C A S E S T U DY | D I G I TA L M A R K E T I N G

Cloud/SaaS Digital Marketing
Firm Chooses Versa SD-WAN
Architecture for its Cloud Journey
INDUSTRY
Digital Experience Enablement

OBJECTIVES• Improve performance of cloud apps
• Ensure site availability• Remove bandwidth constraints• Provide application awareness• Eliminate analytics gaps
• Remove fragmented security• Lower costs for circuits andhardware• Speed site deployments• Provide an “on-demand” solution

Adapting to its growing and fluid business model, a cloud/SaaS
enterprise is transforming its WAN infrastructure and totally
moving to the cloud.
The company is migrating all of its workloads to the cloud, including customerfacing applications and accompanying back-end systems, and is fully
embracing the public cloud, which is a transformation that extends to morethan 50 offices in over 30 countries, supporting more than 10,000 employees.
The firm’s business is powered by three cloud-based solutions for digital andcreative marketing and document management. Additionally, the company isimplementing an innovative engine as a core element of their cloud platform,
utilizing artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning capabilities.
The criteria for the company’s digital transition powered by SD-WAN
architecture included high the availability for business continuity, enhanced
distributed security, increased performance and greater agility. Critical tosolution, was its ability to support the company’s mandate to accomplish
four-nines availability for critical services, while significantly lowering costs.

The Problem
RESULTS• Optimized application performance• Intelligent path selection for cloudand on-prem applications• Improved availability and efficiency• Improved security stack• Reduced operational costs andcomplexity

30% Reduced
telecom costs

50% Plus Reduced
hardware footprint at eachbranch office• Automated deployments• Improved visibility and analytics
via single centralized management
platform• Direct local connectivity

The company was moving to an architecture that included multiple circuits
to each branch office distributed throughout the world, so they neededa solution that would allow them to easily manage diverse networks andbandwidth. Due to the high cost and complexity of maintaining theirworldwide branch offices, the company needed a centralized management
solution that offered zero touch in the branches.
The firm’s traditional WAN had difficulty keeping up with their rapid changes
and growing demands. They needed to solve challenges associated with
network agility and speed of deployment for circuit provisioning, adding newsites, mergers and acquisitions, and site expansions.
They had a hub-and-spoke architecture, with each branch office using a single
MPLS circuit. However, MPLS connecting users to the cloud was expensive, andhad insufficient processes to access the company’s virtual private clouds (VPCs)in AWS and Microsoft Azure. They also needed a new WAN infrastructure tosupport their workload distribution for their multi-cloud environment.
Due to security concerns, the company was backhauling Internet traffic
through hub locations, including access to their private instances within VPCs
in AWS and Azure. Internet traffic from other countries was being backhauledto the company’s corporate office in California, which degraded the quality of
their user experience.
The resulting poor performance drove the firm to seek better control of its
overlay network and easier connectivity among their sites, and public andprivate resources. The company needed the flexibility to plug different circuit

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types into its network fabric, and get direct local Internet access for each branch office. They also wanted to make every
branch office one hop away from any resource it needed to access.
The cost to support all branch office locations needed to be addressed. They needed rock-solid availability andsignificantly lower costs at all locations. These requirements touched upon significant elements of their branch office
infrastructure, including network hardware, circuits, security stack, and space, power and cooling.

The Solution – Versa Networks SD-WAN Architecture
Before this enterprise moved forward with its digital transformation using SD-WAN, they conducted extensive research
to understand all their options, and tested multiple products within their lab. After rigorous research and testing, they
determined that Versa Networks SD-WAN had met all of their network and security requirements. This allowed the company
to begin the process, and integrate their applications, cloud resources and connectivity into the Versa SD-WAN architecture.
The first phase involved moving the company’s network access layer into the SD-WAN fabric, which meant switching to
Versa-certified white box routers in each branch office location and connecting them to the SD-WAN fabric. But first,
the team had to address concerns among their network and security teams about white box deployment. Ultimately,
the company was satisfied with the fact that Versa ships white boxes with the software already pre-built. If a box in
the company’s two box HA branch office configuration happens to fail, resolving it is as easy as going into the Versa
controller and updating the serial number in the box, and powering it back on.
The firm has completed approximately 90% of its on-premises site deployments. The second phase will bring their virtualprivate clouds into the SD-WAN fabric. The company already has all of their cloud-based controllers inside AWS, with avirtual data center spun up as a branch. One business requirement is to ensure performance for voice and video traffic
is of high quality, especially with the company’s transition from MPLS to Internet circuits, a requirement that has beenaddressed with the Versa SD-WAN architecture that overcomes limitations that are characteristic with Internet circuits.

The Results with the Versa SD-WAN Architecture
The Versa SD-WAN architecture has given this enterprise high availability, increased bandwidth, local Internet
connectivity, improved performance, enhanced security, improved monitoring and data analysis, multi-cloud connectivity,
and a higher quality user experience.
Prior to deploying the SD-WAN, the company had an MPLS circuit with a standby backup circuit for critical sites, suchas data centers and call centers, while all non-critical locations had a single circuit. After deploying SD-WAN, all branchlocations now have multiple active-active circuits for high availability.
Enhanced configuration and management allow the company to easily migrate legacy sites to the SD-WAN fabric quickly
and reliably. In fact, outside of pre- and post-testing, the company is able to migrate a branch office in less than an hour.
The SD-WAN fabric has allowed the firm to move from MPLS to multiple lower cost Internet circuits, enabling thecompany to meet the corporate mandate to lower costs. With the Versa SD-WAN architecture, the organization’s
operating cost per site is now just over more than half the cost of the previous spend over five years.

About Versa Networks
Versa Networks is the innovator of Secure Cloud IP architecture, a next-generation software platform that delivers integrated cloud,networking and security services. Versa’s visionary solution, with an unrivalled depth of features and capabilities, enables enterprises totransition off legacy WANs to achieve business agility, branch modernization, and TCO advantages toward their digital transformation
journey. The company has transacted over 150,000 software licenses through service providers, partners and enterprises globally. Versa
Networks is privately held and funded by Sequoia Capital, Mayfield, Artis Ventures, Verizon Ventures, Comcast Ventures, and Liberty
Global Ventures. For more information, visit https://www.versa-networks.com

Versa Networks, Inc, 6001 America Center Dr, 4th floor, Suite 400, San Jose, CA 95002 | Tel: +1 408.385.7660 | Email: info@versa-networks.com | www.versa-networks.com© 2019 Versa Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Portions of Versa products are protected under Versa patents, as well as patents pending. Versa Networks and FlexVNF aretrademarks or registered trademarks of Versa Networks, Inc. All other trademarks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners. Part# CS_DIGIMKTG-001.0