The global pandemic has accelerated enterprise IT teams’ desire to simplify the management of complex multi-cloud and edge environments and operate them holistically as a single WAN. It is also driving IT requirements for delivering the highest levels of application performance for all their cloud-hosted business applications, from any network in the emerging post-pandemic environment. This shift is intensifying the urgency to transform conventional data center and MPLS-centric and VPN-based networks to a more modern hybrid SD-WAN environment that combines MPLS and internet with secure managed internet-based cloud services.
In a hybrid WAN environment, application performance across a WAN can vary considerably from site to site or region to region because of underlying factors such as latency, packet loss and jitter that must be taken into consideration, especially using a mix of MPLS and broadband connectivity services.
The Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform, acquired with Silver Peak, supports advanced visibility, routing, control and intent-based policy management for any application thereby improving the performance and availability of business applications by dynamically routing traffic to virtually any site, automatically adapting to real-time network conditions.
Let’s examine three of the most popular enterprise SaaS applications in use today, (Microsoft 365, Zoom and salesforce.com) and where Aruba EdgeConnect improves application performance and delivers the highest quality of experience across these popular business applications.
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is the most widely deployed business SaaS application globally, and Aruba EdgeConnect easily integrates with Microsoft’s global network of 365 entry points by using geo-location information to correlate EdgeConnect appliance locations with the closest onramp to the Microsoft network.
Aruba EdgeConnect continuously learns and discovers new Microsoft 365 end points and/or IP addresses and automatically re-configures EdgeConnect when a new, closer Microsoft 365 end point becomes available to help optimize latency-sensitive Microsoft 365 applications. Enterprises can also locally break-out their Microsoft 365 traffic directly from any of their branch locations to minimize latency and deliver the highest quality of experience to end users.
Zoom Collaboration and Communication – and also MS Teams, Webex and Google Meet
The COVID-19 pandemic has also seen a spike in the use of business collaboration and communication tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WebEx, Google Meet and others for employee meetings, projects and virtual conferences.
One example is in healthcare, where medical providers increasingly rely on telemedicine sessions using Zoom or Webex. The number of concurrent sessions has increased from one to two per day to ten or more per location. Aruba EdgeConnect business intent overlays make it easy to specify that real-time applications like Zoom, Webex, or Teams use local broadband with EdgeConnect path conditioning enabled, as the preferred underlay for efficient local breakout directly to the cloud. If there is further need for additional bandwidth, EdgeConnect tunnel bonding and dynamic path control can bond the MPLS and broadband underlays to create a single higher bandwidth logical link. The result is a consistent high-quality video and voice experience for end users.
Salesforce.com
Salesforce (SFDC) is today’s standard tool for customer resource management (CRM) and collaboration. While Salesforce may perform well for users in one location, the dynamic nature of the internet may negatively impact Salesforce performance across other locations intermittently.
Aruba EdgeConnect features SaaS optimization technology that finds the optimal route to applications like SFDC that are hosted in the cloud, as well as on private networks. It does this using First-packet iQ, which automatically identifies and classifies more than 13,000 SaaS applications and more than 300 million web domains on the first packet and then applies machine learning technology, application signatures and geo-location to optimize SaaS application performance.
This capability when combined with path conditioning and advanced WAN routing interoperability, ensures that SFDC traffic is sent over the shortest or least-congested path every time. During network testing, for example, the time required to retrieve files from Salesforce improved by more than 20x, decreasing from over two minutes to just two seconds.
As you seek to accelerate your digital transformation journey to the cloud, you don’t have to compromise application performance. Learn more about how AT&T SD-WAN with Silver Peak, powered by Aruba EdgeConnect, can help you deliver consistent application performance and the highest quality of experience to your users.
