The Cato Experience Simplicity Gain With Cato Cloud, Alewijnse consolidated its “ datacenters, cloud resources and mobile With Cato monthly costs dropped 25% users onto a single, secured WAN. Internet and yet we still received 10x more traffic goes directly to Cato Cloud, where bandwidth. it’s inspected and secured, and from there With Cato, we got the functionality of to the public Internet. SD-WAN, a global backbone, and security “ service for our sites and mobile users, Users are much happier now with our integrated together and at a fraction of Internet services. the cost. I hear from my guys is that they We like Cato’s all-in-one approach and WhatsApp with Cato’s support guys. the competitive pricing gave us very good They don’t always have to first go, log a value for money.” complaint, and open a ticket. I really like that approach.” Converging Networking and Security Reduces Complexity and Costs Herckenrath wanted a simpler WAN design that made more e昀昀ective use of the Internet without compromising on MPLS’ “quick performance” required by his loss-sensitive applications. The architecture would also have to address company’s security requirements and mobility concerns. Connecting locations through an Internet-based VPN was one approach, but that still meant installing, con昀椀guring, and managing VPN routers at every location. SD-WAN showed promise, but traditional SD-WAN solutions don’t connect mobile users or cloud resources. They also lack advanced security services and a global backbone. Herckenrath and his team looked at bundling SD-WAN solutions with a secure web gateway (SWG) service and another provider’s backbone. But they rejected the idea. “The feature comparison looked good on paper, but they were more di昀케cult to implement and much more expensive than Cato Cloud,” says Herckenrath. Cato Cloud is a secure, global SD-WAN service, connecting locations, cloud resources, and mobile users. Advanced security services are built into Cato Cloud and include NGFW, SWG, IPS, and advanced threat protection. “With Cato, we got the functionality of SD-WAN, a global backbone, and security service for our sites and mobile users, integrated together and at a fraction of the cost,” he says. Cato Cloud: MPLS-like Performance without MPLS-like Price Alewijnse began a gradual deployment of Cato Cloud. In the first phase, Herckenrath connected the offices in the Netherlands, Romania, and Vietnam into Cato, using high-quality, Internet last-mile. In the next phase, Herckenrath connected the rest of the offices to the Internet and Cato Cloud. Cato’s ability to use any available last-mile service gave Herckenrath additional agility. Established locations could still be connected via MPLS, but now Herckenrath was no longer dependent on MPLS services. As long as users can connect to the Internet, they can access Cato Cloud. And where physical Internet connectivity is not available, they can use 4G. Moving off of MPLS, didn’t come at the expense of performance. “Our users haven’t noticed a difference,” he says, “Latency and packet loss are low. Even the users outside of Europe have the same or better user experience with our HD video conferencing and our CAD system.” With Cato Cloud, Alewijnse consolidated its datacenter, locations, cloud resources and soon, mobile users, onto a single, secured WAN. With Cato, Alewijnse avoids backhauling, as Internet traffic goes directly to Cato Cloud, where it’s inspected and secured, and from there to the public Internet. “Users are much happier now with our Internet services,” he says. Alewijnse Extends WAN Transformation to Mobile Users and Eliminates Security Appliances To achieve the full value of the converged solution, Alewijnse planned to gradually deploy Cato Clients to secure employee laptops and mobile devices. Also on the roadmap is eliminating the firewall appliances in the branch offices. “We like Cato’s all-in-one approach and the competitive pricing gave us very good value for money.” Top Applications Last 24H With Cato, Alewijnse understands how its network is used by all users and locations The Network for Whatever’s Next 5 Manufacturing Case Studies 10