SD-WAN FEATURED ARTICLE

128 Technology Urges SD-WAN Space to Break Free From Legacy Thinking

February 06, 2020

By Maurice Nagle, Web Editor

SD-WAN Expo serves an opportunity to bring together the top tier of the industry to educate and engage attendees. From 101 to advanced, sessions will round the bases of SD-WAN.

As a way to offer attendees a preview of what’s to come, I had the opportunity to catch up with Vice President Product Management 128 Technology (News - Alert) Ritesh Mukherjee. 128 Technology will be participating in the SD-WAN Expo panel, “20 Questions…Go!” where the conversation will walk the audience through the early phases of research and deploying SD-WAN. Find our complete conversation below.




Maurice Nagle: Please tell us a bit about the latest news at your company.

Ritesh Mukherjee: 128 Technology which provides the only tunnel-free SD-WAN solution in the industry has been accepted by customers worldwide. We’ve recently won several large-scale deals, with Enterprise and Service provider customers who see the value in our runnel-free networking solution.  Our solution removes overhead and complexity while delivering superior performance and end-user experience. Some of our recent wins include SNET Systems, Impulse Advanced Communications, Pindrop, Network Data Systems, and many others.

MN: What pains are you taking away for customers?

RM: Traditional SD-WAN solutions rely on tunnels for connecting sites. This adds overhead, reduces performance, adds complexity, increases hardware costs, and negates application acceleration. Customers have had  to contend with these issues as there was no solution without tunnels from any vendors. 128 Technology introduced the first tunnel-free SD-WAN solution which removes overhead, allows hyper-segmentation, infuses zero-trust security, and increases performance. This has led to simpler solutions that customers use to grow their business.

MN: Is SASE changing the way you and/or your customers operate?  How?

RM: SASE has been the foundation of 128 Technology Tunnel-free SD-WAN solution from day one. 128 Technology has inbuilt security, inherent directionality, deny-by-default, and hyper-segmentation. This allows customers to deploy integrated secure edge solutions to connect branches, data centers, and public clouds. The 128 Technology solution is FIPS-140-2 and ICSA Corporate Firewall and PCI-DSS certified.

MN: What is the greatest opportunity for SD-WAN vendors today? 

RM: SD-WAN has found tremendous acceptance in the industry. It is the stepping stone to network automation, new technologies, whitebox, and cloud networking. 128 Technology strongly believes that SD-WAN presents an opportunity to revolutionize the networking world. It allows enterprises and service providers to start from the network edge and extend it to data centers and public clouds. This will allow companies to go beyond just the WAN edge and improve the entire network.

MN: What is the greatest challenge for SD-WAN vendors today?

RM: The greatest challenge for any SD-WAN vendor it to break free from traditional legacy networking models and innovate. Many SD-WAN vendors have chosen older generation technologies with some automation to provide a band-aid solution. This may have led to some early success but they struggle to keep up with newer technologies that go beyond tunnels and revolutionize the network.

MN: In 2019, MEF (News - Alert) unveiled MEF3.0, how is this impacting your business today, and what does this mean for the future?

RM: The 128 Technology powered solution utilized by CMC Networks was awarded MEF 3.0 PoC Award winner in 2019. The solution showcased MEF 3.0 Service Implementation by demonstrating how multi-vendor SD-WAN solutions can co-exist in a highly complex Satellite Access network. 128 Technology is a firm believer in open standards and we continue to impress upon our customers to choose solutions that support open APIs and services. MEF 3.0 has shown that an open SD-WAN standard can really benefit the industry.

MN: What’s your biggest SD-WAN takeaway from 2019?

RM: Customers continue to demand innovative SD-WAN solutions to transform the network. Our biggest takeaway from 2019 was seeing an auto parts retailer deploy more than 100 sites every week to reach nearly 5000 stores without any tunnels. The benefits and the speed of deployment truly changed the way the customer thought about networking. Building networks is not just a time and money sink but rather a way to transform and empower the business.

MN: What’s your most off-the-wall tech prediction for 2020?

RM: 5G, IoT, and Cloud is going to completely change the way companies think about networks. Millions of devices working in unison while requiring unprecedented security cannot be achieved by building tunnels. The networking world is realizing that and solutions that transcend traditional networking are going to come to the fore.

MN: What do you hope to achieve at the event? Why should people come to SD-WAN Expo, ITEXPO and its other collocated #TechSuperShow events to meet with your company?

RM: 128 Technology is demonstrating its tunnel-free SD-WAN solution at the event. Customers are going to learn how true revolutionary networking technology can transform their business. 128 Technology is going to share experiences from deploying the planet’s largest full-mesh SD-WAN deployment with nearly 5000 sites. It will be an opportunity to get first-hand information on how to build future networks.

MN: Why should your session be on the list of must-attend sessions at this year’s conference?

RM: 128 Technology has gained tremendous experience and recognition in the marketplace with its Tunnel-free SD-WAN solution. The sessions in which 128 Technology participates will provide a wealth of information to attendees on new networking solutions, superior end-user experiences, and lessons learned from large scale deployments.

It’s time to untether operations from legacy solutions, architecture and mindset. Digital transformation is upon us, the work MEF is doing in developing service standards as well as the possibilities IoT and 5G present illustrate an innovative future for the network. Learn more next week at SD-WAN Expo!

See you in sunny South Florida!




Edited by Maurice Nagle

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