ChannelVision Playbook Volume 7

that has recently done an implemen- tation with our team: Life Savers A nationwide provider of health- care and charitable services to un- derprivileged populations and disas- terstricken areas wanted to upgrade to an SD-WAN from its mixed legacy system that connected 125 differen- toperations centers and offices via a traditional WAN combined with IP- based services. Key needs related to its operational model included: 1. Highly resilient access to con- nectivity ensures that opera- tions would stay up and running even during disasters; 2. Consistent quality of services across all offices to ensure that they could provide excel- lent support to populations around even their smallest offices; and 3. Prioritization of certain applica- tions that were involved inliter- ally life-sa ving activities, given their focus on healthcare and emergency response. In response to those needs, the SD-WAN implementation included a single operations center for the entire network, giving the organization the ability to manage routing decisions during crisis situations. The SD-WAN was also designed to take advantage of dual broadband access loops to ensure that even small, remote offices get adequate support. The SD-WAN was also tuned to provide specialized support to applications that are direct- ly involved in life-saving activities. On the Farm A manufacturing company that- specializes in farming equipment had operations with 35 sites located primarily in rural locations with limited telecommunications infrastructure, and they were experiencingmany of the challenges discussed above when a WAN reaches the end of its life-cycle. As a result they wanted to upgrade to an SD-WAN that would achieve a specific checklist of needs: 1. A network that would provide- equal support to every office so that connectivity and IT perfor- mance was uniform regardless of where their facilities were located; 2. Improved call quality for their VoIP solution, given how much of its customer interaction is done via phone rather than other means; and 3. Increased bandwidth, but with an eye on budget given the limited operational expendi- tures it wanted to have on an ongoing basis for meeting its data needs. 22 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK