations on Internet from Boston to Shanghai

In addition, packet loss ranging from 10-15% over the Internet is not abnormal between branch offices located in San Jose and China. This results in data having to be sent through the network over and over again. When you add the fact that your data and applications must also traverse a large distance in scenarios like this (latency), employees may have to wait several minutes to refresh their screens.

Packet Loss from AWS Beijing to AWS Virginia

15-60% Packet Loss on Internet from AWS Beijing to AWS Virginia

For anyone attempting to access mission-critical, time-sensitive applications like Salesforce or SAP Business By Design, this lag in wait time makes the application virtually unusable.

A recent interview we had with Forrester Principal Analyst, Andre Kindness, confirmed these dilemmas, especially when it comes to applications like voice and video conferencing:

“A lot of business professionals are doing voice calls over the internet,” he explained, “But in the world of business where you know packets drop and latency can be an issue, when you are having conversations with people in different parts of the globe, trying to understand those customers, partners, or peers with calls dropping packets and having long delays will make a huge dramatic difference on the business and make it very difficult to build relationships.”

Is SD-WAN an answer?
Edge-based SD-WAN may be an answer for local deployments, but it is definitely not the answer for global ones. SD-WAN is not a new connectivity option; it merely leverages already existing connections, such as the public Internet or a hybrid scenario that includes both the public Internet and MPLS links for specific applications.

A new class of connectivity is required.
To solve global application delivery issues you need a global private network that provides the flexibility of the public Internet and the reliability of MPLS. To that end, we designed Aryaka’s network to be the only global SD-WAN with WAN so you can successfully deliver any application, anywhere in the world. We not only provide secure access to data and applications from the corporate data center, but also to any cloud and SaaS environment.

Global enterprises access Aryaka’s Managed SD-WAN through their local Internet and connect to one of our points of presence (PoPs) around the world. This enables them to be up and running on Aryaka’s private WAN within hours or days, compared to the months it takes for an MPLS deployment.

global_mpls

The network is also layered with WAN Optimization, which helps increase throughput over the network and accelerates applications no matter where they reside and from where their end users access them.

How fast can applications be deployed and accelerated on Aryaka?
One of the major benefits of using Aryaka’s global SD-WAN is that deployment and application performance are dramatically accelerated. We can look to one of one of our customers for an example:

Recently, JAS Forwarding Worldwide, one of the global leaders in freight forwarding and logistics, started using Aryaka to speed up performance and improve the quality of their Zoom video conferencing service for executives and employees around the world.

Using Zoom over the Internet provided challenges for JAS. Their legacy Internet-based network failed to meet quality expectations and resulted in frequent disconnects during video conferencing calls.

Once Aryaka was deployed for Zoom video conferencing by JAS, they saw almost instantaneous improvement in audio and video quality, as well as delivery, over the video conferencing platform globally.

“All it took was a phone call to Aryaka, and within just minutes, the network was up and ready for all traffic from Zoom. We experienced better-than-MPLS video conferencing quality with Aryaka at a fraction of the cost,” said Mark Baker, CIO of JAS. “Not only did end users stop complaining about voice and video quality issues, the usage of the Zoom platform within JAS started to rise.”

The solution for complete application delivery
IT staff might be able to relate to the amount of applications shown above and the difficulty involved to deliver them to end users worldwide with optimum performance. We sympathize with the task they have at hand, which is why we have designed our global SD-WAN solution to resolve these issues in a matter of hours with simplicity never seen before on any network.

We invite you to speak with us or our customers about how Aryaka’s global SD-WAN can help you address global connectivity needs. You can also get started with a proof of concept today.

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