Silver Peak has unveiled the Unity EdgeConnect solution, available via channel partners, which enables enterprises to reduce the cost and complexity of building a WAN by leveraging broadband to connect users to applications.
The idea is to allow customers to use broadband connections to augment or replace their current multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) networks, to improve customer responsiveness, increase application performance and reduce capital and operational expenses.
“The high cost and limited capacity of WAN connectivity at our remote sites was becoming restrictive to our business and the productivity of our users,” said Chris Edwards, VP of systems for Group Dekko. “With Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect, I can now build a broadband-based WAN that lowers my overall monthly data spend and maximizes the performance of all our applications, including the use of voice over broadband.”
Delivered in both physical and virtual form factors, Unity EdgeConnect creates a virtual network overlay, so that enterprises don’t have to replace existing routers and firewalls at branch offices. Customers can move to a broadband WAN on a site-by-site basis, or via a hybrid WAN approach that leverages both MPLS and broadband Internet connectivity (cable, DSL, LTE, etc.), in a software-defined WAN (SD-WAN).
With a zero-touch, plug-and-play deployment model, Unity EdgeConnect can be deployed at a branch office in seconds, automatically connecting with other Silver Peak instances in the data center, other branches or in cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) with the likes of Amazon, Microsoft Azure and VMware’s vCloud Air.
Key features of Unity EdgeConnect include:
- Dynamic Path Control (DPC) – real-time traffic steering over any broadband or MPLS link based on company-defined business intent policies. In the event of an outage or brownout, DPC automatically fails-over to the secondary connection in about one second.
- WAN Hardening – data is secured edge-to-edge via 256-bit AES encrypted tunnels.
- Path Conditioning – addresses the adverse effects of dropped and out-of-order packets that are common with broadband Internet and MPLS connections.
- Cloud Intelligence – delivers real-time updates on the best performing path to reach hundreds of software as a service (SaaS) applications.
“With an ever-increasing number of applications delivered as a service via cloud infrastructure, it’s important that enterprises be able to move at cloud speed,” explained David Hughes, founder and CEO of Silver Peak. “Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect is the premier solution for customers that want to leverage the Internet more effectively in a secure, controlled, and automated manner while delivering consistent and reliable performance for users connecting to any application.”
Unity Orchestrator is included with Unity EdgeConnect, and provides customers with visibility into both legacy and cloud applications, and the unique ability to centrally assign business intent policies to secure and control all WAN traffic.
And, Silver Peak Unity Boost is an optional performance pack that accelerates application performance as needed.
