ATCCiscoSoftware Defined WAN (SD-WAN)Networking
Case Study • • 3 minute read

WWT SD-WAN Labs Reduce Costs and Increase Speed to Outcome

Code upgrades, change application and visibility were deciding factors in a proof of concept (POC) that evaluated Cisco Viptela.

In this case study

 SD-WAN solutions offer increased efficiencies

Applications that manage warehouse operations need to be fast, reliable and cost-efficient. A WWT customer determined SD-WAN would improve the quality of service of their warehouse applications and streamline operations.

The modern approach to branch routing would allow them to centrally manage 600 sites from the cloud, which would lessen the cost of maintaining legacy on-premise infrastructure. Two routers operating at each site would provide greater redundancy and better quality of service than the company's existing Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) circuits.

Before coming to WWT, our customer had been exploring Cisco SD-WAN (Viptela) and another leading SD-WAN solution. To move forward with infrastructure modernization initiatives, they needed a safe place to compare the products away from their production environment.

 ATC  provides valuable insight for selecting SD-WAN solution

The company used the WWT Advanced Technology Center (ATC) to perform a proof of concept (POC) product comparison. WWT recreated the customer's branch network in the ATC providing a safe environment to test the competing solutions head to head. To mimic the organization's branch network, WWT used the following testing tools, which are available through the ATC:

  • Ixia IxLoad/IxNetwork Traffic Generation.
  • Windows 10/Windows 2012 virtual machines.
  • Built-in SD-WAN Tools.
  • PRTG.
  • VLC Media Player.
  • WAN Emulator.

WWT performed a series of test cases that included:

  • Cloud Management and Orchestration.
  • Automation and API Capabilities.
  • Zero-touch Provisioning.
  • Data Center and Branch LAN/WAN Routing Integration.
  • Failover Testing, Circuit Degradation and Application Re-route.
  • Segmentation.
  • Service Insertion.
  • Defining Custom and Standard Application Sets.
  • Building Traffic Rules for Application Paths.

 Ready to deploy

The customer was able to execute the POC in four business days. If the company tried to conduct the POC internally, it would have taken them more than eight weeks based on the time it would take to organize and build the lab, as well as coordinate vendor support and visit vendors on-site.

Additionally, the customer saved an estimated 200 hours of IT staff time needed to conduct the POC, which would have pulled staff away from production-related responsibilities.

Ultimately this organization determined that Viptela was the right SD-WAN solution for them. Factors influencing their decision included Viptela's abilities related to:

  • Change Application: GUI showed the differences between existing configurations and configurations being made as well as actual changes being made.
  • Code Upgrades: Code upgrades could be performed at sites with high-availability pairs without an outage.
  • Visibility: Configurations allow for monitoring of data provided by Net Flow.

Because of the accelerated product comparisons using the ATC, the customer is on track to pilot Viptela before large-scale deployment.

Technologies