Sept/Oct 19 - ChannelVision Magazine

This is troubling, when consider- ing the heavy amount of government cyberattacks that have taken place already this year in states such as New York, Maryland and Florida. Texas also experienced a major round of attacks in August, when 23 towns and cities were hit by a massive coor- dinated ransomware attack. Meanwhile, on the academic front, classes are now back in session – and it was an especially rocky start to the school year from a cybersecurity perspective. Louisiana was forced to declare a state of emergency af- ter several of its schools were hit by cyberattacks. Schools across Con- necticut, Ohio, Texas and Oklahoma all experienced cybersecurity issues as well, while education software provider Pearson reported a data breach that impacted hundreds of thousands of students across the country. All signs indicate that these types of attacks will continue in the months ahead. The Case for SD-WAN As one can see, state and local agencies are under a lot of pressure to upgrade their network services. This, in turn, is increasing demand for software defined wide area networking (SD-WAN). What began as an enterprise tech- nology, SD-WAN is now making its way deeper into the government landscape, as agencies are facing expiring MPLS contracts and seeking cost-effective networking alternatives. According to MarketsandMarkets, the global SD- WAN market for government is grow- ing at a compound annual rate of 30.5 percent and is on track to reach $103 million by 2023. In one noteworthy example, the State of California selected VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud to serve as the main platform for its network. Cali- fornia also named QOS Networks as its sole approved managed service provider for agencies implementing SD-WAN solutions. QOS Networks is a platinum part- ner of VMware and is eligible to deliver a variety of services including orches- tration, gateway and edge devices, as well as ongoing managed services. According to QOS Networks, the com- pany was chosen for its demonstrated ability to execute, its commitment to the customer experience and its over- all expertise in SD-WAN. “VeloCloud is heavily partner fo- cused, and so they needed a provider to come in and oversee the whole project including network design, deployment and long-term manage- ment,” explained QOS vice president of marketing Stefanie Whittington. The California Department of Technology specifically works with the CGen Network – or the California Government Enterprise Network – which encompasses the majority of the State’s agencies. This includes agencies such as the Department of Motor Vehicles, California State Parks, the Department of Education, and so on. “The majority of these agencies are nearing the end of their MPLS contracts, and the State of California wanted to make sure that they were prepared and ready to make a shift into the SD-WAN space,” Whittington continued. “QOS networks is now listed as the supplier for their SD- WAN platform, and we are standing by to help as those contracts ap- proach expiration.” Branching Out The QOS announcement was a victory for the SD-WAN industry as a whole, when considering the magni- tude of the project – and the sheer size of the State of California. The hope is that other state and local governments will follow Califor- nia’s lead, creating a domino effect in the government SD-WAN market much like what we saw in the enter- prise space. “We’re definitely seeing interest in other government agencies,” Whitting- ton said, when asked about the larger government SD-WAN market. “This is really the first time in the SD-WAN timeline that we’ve seen government agencies actually adopting the SD- WAN model. The government is typi- cally a little bit slower on the uptake for virtual reality If you’ve had problem with SIP trunks (even if you are still trailing them) where have the ‘primary’ issues been? Primary Location of IT Environm Which of the following best describe your organization’s current IT environ Source: 451 Research Source: The SIP School IT Operational Spending Gro So rce: Computer Economics How important are the following to your agency’s future cloud success? Government Network Needs Source: MeriTalk Small Mi Median With the SIP trunk provider On the edge i.e. NAT / SBC issues With the PBX and its configuration Never had a problem with our SIP trunks Do not have any SIP runks, all hosted! 32.73% 23.72% 15.62% 18.32% 9.61% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Extremely important Somewhat important Improved network capacity/speed Reduced network complexity Increased visibility 6% 4% 3.5% 3. 2% 0% Company-owned or leased datacenters Off-premises osted/managed environments Third-party colocation datacenters Other Curr ntly In Tw 56% 36% 44% 42% 36% 45% Government Agency IT Manager Intentions and Realities Percent who say network modernization is a part of their agency’s cloud migration strategy 83% Percent with a roadmap for modernizing and streamlining their legacy network infrastructure 79% Percent who say their agency is failing to prioritize the networking aspect of cloud adoption and overall IT modernization 51% Percent who say current legacy network infrastructure is completely prepared to handle cloud migration 22% Source: MeriTalk 56 Channel Vision | September - October, 2019