MASERGY’SMANAGED SD-WAN

New Performance Optionsfor Hybrid Networks

Business Challenges WAN Ecosystem Features and Benefits Use Cases

1

INTRODUCTIONOrganizations are leveraging technology to transform the way they conduct business; from the product and services they deliver, to the manner in which they interact with customers, partners and employees. This digital transformation is critical to success in today’s digital world and requires a fundamental reconsideration of information technology strategy.

The increased adoption of public cloud services and software as a service (SaaS), the ubiquity of broadband access and new specialized enterprise applications are key trends driving digital transformation.

To fully harness these disruptive trends, a fundamental shift in the design and delivery of the enterprise network—the central nervous system of the modern enterprise—is required. Legacy, one-size-fits-all networks are rigid and lack the flexibility and programmability companies require to gain a competitive edge in today’s digital world. Enterprise networks need to be as agile as the cloud.

Software-Define WAN (SD-WAN) is a relatively new approach to designing and deploying wide area networks to meet business and application performance requirements. It combines application performance-enhancing capabilities with centralized orchestration for rapid service deployment.

Given the ubiquity and commoditization of broadband access, some suggest that the combination of broadband Internet and SD-WAN will soon dominate the enterprise WAN marketplace.

Others argue that lack of interoperability standards and performance guarantees coupled with implementation complexity will stunt widespread enterprise adoption of SD-WAN for the foreseeable future.

Masergy, a pioneer in developing and leveraging disruptive technologies that transform enterprise networking, security, and communications, recently concluded extensive testing of several commercially available SD-WAN solutions. Masergy found that while SD-WAN is still evolving, it is a valuable, performance enhancing technology when applied appropriately.

As a result, Masergy is launching fully Managed SD-WAN as yet another powerful component of its global Hybrid Networking solution suite.

SD-WAN is a relatively new

approach to deploying

WANs to meet business and

application performance

requirements

SD-WAN

Performance Visibility

Extensible Security

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HYBRID NETWORKING WITH SD-WANOur global Software Defined Platform powers Masergy’s Hybrid Networking solutions. Enterprises can access this platform via three fully managed connectivity options:

• Intelligent Connectivity, which delivers high performance, private connectivity

• Network as a Service, which o�ers secure tunnels through client-provided broadband connections

• Masergy Managed Broadband, which provides Internet connectivity combined with proactive monitoring

Once connected, an unlimited number virtual network environments and a full line of managed network functions can be deployed to create highly customized networks optimized for each client’s unique price and performance requirements. Masergy brings many of its proven Hybrid Networking capabilities to Managed

Managed SD-WAN is

transport agnostic and

can be used on any

hybrid network or

broadband connection

SD-WAN, including rapid deployment, simplified change management, and real time analytics and service control. Masergy’s Intelligent Service Control (ISC) portal remains the central user interface that provides application-specific analyt-ics and policy controls for Managed SD-WAN solutions.

Masergy’s Managed SD-WAN is transport agnostic and can be used to enhance global hybrid networks or deployed natively over broadband Internet connections.

Whether companies are looking to enhance application perfor-mance with dynamic application-based routing, enhanced security with encrypted tunnels or simply want to intelligently aggregate data over two or more WAN connections to drive cost e�ciencies and survivability, Masergy designs the best networking solution based on each customer’s specifications.

MASERGY SOFTWARE DEFINED PLATFORM

MPLS VPLS VPWS INTERNET +

SD-WAN ROUTERS FIREWALLS SESSION BORDERCONTROLLERS

WAN OPTIMIZATION WAN ENCRYPTION

.

MANAGED NETWORKFUNCTIONS

PREMISE, VIRTUAL, CLOUD

.

UNLIMITED VIRTUALENVIRONMENTS

ANALYTICS ANDSERVICE CONTROL

CONNECTIVITYOPTIONS

CLOUDMARKETPLACE

. .

. .

Intelligent Connectivity Networking as a Service Managed Broadband

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REALITY CHECK

More companies are

sending their data to

cloud service providers

through multiple Internet

connections

be constrained when using SD-WAN solely over broadband Internet. And while centralized policy management and zero touch provisioning make SD-WAN seem like a convenient plug and play solution, in fact, set-up and maintenance is often complex.

When implementing a new technology, there can be unanticipated execution risks and expenses that are inherently greater than with well-established solutions. Masergy’s Managed SD-WAN helps mitigate these risks by handling all design, deployment, maintenance and ongoing 24x7 monitoring of the solution. Whether SD-WAN is being used to enhance a hybrid network or combined with broadband access to deliver a pure over-the-top only solution, Masergy’s Managed SD-WAN delivers the latest innovations while avoiding vendor lock in and unanticipated implementation challenges.

SD-WAN, like all new technologies, comes with its share of industry hype. There are some key considerations IT professionals need to take into account when adopting this service.Most SD-WAN products and services provide the following features: • Application reporting • Zero-touch provisioning • Active-Active WAN links • Internet and MPLS overlays • Centralized policy management • Policy-based application routing • Hardware and virtualized deployment models

But there are drawbacks to SD-WAN solutions. The overhead associated with Internet tunneling and limited routing capabilities need to be taken into account. Upload speeds may

MANAGED SD-WAN SUPPORTS MULTIPLE TRANSPORT OPTIONS

BROADBAND

MPLS

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MASERGY MANAGED SD-WAN: FEATURES AND BENEFITS

The Masergy Managed SD-WAN solution is the latest addition to Masergy’s Managed Network f(n) family of fully managed network services. Consistent with our modular and extensible approach to network design, SD-WAN is available across three deployment models: • Dedicated premise hardware • Distributed virtualized software implementations • Cloud based

These deployment models can be combined in a hybrid archi-tecture and interoperate seamlessly for maximum design flexibility.

In addition to the standard features listed above, Masergy’s Managed SD-WAN also o�ers: • Adaptive forward error correction • Dynamic path control • Direct peering for native routing • MPLS, NaaS and broadband Internet transports • Centralized policy and configuration management • Traffic classification based on application, DSCP, or IP header • WAN optimization

Since Managed SD-WAN is transport agnostic, it can be deployed in conjunction with any combination of Masergy Intelligent Connectivity, Network as a Service (NaaS), and Managed Broadband. IT supports full mesh and hub-and-spoke network topologies.

The solution comes standard with business intent policy overlays that can be customized for each unique client environment.

Business intent routing policies can be applied based on subnet, application type, protocol, and VLAN or DSCP information. Business-policy routing lets customers switch transports on the fly based on client-defined parameters, as opposed to destination-based routing, which does not support this capability.

Dynamic Path Control provides real-time traffic steering to diverse WAN links and business intent overlays, intelligently utilizing all available bandwidth and enabling sophisticated failover recovery in the event of an outage or brownout.

Adaptive forward error correction and real time packet order correction further enhances application performance, especially when utilizing broadband connectivity. Additional WAN optimi-zation enhancements, such as data de-duplication, compression, caching and TCP/IP acceleration, are also available. And all VPN tunnels are automatically established and secured with 256 AES encryption.

Masergy provides six

business intent policy

overlays

Business intent overlays create virtual networks that support multiple transport options and application performance requirements.

TRANSPORT

MPLS NaaS BroadbandInternet

LIMITED

NORMAL

PRIORITY

CRITICAL

VIDEO

VOICE

BUSINESS INTENT OVERLAYS

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USE CASES Managed SD-WAN is an attractive option for companies with growing bandwidth requirements and the desire to dynamically leverage multiple connections to increase application performance and drive price-performance optimization.

The three most prevalent use cases are:

• Multi-active path over hybrid networks

• Primary path for hybrid networks for small offices

• Pure broadband internet overlays

Managed SD-WAN is an

attractive option for

companies with growing

bandwidth requirements

In the use case below, multiple WAN links, including broad-band, MPLS, and NaaS, are used to enable dynamic application-based routing. Although other techniques, like split tunneling, can be leveraged to enable active-active use of multiple connections, these techniques simply cannot match the sophistication of dynamic policy based routing available via Managed SD-WAN. Multi-active path also delivers resiliency with fast failover capabilities.

SD-WAN

Critical AppsReal-Time Apps

Internet AccessCloud AppsFile Sharing

NaaS

Intelligent Connectivity

Managed Broadband

. . . . . . . . . MTE

MasergySoftware Defined

Platform MPLS

Internet

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . .

.

MULTI-ACTIVE PATH OVER HYBRID NETWORKS

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USE CASES In the second use case below, Managed SD-WAN can be used to enhance NaaS with dynamic policy-based routing and forward error correction. Masergy’s NaaS leverages broadband connections to deliver secure tunnels into virtual networks deployed on the Masergy high-performance global network.

NaaS is regularly used to cost e�ectively and securely connect small and remote o�ces to virtual private networks. By combining NaaS with SD-WAN, priority tra�c can be dynamically routed over the Masergy network to reduce jitter and increase performance.

Managed SD-WAN o�ers

dynamic policy-based

routing and forward error

correction

. . .

. . .

.

SD-WAN

Private

Public

Managed Broadband

. . . . . . . . . . . .

MTE

MasergySoftware Defined

Platform MPLS

Internet

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

>

SMALL OFFICE - PRIMARY PATH

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USE CASES The third scenario below makes exclusive use of cost-e�cient broadband links. The primary challenges of pure broadband overlays include performance issues such as jitter, latency and packet loss, along with less-desirable mean time to repair (MTTR) guarantees of the broadband connection itself. While no technology can overcome lack of stringent MTTR service level agreements, Managed SD-WAN helps neutralize some of the performance limitations by applying Forward Error Correc-tion (FEC) to recover dropped packets and improve the quality of data transmissions. The use of multiple broadband connec-tions deliver resiliency with fast failover capabilities.

Managed SD-WAN helps

neutralize some of the

performance limitations

of the Internet

SD-WAN

Managed Broadband

Internet

Internet

Managed Broadband

PURE BROADBAND INTERNET OVERLAYS

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CONCLUSION

Masergy’s Managed

SD-WAN solution

delivers the most

advanced SD-WAN

feature set on the

marketLearn how Masergy's global networksolutions can make your business

more agile.

Let Masergy custom design your nexthybrid network.

Contact Masergy for a free consultation

+1 (866) 588-5885 +44 (0) 207 173 6900"

http://www.masergy.com/solutions/hybrid-networking

SD-WAN provides an e�ective means for companies to make maximum use of all of the capacity they are paying for. Masergy’s Managed SD-WAN solution delivers the most advanced SD-WAN feature set on the market as a fully managed solution, mitigating the risks and expenses associated with deploying any new technology on your own.

Is SD-WAN right for your network evolution? Honestly, it depends. Give us a call and we will help you arrive at the optimum network architecture for your IT environment.

Masergy does not deploy technology for technology’s sake. Our solution engineers will work with you to design and deploy networking solutions optimized for your unique application mix and business priorities.