How Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN enables secure cloud migration and application performance

As more and more applications move to the cloud, enterprises are faced with the challenge of providing secure and reliable access to those applications from anywhere and on any device. This is where Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN can make a significant difference. In this blog, we will explore how Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN enables secure cloud migration and application performance. 

Note - Unfamiliar with SD-WAN? Understand the basics with our What is SD-WAN? Blog.

7 ​​ways Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN enables secure cloud migration and application performance:

1. Efficient cloud access

   Aruba EdgeConnect optimizes access to cloud applications by allowing direct access to cloud services instead of backhauling traffic to a data center, reducing latency and improving performance. This approach has several benefits:

   1. Latency

      By allowing direct access to cloud services, Aruba EdgeConnect eliminates the need to backhaul traffic to a data center, which can introduce latency. This can result in faster access to cloud applications and improved application performance.
      Improved Performance: Direct access to cloud services can also result in improved application performance. This is because the traffic does not have to travel as far, reducing the likelihood of congestion and network bottlenecks.

   2. Cost Savings

      By reducing the amount of traffic that needs to be backhauled to a data center, Aruba EdgeConnect can help organizations save on bandwidth costs.

   3. Greater Flexibility

      With Aruba EdgeConnect, organizations can easily route traffic to the cloud services that are most important to their business. This can help improve application performance and ensure that critical business applications are always available.

   4. Improved Security

      Aruba EdgeConnect's SD-WAN architecture also enables secure access to cloud services. The platform provides end-to-end encryption of all traffic, ensuring that data is protected in transit. It also includes a built-in stateful firewall that can be configured to provide additional security for cloud applications.
      
      

2. Automated traffic steering

   Aruba EdgeConnect uses dynamic path selection to steer traffic over the best-performing link for a particular application, prioritizing business-critical applications and ensuring optimal performance.

   This is done by constantly monitoring the performance of each link in the WAN and automatically selecting the best-performing path for each application. By doing so, EdgeConnect optimizes the application performance and ensures that business-critical applications receive priority over non-business-critical applications.

   This dynamic path selection also allows Aruba EdgeConnect to quickly detect and respond to network issues, such as congestion or link failures, by automatically rerouting traffic over an alternative path. As a result, businesses can achieve maximum network uptime and consistent application performance, even in the face of network disruptions or other issues.

3. Enhanced security

   Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN solution offers a variety of integrated and comprehensive security features to provide secure access to cloud-based applications and protect against cyber threats. Some of the key security features of Aruba EdgeConnect include:

   1. Application-Aware Firewall

      EdgeConnect's firewall provides granular control over network traffic, ensuring that only authorized traffic is allowed to access the network.

   2. IPS

      EdgeConnect's Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) helps prevent cyber threats by detecting and blocking malicious traffic before it can reach the network.

   3. URL Filtering

      EdgeConnect's URL filtering feature allows administrators to block access to specific websites and web applications that may be harmful to the network.

   4. VPN

      EdgeConnect's built-in VPN allows remote workers to securely access the network from any location while ensuring that data is transmitted securely.

   5. Encryption

      EdgeConnect provides end-to-end encryption, ensuring that all data transmitted over the network is secure and protected from prying eyes.

   6. Cloud Security

      EdgeConnect provides secure access to cloud-based applications and services, ensuring that data is protected at all times.
      
      

4. Simplified management and orchestration

   Aruba EdgeConnect provides centralized management and orchestration of network policies and configurations. This allows network administrators to manage and monitor their entire SD-WAN deployment from a single pane of glass, simplifying the management of distributed networks and reducing administrative overhead. 

   With Aruba Central, administrators can easily configure and deploy new branch sites, define network policies, and manage security features across the entire network. This includes the ability to configure and manage routing, Quality of Service (QoS), security policies, and WAN optimization settings. Additionally, Aruba Central provides visibility into network performance, application usage, and security events, allowing administrators to quickly identify and resolve issues.

   Centralized management and orchestration also simplifies compliance and auditing, as administrators can ensure that all devices and policies are up-to-date and in compliance with regulatory requirements. This is particularly important in industries such as healthcare, finance, and retail, where compliance is critical.

5. Application acceleration

   Aruba EdgeConnect offers a variety of application acceleration features that can significantly improve the performance of cloud applications. One such feature is TCP optimization, which is designed to mitigate the effects of packet loss and latency on application performance. By using various techniques like packet duplication, retransmission, and congestion avoidance, TCP optimization ensures that data is transmitted efficiently and without delay, resulting in improved application performance.

   Another feature of Aruba EdgeConnect is caching, which is used to store frequently accessed data in local memory, allowing it to be quickly retrieved by the application without having to be reloaded from the cloud. Caching can significantly reduce the amount of data that needs to be transmitted over the network, resulting in faster application response times and reduced network congestion.

   Compression is another application acceleration feature provided by Aruba EdgeConnect, which is designed to reduce the amount of data that needs to be transmitted over the network by compressing it before transmission. This can significantly reduce the amount of network bandwidth required by cloud applications, resulting in improved application performance and reduced network costs.

6. Hybrid WAN support

   Aruba EdgeConnect provides support for hybrid WAN architectures, which allows organizations to connect their on-premises data centers with cloud services. This is important because many organizations have invested heavily in their on-premises infrastructure and cannot simply move everything to the cloud overnight. With Aruba EdgeConnect, organizations can take a phased approach to cloud migration, gradually moving applications to the cloud as they become ready. This also allows organizations to maintain control over their critical data and applications while still taking advantage of the benefits of the cloud.
   
   

7. Scalability

   Aruba EdgeConnect is designed to scale and support large, distributed networks with ease, making it an ideal solution for organizations with growing network infrastructure needs. The platform uses a distributed architecture, which allows it to handle high volumes of traffic and provide consistent performance across multiple sites.
   
   The platform's scalability is achieved through its use of virtualization technology, which enables the deployment of EdgeConnect instances on a variety of hardware platforms, including on-premises servers and cloud environments. This enables organizations to choose the deployment model that best suits their needs and to easily add new sites or increase capacity as needed.
   
   
   In conclusion, Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN is a comprehensive solution that enables enterprises to securely migrate to the cloud and ensure that application performance is not affected. With Aruba EdgeConnect, you can prioritize traffic, enforce security policies, and get the most from your IT investment. It's an all-in-one solution that provides end-to-end security, reliable access to cloud applications, and centralized management and orchestration. To see if Aruba EdgeConnect is right for your business, contact a VLCM Networking Expert.