Companies in South Africa that adopt a cloud-first strategy will benefit greatly from resultant IT cost savings and improved business agility.
However; many South African businesses are trying to resolve the same issue – the lack of an agile Wide Area Network (WAN) that is able to adapt to increasing cloud and security requirements.
Cloud-first and hybrid cloud solutions can significantly impact network operations, as an increasing percentage of traffic flows directly to, from and between the client’s on-premises infrastructure and various cloud based platforms.
Traditional MPLS and single network connection architectures simply cannot support the economics or agility required for a hybrid cloud and cloud-first strategy.
MPLS is costly and time-consuming to configure and requires that Internet-bound traffic is backhauled to a centralised data centre for inspection.
Head Office and branch offices have access to slow performance backhaul traffic that significantly impacts remote users.
Branch offices and remote users require direct Internet access for their cloud services consumption. Providing direct-to-net access means redesigning the network with security and management in mind.
Deployed: VxCloud Managed SD-WAN
In an effort to assist South African businesses in resolving the aforementioned issues, VxCloud has designed and deployed two Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solutions – one for clients and service providers who require an onsite SD-WAN to manage their own hardware and software, and another for clients that don’t require their own infrastructure yet would like to take advantage of the CAPEX-saving “Managed SD-WAN solution”.Using the VxCloud Multitenant Orchestrator, clients will have their own Gateways and Branch Office CPE (Client Premise Equipment), thus allowing for better management and support.
VxCloud provides for all of the clients’ SD-WAN requirements including recommendations, designs, and best practices deployments. Client operational support resources are also trained in order to provide ongoing support and management.
Managed SD-WAN is available for clients who want to reduce CAPEX and use the VxCloud Managed SD-WAN with integrated security, web security, bandwidth and support.
VxCloud has created a unique set of SD-WAN related skills to support all types of networking scenarios including MPLS, LTE, Fibre and Mero Fibre networks tied into the SD-WAN solution.
VxCloud SD-WAN provides secure local and regional breakouts to the cloud, enabling traffic to flow directly to the Internet from the closest available network and Internet link.
If additional levels of security are required, SD-WAN technologies are able to segment and route sensitive data to cloud security providers (Zscaler) for further inspection.
SD-WAN peering points in South Africa are provided from all of the major Teraco data centres in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Kwa-Zulu Natal. SD-WAN backhaul traffic is provided and supported as part of the VxCloud SD-WAN service, and is included in the price of the SD-WAN managed service solution.
Azure and O365 cloud networking integration
Microsoft is deploying O365 and Azure datacentres in South Africa, and as a Microsoft partner, VxCloud has designed, deployed and tested four Azure and O365 cloud networking integration points for our clients’ convenience.These points are Express route, Enterprise VPN Gateways, Basic VPN Gateways and the SD-WAN Virtual CPE (Certified for Azure).VxCloud will provide guidance and expertise on the integration requirements best suited for each client.
One of the major advantages of utilising the VxCloud SD-WAN is the deployment of the Virtual CPE for Azure (Certified Virtual Appliance). The Azure Certified Virtual CPE is deployed in Azure and provides additional networking features including QoS, bandwidth management visibility and security.
A combination of the different solutions and experienced Azure VNET design resources will provide networking redundancy, connectivity and security best practises deployments.
VxCloud has also designed and implemented multiple solutions as part of the Managed SD-WAN service including the following:
SD-WAN that improves all aspects of networking – including bandwidth optimisation, improved Unified Communications, clear VoIP, cloud integration, traffic monitoring, traffic routing, network monitoring and security – must be a consideration for each company, as Head Offices and branch offices will be gearing up for the digital and cloud transformation journey.
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