Paving the path to a thin branch office

Silver Peak has outlined its vision for augmenting or replacing multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) networks with enterprise-grade broadband WANs. Silver Peak is addressing the demand of enterprises and service providers to leverage the internet by delivering solutions that enable customers to use the most cost-effective connectivity available, enable fast, automated set-up, and the ability to make the internet perform like a private network.

“Early conversations around leveraging the internet for the WAN have focused primarily on the ability to use multiple forms of connectivity and zero touch provisioning,” said David Hughes, founder and CEO of Silver Peak. “We do not believe that is enough. Despite the mounting frustration with MPLS connectivity costs and inflexibility, many customers still do not believe the internet can provide the security and performance needed for today’s business-critical traffic. Our strategy is to deliver solutions that enable broadband WANs and offer point-and-click deployments, but also make the internet act like a private network. The combination of these features pave the path to ‘thin’ branch offices with reduced need for multiple devices.”

According to leading analyst firm Gartner, “Most network managers are feeling the pain of an increasingly complicated WAN with costly and time-consuming branch office solutions. Emerging software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) solutions enable network managers to simplify the branch office by introducing a central policy manager and replacing complex routing with easily configurable path forwarding.” 

With more than 2,000 customers, Silver Peak combines experience deploying large scale networks with the ability to deliver broadband WANs (often referred to as SD-WANs), the next disruptive wave of WAN technology. Customers, such as Group Dekko and Kingston Technology, are already using Silver Peak to leverage broadband internet connectivity to improve their businesses and begin the journey toward a thin branch.

Partners such as Alexander Open Systems, AmeriNet, Exclusive Networks, Proact, Response Data Communications, and Transact are also looking to leverage the new Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect solution to meet their customers’ requirements for moving to a broadband WAN.

DELIVERING REAL BUSINESS VALUE

Silver Peak is the only company capable of creating the most agile broadband WAN that also powers industry-leading performance improvements to any form of connectivity. Silver Peak customers benefit from significant:
* Flexibility - Customers can rapidly and non-disruptively augment or replace their MPLS networks with any form of broadband connectivity.
* Visibility & Control - Customers benefit from unprecedented levels of visibility into both legacy and cloud applications and gain the unique ability to centrally assign business intent policies to secure and control all WAN traffic.
* Performance - End-user satisfaction is significantly improved due to consistent and significantly enhanced application performance.
* Savings - Silver Peak can dramatically lower connectivity, equipment and network administration costs by up to 90% by enabling customers to leverage lower-cost internet bandwidth.

“Dell is committed to Open Networking and freeing customers from traditional, rigid infrastructure,” said Arpit Joshipura, vice president, product strategy and management, Dell Networking. “Silver Peak’s Unity EdgeConnect is consistent with Dell’s open approach – disaggregating the underlying WAN physical infrastructure and allowing customers the freedom to choose broadband, MPLS, or a hybrid approach to help lower OPEX and increase flexibility without sacrificing performance.”

UNITY: THE PREMIER PORTFOLIO OF BROADBAND AND HYBRID WAN SOLUTIONS

As part of today’s announcements, Silver Peak unveiled a new set of solutions that enable customers to deploy hybrid or all-broadband WANs using multiple types of connectivity, including MPLS, cable, DSL, LTE, etc. Silver Peak’s virtual WAN solution takes SD-WANs to a new level. It comprises three new Silver Peak products:
* Unity EdgeConnect - creates a virtual network overlay that enables customers to move to a broadband WAN at their own pace, whether site-by-site, or via a hybrid WAN approach that leverages both MPLS and broadband Internet connectivity.
* Unity Orchestrator – provides unprecedented levels of visibility into both legacy and cloud applications, and the unique ability to centrally assign business intent policies to secure and control all WAN traffic.
* Unity Boost - an optional performance pack that accelerates application performance as needed.

Hughes added, “Through all the hype around SD-WANs, three core principles are clear. To build a new enterprise-grade broadband WAN, you must create a secure overlay network that can leverage multiple types of connectivity. You also must be able to see and control all applications, and you need to give users consistent and reliable performance. If done correctly, over time customers can begin to reduce the amount of infrastructure needed to support branch locations. Silver Peak is best-positioned to help customers meet these requirements.”