wan transformation what to consider before renewing ......what to consider before renewing your mpls...

1What to Consider Before Renewing Your MPLS ContractT h e F u t u r e o f S D -WA N . To d a y.

WAN Transformation

What to Consider Before Renewing Your MPLS Contract

MPLS

https://www.catonetworks.com?utm_source=doc


As your MPLS contract comes up for renewal, it’s a good time to answer the question facing IT

managers across the globe: Should you continue connecting your sites with MPLS?

Renewing or adding bandwidth to MPLS means accepting the many limitations that have marked

MPLS services:

• The hefty bill that comes with MPLS renewals, particularly as you upgrade bandwidth.

• Poor performance when accessing cloud and Internet resources across the MPLS backbone.

• Weeks and months of waiting for delivery of new MPLS circuits.

• Having to open trouble tickets with the carrier for even the smallest items — and then waiting

endlessly for resolutions.

If avoiding these and other challenges is important to you and your organization, augmenting or

replacing your MPLS-based WAN with Internet connectivity and SD-WAN is an option.

But how do you determine the right architecture for your needs? This eBook should help.

MPLSData Traffic



MPLS

INTERNET/SD-WAN

MPLS

Three Approaches to MPLS Contracts

Renew Continue with MPLS and use Internet-based VPNs to connect locations too

small or remote for this service.

ReplaceEliminate MPLS and connect locations with Internet links and SD-WAN.

AugmentAdd Internet links alongside MPLS, and connect sites to both services using SD-WAN — creating

a hybrid WAN. The SD-WAN will select the right network based on traffic conditions, application

requirements, business priorities, and other factors.



When Choosing Your Strategy, Consider Six Areas

CAPACITY

AGILITY

GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY

AVAILABILITY

SECURITY

CLOUD AND MOBILITY

Key Architectural Considerations



CapacityMPLS capacity costs more than Internet capacity. Capacity costs are of

particular concern now that Internet-bound traffic constitutes most of an

enterprise’s network traffic. Backhauling Internet traffic to reach a central

Internet portal consumes premium MPLS capacity and wastes money.

Instead, consider SD-WAN and local Internet access at branch offices.

By mixing and matching types of Internet access, IT can align transport

costs and predictability with site requirements. Critical sites can be given

more expensive, symmetrical Internet lines with dedicated capacity.

For small offices, broadband and other best-effort services could be

preferable. They offer more capacity at lower cost, but actual capacity

will fluctuate with congestion. With SD-WAN, IT decides how much or

little to spend on capacity — not the carrier.


CAPACITY

AGILITY

GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY

AVAILABILITY

SECURITY

CLOUD AND MOBILITY

MB



AvailabilityUptime is, of course, essential for the enterprise WAN and is particularly

challenging in the last mile, where there’s limited redundancy. MPLS addresses

availability with personnel, monitoring equipment, and 24/7 management codified

into end-to-end service-level agreements (SLAs), typically at 99.99% uptime. But

to receive a 99.99% SLA, the MPLS service requires redundancy in the last mile,

an investment that’s often cost prohibitive for many small- and even medium-

sized offices. All this investment in people, process, and hardware becomes a

major factor in the high cost of MPLS services. SD-WAN’s use of inexpensive

Internet access makes widespread last-mile redundancy practical, replacing the

carrier’s over-investment in people and process. With SD-WAN, IT can configure

even small branch offices with redundant appliances in high-availability mode,

redundant, dual-homed connections, and 4G/LTE backup transport, yielding

last-mile uptime that can match and even exceed the availability of a single MPLS

connection. If MPLS is necessary, SD-WAN can augment MPLS with Internet links

and dynamic traffic steering based on application priority and link behavior.


www

CAPACITY

AGILITY

GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY

AVAILABILITY

SECURITY

CLOUD AND MOBILITY



AgilityNetwork agility dramatically impacts IT responsiveness to business

needs. The speed of adding new sites, making configuration changes,

and troubleshooting is extremely significant. MPLS circuit delivery

typically takes a few weeks or months, depending on region. Problem

resolution depends on a carrier with its fully managed model. MPLS

services leave enterprises at the mercy of these providers. With a

self-service management model and the ease of choosing last-mile

transports, SD-WAN puts enterprises in control of all their moves, adds,

and changes.


CAPACITY

AGILITY

GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY

AVAILABILITY

SECURITY

CLOUD AND MOBILITY



SecurityTo eliminate the backhaul that wastes MPLS capacity and undermines

Internet and cloud performance, branch offices are best equipped with

secure, direct Internet access. MPLS architectures traditionally centralize

security, requiring a major rethinking of the network security architecture

to support distributed Internet access. Locations must be equipped

with Internet access lines, and network security appliances deployed.

With SD-WAN, a full network security stack can be converged into the

network, creating seamless protection of Internet access everywhere.


CAPACITY

AGILITY

GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY

AVAILABILITY

SECURITY

CLOUD AND MOBILITY



Global ConnectivityWhen applications operate over distance, latency and packet

loss are the major factors determining throughput. Mitigating

both is critical to global WAN performance. MPLS networks

are engineered for minimal latency and packet loss, but they

come at a very high cost. Also, when accessing cloud and

Internet resources, end-to-end engineering of the route is nearly

impossible, and traffic backhaul over the MPLS network often

adds latency. Furthermore, using the Internet middle mile over

long distances introduces suboptimal routing and dropped

packets at public traffic exchanges, inflating latency and packet

loss. MPLS elimination in the middle mile requires an affordable,

private backbone that can reduce the cost of global MPLS

connectivity and improve on the unpredictable Internet.


CAPACITY

AGILITY

GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY

AVAILABILITY

SECURITY

CLOUD AND MOBILITY

Read more on how to deliver reliable, high-performance

WANs into the Asia Pacific and China

https://www.catonetworks.com?utm_source=dochttps://go.catonetworks.com/SD-WANs-China-Asia-Pacifics.html?utm_source=doc


Cloud and MobilityMigration to the cloud and widespread adoption of mobility are new

considerations for traditional WANs. MPLS services introduce latency

when backhauling cloud traffic to the centralized Internet portal. Once

it leaves the MPLS network, Internet-bound traffic is exposed to the

unpredictability of the public Internet. Mobile users aren’t supported by

MPLS service, requiring additional mobile access solutions. SD-WAN

eliminates the backhaul, sending traffic directly from the branch to the

cloud. Few SD-WAN solutions extend the platform to mobile users,

optimizing security and connectivity to both WAN and cloud destinations

anytime and anywhere.


CAPACITY

AGILITY

GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY

AVAILABILITY

SECURITY

CLOUD AND MOBILITY



Answering the questionIs MPLS replacement right for your organization? Should you renew your contract? That depends on your requirements.

ReplaceFor maximum cost savings and flexibility, migrate to SD-

WAN with Internet last-mile connections. For global WAN

support, consider a global private backbone, which is

comparable to MPLS but a fraction of the cost. Security

and mobility can be part of the SD-WAN as well, slashing

operational expenses.

Read more

AugmentIf you can’t eliminate MPLS, use a hybrid configuration of MPLS,

Internet links, and SD-WAN. This way, you get the capacity

and availability of SD-WAN but without maximizing WAN cost

reduction. Consider SD-WAN approaches that can enable MPLS

elimination in the future, especially around global, security, cloud,

and mobility cases. As you grow comfortable with the SD-WAN

architecture, you’ll be able to reduce or even eliminate MPLS,

maximizing your return on investment.

Read more

Renew Continue with MPLS if forced by external factors, such as

regulatory compliance, and if budget, cloud performance, and

mobility aren’t concerns. Nonetheless, SD-WAN is likely to be

your future. That’s why carriers selling MPLS services also offer

SD-WAN. Its agility and cost savings often can’t be ignored, even

if SD-WAN is used only in hybrid deployment.

MPLS

INTERNET/SD-WAN

MPLS

https://www.catonetworks.com?utm_source=dochttps://go.catonetworks.com/MPLS-or-SLA-backed-Affordable-Backbone.html?utm_source=dochttps://go.catonetworks.com/LP_How-to-Migrate-from-MPLS-to-SD-WAN.html?utm_source=doc


The real question isn’t if you should switch to SD-WAN, but which SD-WAN architecture suits your organization.

The Ultimate Checklist

Questions Approach

CAPACITY Dedicated vs. Best-effort • Do you need to upgrade WAN capacity?

• If so, what type of upgrade — best-effort

(ADSL, cable) or dedicated (fiber)?

Use some or all of the MPLS budget to boost capacity

and redundancy through a combination of multiple high-

capacity Internet links. Make sure you have dedicated

capacity similar to your MPLS capacity.

AVAILABILITY Reliability and uptime • What’s the maximum uptime required by

your most critical applications?

Replace or augment MPLS with multiple, dual-homed

links run in active/active configuration with automatic

failover.

Time-to-repair • How much downtime can the business

withstand at a branch office (minutes/

hours per year -- quantify number of 9s)?

Redundant design (SD-WAN HA, multiple ISP links)

reduces the need for fast (and expensive) time-to-repair

SLA.

AGILITY Time-to-deploy • How critical is the time-to-deploy for new

sites?

The use of Internet capacity and zero-touch provisioning

enables SD-WAN to deploy new locations in hours (with

4G) or days with broadband Internet until an MPLS circuit

can be deployed, if required.

Time to make adds, moves, and changes • How important it is for you to change your

WAN quickly?

A self-service or co-managed service enables fast

changes while the service provider does the heavy lifting

of continuous monitoring of the shared infrastructure.

SECURITY Branch Internet security including next-

generation firewall (NGFW) and IPS

• Do you want to offload Internet traffic at the

branch?

• How will you handle branch office security

(beyond building VPN tunnels over the

Internet to the datacenter)?

• How can you avoid deploying network

security appliances?

An SD-WAN solution with a built-in, full network security

stack everywhere saves having to deploy security

appliances and point solutions, reducing overall cost and

complexity.

GLOBAL

CONNECTIVITY

Global connectivity between locations • Do you need to connect sites in remote,

hard-to-reach locations?

• Do you currently use global MPLS?

• Do you use the public Internet because

MPLS is too expensive?

An affordable private backbone cuts MPLS costs and

improves global latency for Internet-connected sites.

CLOUD AND

MOBILITY

Integrating cloud datacenters and mobile

users with the WAN

• Do you have AWS VPCs or Microsoft Azure

instances you need to connect to your

WAN?

• How do you securely connect mobile users

to the WAN and the Internet?

Consider SD-WAN solutions that seamlessly extend

the WAN to cloud datacenters, cloud applications, and

mobile users.



To learn more visit our website at

www.CatoNetworks.com

or contact us for a brief demo

Contact us

About Cato NetworksCato Networks provides organizations with a cloud-based and secure global SD-WAN.

Cato delivers a converged networking and security platform that securely connects

all enterprise locations, people, and data. Cato Cloud cuts MPLS costs, improves

performance between global locations and to cloud applications, eliminates branch

appliances, provides secure Internet access everywhere, and seamlessly integrates mobile

users and cloud datacenters into the WAN.
https://www.catonetworks.com?utm_source=dochttps://go.catonetworks.com/How-to-Migrate-Sits-to-SD-WAN.html?utm_source=dochttps://www.catonetworks.com/contact-us?utm_source=doc

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