Cutting Costs, Enhancing Performance with Cato Cloud Willem-Jan Herckenrath, Manager ICT Alewijnse designs, delivers and integrates electrical engineering systems around the world for the maritime, industry, and retail sectors. WAN Transformation Challenges For decades, Alewijnse relied on MPLS. The company’s Amsterdam datacenter, nine sites in the Netherlands, and a branch office in Romania were connected by a fully meshed, MPLS network. MPLS was essential for delivering the company’s high-definition video system, and remote desktops. Three other locations established VPN tunnels across direct Internet access (DIA) connections to the Amsterdam datacenter. MPLS: Expensive and Incompatible with Alewijnse’s Business MPLS wasn’t addressing Alewijnse’s business requirements. Users complained about poor Internet and cloud performance – and for good reason. Applications were starved for bandwidth, as they were backhauled across 10 Mbits/s MPLS connections to the Internet breakout in Alewijnse’s datacenter. “Internet traffic was driving up MPLS costs. Cloud applications and Internet usage accounted for about 50 percent of MPLS bandwidth to the datacenter,” says Willem-Jan Herckenrath. IT agility was also constrained by MPLS. “Our business demands that we can set up project locations in a short period of time,” says Herckenrath, “With MPLS, I often had to wait three months to get a connection, if the technology was even available in that region.” Herckenrath had to also reevaluate the company’s security architecture. He needed a better way to secure remote offices, as firewall appliances added operational costs around deployment, management and upgrades. A better approach was needed to protect mobile users against ransomware and zero-day attacks. Complexity Cost Connecting locations via an Internet-based “ VPN means installing, con昀椀guring, and Internet traffic was driving up MPLS costs. managing VPN routers at every location. Cloud applications and Internet usage Traditional SD-WAN doesn’t connect accounted for about 50 percent of MPLS mobile or cloud, and lacks advanced bandwidth to the datacenter. security services and a global backbone. The feature comparison looked good “ on paper, but they were more difficult to Our business demands that we can implement and much more expensive than set up project locations in a short Cato Cloud. period of time. With MPLS, I often had to wait three months to get a connection, if With MPLS, I often had to wait three months the technology was even available in to get a connection, if the technology was that region.” even available in that region.” The Network for Whatever’s Next 5 Manufacturing Case Studies 9