A Marine Engineering and Construction Company Replaces Entire Network with SD-WAN Ecosystem
A leading marine engineering and construction company with thousands of employees and over 35 sites across the North American continent and Caribbean Basin wants to replace their existing MPLS network with a complete SD-WAN ecosystem. The objective is to reduce operating costs, improve reliability, reinforce network security, and enhance remote connectivity.
Challenge
Due to the size and scope of the company and the nature of the industry, there are many challenges facing the deployment. This includes physical challenges such as long exposures to seawater, extreme temperatures, remote and rugged sites, exposure to yearly storms, and the need for rapidly deployable solutions for remote and outdoor sites.
“We were tasked with a major project to replace our expensive and slow MPLS infrastructure with SD-WAN. The network was a big issue across the board and was a priority to find a solution for improvement.”
– Company’s Information Security Analyst/Network Engineer
There are also network challenges such as the need to add and remove temporary sites and emergency deployments, maintain connectivity when WANs fail, and the transfer of large amounts of data from thousands of employees. The final challenge is ensuring the security and confidentiality of the company’s data.
Solution
The company turned to West Networks for a solution. To accommodate the size and scope of the company, the headquarters was split into 2 sites, one for daily operations and the other as backup and for specific applications. An additional dedicated colocation datacenter was planned to support the headquarters. Between both headquarters, 4x SDX, 20x SD Switch, and 28x AP One Enterprise were deployed. The SDXs are deployed in HA mode for resilient connections. The Switches support dedicated LAN and VLAN channels for various services and communications such as VoIP, servers, test servers, management, guests, and much more. While the AP One Enterprises provide fast and reliable Wi-Fi for staff and guests. VPN and VLAN channels connect the headquarters together and to the company’s VPN network via SpeedFusion.
The other permanent and temporary sites have customized deployments suited to meet their needs and requirements using Switches, SDXs, MAX HD2 and HD4s, MAX Transits, and AP One Enterprises. In addition, 30 field kits with 1x MAX Transit and 1x Switch provide a rugged, powerful, and reliable deployment solution for rapid and emergency deployments.
Finally, SpeedFusion’s suite of technologies designed to address specific networking problems allows the company to select and deploy the algorithms that they need and the flexibility to switch them when necessary. A 256-bit AES encrypted VPN secures their connections and prevents confidential information from being intercepted while Bandwidth Bonding and Hot Failover help sites maintain a fast and stable connection even when one or more WANs were weak, unstable, or inconsistent.
“The deciding factors to choose Peplink were hardware ecosystem, carrier independence, easy adoption, and support. Peplink’s enterprise routers, mobile routers, switches, and access points all managed in InControl make managing a large network very easy.”
– Company’s Information Security Analyst/Network Engineer
Result
The SD-WAN ecosystem exceeded the company’s expectations, removing the need for a colocation datacenter and reducing operating costs by allowing the entire network and connected network devices to be managed from a single device via InControl. SpeedFusion played a key role in improving the speed, reliability, and security, courtesy of Bandwidth Bonding, Hot Failover, and 256-bit AES encryption. The field kits provided much needed flexibility to respond rapidly to changes at sites. Whether setting up temporary sites or scaling up operations, the field kits were ready to go, providing reliable and secure connectivity within minutes.
The solution was able to achieve all of the company’s goals and more. They drastically cut operating costs and their IT team could remotely manage, monitor, and troubleshoot their entire network. Most of all, their staff and clients could rely on having connectivity, even in remote locations, helping the company to provide their very best service of quality, safety, production and integrity.
“It was a night and day difference once we implemented Peplink and couldn’t have done it without the West Networks Team.”
– Company’s Information Security Analyst/Network Engineer
Deployment
- Deployed at headquarters and branch offices
- Redundant PSUs and multiple WAN options provide flexibility and reliability
- Modular slot allows the device to be customized for deployments and future proofs the device
- Deployed at headquarters, large sites, and field kits
- PoE+ ports provide power and connectivity to devices in a single cable, simplifying deployments
- LAN and OOBM management provide multiple channels for local and remote management
- Redundant PSUs keep the power running even when a power source fails
- Deployed at sites and field kits
- Simultaneous dual-band Wi-Fi for remote and temporary sites
- Shock and vibration resistance (EN 61373:2010) and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EN 61000) certifications for mobile and industrial deployments
- Deployed at sites requiring extended Wi-Fi signals
- Simultaneous dual-band 3×3 MIMO reduces Wi-Fi congestion and interference
- Built-in PoE simplifies deployments by removing the need for separate LAN and power cables
- Remotely manageable via InControl
- Deployed group-wide to provide secure, unbreakable connectivity
- Multiple proprietary intelligent algorithms offer users flexibility to customize their network connections to suit their specific needs
- Shock and vibration resistance Includes advanced 256-bit AES encrypted VPN
- Deployed group-wide to allow IT staff to manage networks and devices remotely from a single pane of glass
- Provision, monitor, and manage entire networks from a single app
- Detailed, in-depth reports keeps users on top of the health of their networks
- Customizable alerts keeps users informed of network events
