Silver Peak introduces Unity EdgeConnect

As part of its strategy to deliver high-performing broadband and hybrid Wide Area Networks (WANs), Silver Peak today unveiled its new Unity EdgeConnect solution that enables enterprises to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of building a WAN by leveraging broadband to connect users to applications. By empowering customers such as Group Dekko and Kingston, and others to use broadband connections to augment or replace their current multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) networks, Silver Peak improves customer responsiveness, increases application performance, and significantly reduces 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, the leading provider of workplace LED lighting, power delivery solutions and engineered electrical components and assemblies. "With Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect, I can now build a broadband-based WAN that lowers my overall monthly data spend and maximises 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 do not have to replace existing routers and firewalls at branch offices. With Unity EdgeConnect, customers can move to a broadband WAN at their own pace, whether site-by-site, or via a hybrid WAN approach that leverages both MPLS and broadband Internet connectivity (cable, DSL, LTE, etc.). This is often referred to as software-defined WAN (SD-WAN).

Unity EdgeConnect is an overlay solution, which means connectivity decisions are made independent of carriers, avoiding lengthy procurement and deployment delays for faster time to service. Connectivity can be rapidly extended, moved or changed where and when the business demands. 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 centre, 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. No unauthorised outside traffic is allowed to enter the branch. WAN hardening secures branch offices without the appliance sprawl and operating costs of deploying and managing dedicated firewalls.
Path Conditioning - overcomes the adverse effects of dropped and out-of-order packets that are common with broadband Internet and MPLS connections. Path Conditioning provides private-line-like performance over the public Internet.
Cloud Intelligence - delivers real-time updates on the best performing path to reach hundreds of software as a service (SaaS) applications ensuring users connect to their applications in the fastest, most intelligent way available.

"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."

Granular Visibility and Control with Unity Orchestrator
Unity Orchestrator is included with Unity EdgeConnect, and provides customers with unprecedented levels of visibility into both legacy and cloud applications, and the unique ability to centrally assign business intent policies to secure and control all WAN traffic. Key features of Unity Orchestrator include:

Single Screen Administration - enables quick and easy implementation of network-wide business intent policies, which eliminates complex and error-prone policy changes at every branch.
Granular Real-Time Monitoring and Historical Reporting - provides specific details into application, location, and network statistics, including continuous performance monitoring of loss, latency, and packet ordering for all network paths. All HTTP and native application traffic are identified by name and location, and alarms and alerts allow for faster resolution of service provider issues.
Bandwidth Cost Savings Reports - document the cost savings for moving to broadband connectivity.

Boost Application Performance on the Fly
When branch offices are deployed as part of a broadband or hybrid WAN, customers may require higher performance for specific applications, for example, accelerating replication data over distance for disaster recovery. Silver Peak Unity Boost is an optional performance pack that accelerates application performance as needed. With a click of a button, customers can subscribe to Unity Boost. Key features of Unity Boost include:

Latency Mitigation - TCP and other protocol acceleration techniques minimize the effects of latency on application performance and significantly improve application response time across the WAN.
Data Reduction - WAN compression and deduplication eliminate the repetitive transmission of duplicate data. Silver Peak software inspects WAN traffic at the byte level and stores content in local data stores. Advanced finger-printing techniques recognise repetitive patterns for local delivery. Data Reduction can be applied to all IP-based protocols, including TCP and UDP.

Delivering Real Business Value
With the new Unity EdgeConnect solution, Silver Peak is the only company capable of creating the most agile broadband WAN that also powers industry-leading performance improvements to any form of connectivity. Silver Peak customers benefit from significant:

Flexibility - Customers can rapidly and non-disruptively augment or replace their MPLS networks with any form of broadband connectivity.
Visibility & Control - Customers benefit from unprecedented levels of visibility into both legacy and cloud applications and gain the unique ability to centrally assign business intent policies to secure and control all WAN traffic.
Performance - End-user satisfaction is significantly improved due to consistent and significantly enhanced application performance.
Savings - Silver Peak can dramatically lower connectivity, equipment and network administration costs by up to 90% by enabling customers to leverage lower-cost Internet bandwidth.