Inteligent Network – Bigleaf Networks https://www.bigleaf.net Internet Connectivity Without Complexity Thu, 15 Aug 2024 14:05:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 https://www.bigleaf.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/favicon-70x70.png Inteligent Network – Bigleaf Networks https://www.bigleaf.net 32 32 How to scale your network across multiple sites without upending your tech stack https://www.bigleaf.net/resources/how-to-scale-your-network-across-multiple-sites-without-upending-your-tech-stack/ Thu, 01 Jun 2023 22:09:33 +0000 https://www.bigleaf.net/?p=19681 Read More]]>
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IT managers face a lot of challenges when scaling networked systems to multiple locations. The best-known methods include deploying the identical technology stack and processes at each site.

Unfortunately, IT can’t exert control over key aspects of application performance, especially when businesses are relying on cloud and internet-based applications.

That’s because it’s not enough to duplicate the software and hardware stack at each location. In a distributed, networked organization that relies on the public internet, the network itself does not perform identically at every site. So, employees and customers will not enjoy the same experience in every office, warehouse, or site on the network.

Same applications, different performance 

For example, connections to cloud-based applications can be perfectly responsive at the company headquarters but sluggish in a branch office, or vice versa, due to any number of factors that are outside the IT team’s control:

  • Availability. It’s difficult to standardize on a uniform internet connection across the country, even across city neighborhoods. In each geographic location, there may be a limited number and/or different internet service providers (ISPs) with a specific selection of circuit types.
  • Traffic patterns. Even the same ISP, circuit type, and service package may perform differently from one location to another, due to real time jitter, latency, and packet loss.
  • Outages. Hardware and software issues, broken or downed circuits, cyberattacks, or power failures can disrupt network connections locally or globally.

Network optimization ensures consistency

One way to ensure consistency across multiple locations is to add the Bigleaf Networks optimization platform to the mix. Bigleaf sits outside the firewall, so there’s no need to make changes to established security protocols or other aspects of the tech stack at any individual site.

With a plug-and-play router at each site and a purpose-built IP network in between, Bigleaf monitors and directs network traffic along the optimal path over the public internet to and from the data’s destination. Bigleaf moves cloud network traffic seamlessly around blockages and outages to improve performance and reliability of business-critical, cloud-enabled applications.

With Bigleaf, employees and customers in every location will enjoy reliable connectivity that delivers a consistent user experience.

Bigleaf works with any ISP, any connection type, any technology stack, and any firewall, to connect the network with any cloud-based application or service. IT can continue to deploy a tried-and-true tech stack at every location, including SaaS, VoIP, and other business-critical services.

Bigleaf maintains the network’s stability and resilience, and the consistent network architecture supports optimal system performance in all locations.

Plus, Bigleaf Cloud Connect provides detailed insights into the performance of every circuit at every location, so the IT team can identify risks and prevent any impact on future performance.

Check out the power of network optimization with Bigleaf. Schedule a demo today. 

]]> Bigleaf and MPLS https://www.bigleaf.net/resources/bigleaf-mpls/ Thu, 08 Sep 2022 19:29:58 +0000 https://www.bigleaf.net/?p=15932 Read More]]>
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Bigleaf and MPLS

Optimizing your internet connectivity with Bigleaf while leveraging your MPLS connection

A very common question we hear from our partners and customers is whether Bigleaf’s service “works with MPLS.” The simple answer is “yes,” but the “when” and “how” components deserve some explanation. While Bigleaf is typically used as a replacement for MPLS, you can create a hybrid setup while you wait for your MPLS contract to run out and still leverage the use of that connection, or you simply want to keep an MPLS connection (or Layer 2/private line circuit) in your network.

Traditional Bigleaf model

Under Bigleaf’s traditional model, our customer premise router connects up to four Internet circuits. We encapsulate the customer’s traffic within tunnels across those Internet circuits that connect to Bigleaf’s redundant network of server clusters sitting in major peering centers across the country. Our router clusters then pass the customer’s traffic out to its destination (Google, VoIP Provider, etc.).

Internet and MPLS

For a customer who has previously invested in an MPLS network to connect multiple office locations, the question then becomes whether a location’s MPLS circuit can be utilized as a “2nd Internet” connection with Bigleaf’s service. And the answer is absolutely.

To set this up, you would have your MPLS circuit routing between your two sites via your firewall, add a Bigleaf device at each location, then create a VPN tunnel between the two sites. While you could just add Bigleaf to one site, we recommend it on both so we can protect and monitor that VPN traffic on the entire path between your sites.

In this setup, your firewalls will be doing the routing for both your site-to-site local traffic and your internet-based traffic. In this diagram below, we are showing the MPLS set up as a primary path for site-to-site traffic; however, it could instead be set as the backup.

Note, the reason MPLS is not connected through the Bigleaf router is because Bigleaf needs an internet connection so we can create our tunnel between our gateways and POPs.

On the LAN side of the equation

You do have configuration options:

Option #1: Connect your sites with your MPLS via your firewall + connect your site(s) to the Internet with Bigleaf

Configure to send Internet traffic through the Bigleaf system and MPLS traffic straight to the MPLS router. Your Internet traffic performance will be optimized by Bigleaf and your MPLS traffic will be steered directly to your MPLS network via your firewall/router.

Option #2: Add Bigleaf to each of your sites to create a VPN + use your MPLS as your site-to-site backup connection

This option applies if you want to eventually replace your MPLS network with a VPN connectivity solution. In this case, set up your firewall to send all traffic through Bigleaf’s system. Bigleaf then becomes the transport mechanism for both your Internet traffic and VPN connectivity traffic, and your MPLS connection becomes a backup path via the firewall/router.

This is a great way to leverage an MPLS network while it’s still under contract with your carrier if you want to migrate immediately to a VPN solution.

If you have any questions or would like to talk live to learn more about how we can work together to build more robust cloud connectivity solutions, please contact us. We’re here to help!

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