建筑供应公司通过Aruba EdgeConnect SD-Wan Edge平台提高业务效率和最终用户的经验质量

在美国，建筑专业人士知道高质量建筑产品的位置 - 建筑商FirstSource，这是用于商业和住宅建筑项目结构建筑材料的领先的国家供应商和制造商。但是，该公司的WAN是使用传统路由器建造的，难以管理，无法再跟上业务增长。

一个老化的开关和路由器的拼布迫使远程站点将所有流量置于两个中央数据中心之一。对于高级网络经理格雷格·泰勒（Greg Taylor），这种复杂的网络方法不仅需要简化WAN，而且还提高了过程中的效率和性能。泰勒说：“对我来说，SD-WAN是我们网络问题的答案。”

An SD-WAN That Just Works

泰勒做尽职调查,评估了SD-WAN vendors, including Aruba (formerly Silver Peak), Cisco Viptela, Cisco Meraki, Riverbed, Citrix, and CloudGenix. Most offerings came up short for a variety of reasons—too convoluted, lack of enterprise capabilities, only worked with one type of interface, or a disjointed platform.

In contrast, theAruba EdgeConnect惠普（Hewlett Packard）企业公司Aruba的自动驾驶SD-WAN企业平台（Enterprise Platform）因其功能和易用性而脱颖而出。实际上，阿鲁巴编排管理控制台是选择阿鲁巴的关键因素。

Taylor explains, “We need an SD-WAN solution that delivers the highest levels of network and application performance, and also simplifies operations with centralized orchestration and management. We really liked Orchestrator because it’s a lot easier to push out standardized configurations centrally, using a common set of templates, and know it’s going to work.”

Rapid Rollout of Advanced Network Capabilities

Taylor and his team are rolling out the EdgeConnect platform to all Builders FirstSource sites, having completed approximately 250 deployments to date, and adding a dozen or more sites to the SD-WAN each week.

在大多数站点，EdgeConnect连接到现有的MPLS电路和100 Mbps宽带链接。如果有多个互联网服务提供商，泰勒（Taylor）消除了MPL，而支持双宽带。许多站点也有4G LTE调制解调器作为备份。

通过在每个站点上连接两个链接，使两个链接都可以同时积极使用，并利用高级功能例如路径条件，服务质量（QoS）和平台上的动态路径控制，网络正常运行时间已大大改善。泰勒说：“我们有些网站失去了MPLS连接，但没有任何停机时间。”

Delivering the Highest Quality of Experience

“One of our objectives with SD-WAN was to increase available bandwidth for our remote sites,” says Taylor. “We have some locations that went from 1.5 Mbps T1 lines to broadband links with 250 Mbps down and 100 Mbps up. Ridiculous speeds. Then applying QoS and traffic shaping, we’ve made our folks quite happy.”

The impact on quality of experience for end users is striking. For example, at one location downloading email previously took so long, people would walk away to get a cup of coffee.

After deploying EdgeConnect, Taylor says he was on the phone with someone at that location and asked him to check email while on the phone. “He said, ‘wow, it just opened. That’s never happened before.’ So we know the SD-WAN is making a real difference in productivity.”

WAN optimization speeds remote application access

泰勒和他的团队还添加了可选的Aruba BoostWAN optimization performance pack to the unified EdgeConnect platform to address latency issues at one of the company’s remote locations in Alaska.

连接到德克萨斯州的ERP系统以在阿拉斯加经营一份打印作业，这需要花费大量时间。使用Boost提供了90％的有效延迟提高，因此员工可以更快地完成打印运行，并继续执行其他任务。

在不久的将来，泰勒还看到了利用EdgeConnect内的基于统一区域的防火墙的机会，以在远程站点上为可信的应用程序进行本地Internet突破以及简化LAN路由。

Simplified Application Traffic Control

Taylor also appreciates the increased level of visibility and control over application traffic flows the EdgeConnect platform provides. Leveraging unified routing interoperability and using Orchestrator to create business intent overlays with specific QoS policies, Taylor says, “Traffic is automatically routed in the most efficient manner.”

此后，泰勒（Taylor）能够在大多数远程站点上退休旧的思科路由器，从而简化了网络管理的工作。例如，泰勒（Taylor）在MPLS网络上通过德克萨斯数据中心连接了一些站点，以访问加利福尼亚州运行的POS应用程序，该应用程序引入了潜伏期。

“Through Orchestrator we could easily change the routing to avoid that extra hop, mark that traffic with a QoS value, and everything just worked, Taylor notes. “That was fantastic in saving us time.”

Streamlines Bringing New Sites Online

As the current SD-WAN rollout approaches completion, Builders FirstSource is now positioned to continue growing having gained the ability to open new facilities more quickly and efficiently.

Taylor points out that once circuits are provisioned, he can simply plug in the EdgeConnect appliance and have it configured and fully operational in about 20 minutes. Bringing up a conventional router in that same scenario would take one of his network engineers an entire day.

泰勒报道：“我对EdgeConnect SD-Wan Edge平台感到非常满意。”“它节省了很多时间，并最大程度地减少了人为错误的可能性。借助EdgeConnect，我们在路线流量方面具有更大的粒度，这使我们需要灵活性，使业务能够发展并适应新的机会。”