Cloud-first SD-WAN – Bigleaf Networks

Why Cellular Backup is Essential for Business Continuity in 2024

Sean Valant — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 14:01:00 +0000

In 2024, uninterrupted internet connectivity is more important than ever for businesses. With the increasing reliance on cloud services and remote work, any disruption in connectivity can lead to significant financial and operational losses. Enter cellular backup—a failover solution designed to ensure continuous internet connectivity and protect businesses from unexpected downtimes.

The Need for Business Continuity

Internet downtime can be caused by various factors, including natural disasters, cyber-attacks, and service provider outages, all of which disrupt business continuity. Such disruptions can have a profound impact on business operations, leading to lost productivity, revenue, and customer trust. In an era where every second counts, uninterrupted internet access plays a critical role in ensuring seamless business operations.

Overview of Downtime Causes

Common causes of internet downtime include:

Natural disasters (e.g., storms, earthquakes)
Cyber-attacks (e.g., DDoS attacks, ransomware)
Service provider outages
Hardware failures
Human error

There are also some less common causes of internet outages. Read more in the BBC’s article, Watch out for sharks: The bizarre history of internet outages.

Critical Role of Uninterrupted Internet Access

Uninterrupted internet access is essential for:

Maintaining productivity and efficiency
Ensuring seamless communication and collaboration
Protecting revenue streams
Preserving customer trust and satisfaction

Understanding Cellular Backup

What is Cellular Backup?

Cellular backup technology acts as a failover solution by providing an alternative internet connection through cellular networks. When the primary connection fails, cellular backup automatically kicks in, ensuring continuous connectivity.

How Does Cellular Backup Work?

Cellular backup uses a secondary internet connection via cellular networks (e.g., 4G, 5G) to maintain connectivity when the primary connection fails. This ensures businesses remain connected without interruption.

Benefits of Cellular Backup

The benefits of using cellular backup include:

Reduced downtime
Enhanced reliability
Cost-effectiveness
Ease of implementation
Peace of mind for business owners

Why Cellular Backup is Essential in 2024

Evolution of Cellular Technology

The evolution of cellular technology, from 4G to 5G, has significantly improved the reliability and speed of cellular networks. This advancement makes cellular backup a viable option for businesses seeking robust failover solutions.

Dependency on Cloud Services

With businesses increasingly relying on cloud services and remote work, the need for robust failover solutions is more critical than ever. Cellular backup ensures that businesses can maintain their operations without interruption, even during primary connection failures.

Implementing Cellular Backup

How Do I Implement Cellular Backup in My Business?

When setting up a cellular backup system, consider the following:

Hardware requirements
Choosing the right service provider
Integrating the system into existing network infrastructure

Step-by-Step Guide

Assess your current network infrastructure.
Choose a reliable cellular backup provider.
Install the necessary hardware (e.g., cellular routers).
Configure the system to automatically switch to cellular backup during primary connection failures.
Test the setup to ensure seamless failover.

Case Studies

Real-World Examples

Real-world examples of businesses that have successfully implemented cellular backup highlight the practical benefits of this technology. These case studies demonstrate how businesses can minimize downtime and maintain continuity, providing valuable lessons and insights.

Lessons Learned

These case studies highlight the importance of:

Planning and preparation
Choosing the right technology and provider
Regular testing and maintenance

Choosing the Right Cellular Backup Provider

Factors to Consider

When selecting a cellular backup service, consider:

Coverage
Cost
Data caps
Customer support
Reliability

Provider Comparison

When considering your cellular backup needs, it’s best to compare leading providers to find the best fit for your business. Look for providers that offer comprehensive coverage, competitive pricing, and excellent customer support. Bigleaf partners with multiple national cellular internet providers so we can include the best connectivity for your locality with single-vendor billing, and our support team is rated “Best Relationship” by G2 users for six consecutive quarters.

The Future of Cellular Backup

Emerging Trends

Emerging trends in cellular technology, such as advancements in 5G and beyond, will continue to enhance the capabilities of failover solutions.

Predictions

As technology evolves, cellular backup will become even more integral to business continuity strategies. Future advancements will offer faster speeds, greater reliability, and more seamless integration with existing network infrastructures.

In conclusion, cellular backup is essential for maintaining business continuity in 2024. As businesses face increasing threats to their internet connectivity, implementing a robust failover solution like cellular backup is crucial. Consider integrating cellular backup into your business strategy to ensure seamless operations and safeguard against disruptions.

Ready to enhance your business continuity strategy? Explore the benefits of cellular backup and secure your operations against unexpected disruptions. Contact us today to learn more about how cellular backup can keep your business connected.

Bigleaf Wireless Connect

Bigleaf Wireless Connect offers the convenience of adding wireless connectivity to your Bigleaf service, providing a reliable, single-vendor solution for uninterrupted business operations.

The Crucial Role of Reliable Internet for eCommerce Platforms

Tabby Worthington — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 13:08:00 +0000

Connectivity: The Lifeblood of eCommerce

eCommerce has revolutionized the retail landscape, creating a world where everything from the latest gadget to weekly groceries is just a click away. As businesses of all sizes pivot to digital storefronts, the reliance on robust internet connectivity has never been more critical. In this blog, we’ll delve into how Bigleaf Networks ensures you have the most reliable internet for eCommerce platforms to ensure your business is a model of continuity and efficiency.

In the digital marketplace, connectivity reigns supreme. It’s the difference between a sale and a missed opportunity, a satisfied customer and a frustrated shopper. We’ll explore why consistent internet access is not just beneficial but necessary for maintaining the pulse of your eCommerce business.

Top Benefits of Reliable Internet for eCommerce Platforms:

Reduces Website Downtime: Minimizes the risk of losing customers and sales due to site outages.
Speeds Up Load Times: Enhances user experience with faster page loading, which can increase conversion rates.
Supports High Traffic Volumes: Keeps your website running smoothly, even during peak shopping periods.
Improves Customer Satisfaction: Provides a seamless shopping experience that can boost customer loyalty.
Strengthens Security: Ensures secure transactions by maintaining a stable connection for security protocols.
Facilitates Scalability: Allows your eCommerce business to grow without being constrained by connectivity issues.
Optimizes Backend Operations: Improves inventory management, order processing, and other backend functions with consistent online access.
Enables Multichannel Sales: Supports diverse sales channels, from social media to mobile apps, without interruption.
Boosts SEO Rankings: Google favors websites with good user experience indicators, like load speed and availability.
Enhances Data Analytics: Provides uninterrupted data flow for accurate real-time analytics and reporting.

Navigating eCommerce Challenges with Bigleaf

Bigleaf: Your eCommerce Connectivity Partner

Encountering issues like website downtime or slow loading pages can quickly erode customer trust and diminish sales. We’ll dissect these common pain points and show you how Bigleaf’s solutions address them head-on, keeping your digital doors open and business booming with reliable internet for eCommerce platforms.

Whether you’re a small local shop or a sprawling global enterprise, Bigleaf offers network optimization solutions tailored to your unique eCommerce needs. From dynamic QoS for streamlined traffic to same IP failover for constant uptime, Bigleaf is dedicated to keeping your online presence robust and responsive.

Bigleaf’s Unique Features for eCommerce Connectivity:

Dynamic QoS: Prioritizes bandwidth for critical traffic like checkout processes and customer service interactions.
Same IP Failover: Maintains sessions and transactions during ISP outages, providing seamless failover.
Real-Time Adaptation: Adjusts to changing internet conditions to prevent slowdowns and jitter.
Bigleaf Wireless Connect: Offers backup connectivity through a 4G LTE network for uninterrupted service.
Zero-Touch Installation: Simplifies the setup process without interrupting your business operations.

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Wireless Connectivity: The New Frontier in eCommerce

Imagine a safety net that ensures network connectivity even in the face of physical line damage. With Bigleaf Wireless Connect, that’s a reality. We’ll discuss how this wireless solution, in conjunction with Bigleaf’s optimizations, offers unparalleled connectivity resilience for your eCommerce operations.

Checklist for eCommerce Site Owners to Maximize Uptime:

Ensure you have a reliable hosting provider with a track record of uptime.
Opt for a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to speed up global content delivery.
Implement website caching to reduce server load and improve page load speed.
Regularly back up your website to recover quickly in case of downtime.
Choose Bigleaf’s SD-WAN solution for automatic failover to keep your site live and provide reliable internet for eCommerce platforms.
Monitor website performance with tools that alert you to connectivity issues immediately.
Schedule regular maintenance during off-peak hours to avoid disrupting shoppers.

Conclusion:

Reliable internet isn’t just a supporting character in the story of eCommerce—it’s the star. With Bigleaf Networks, experience the peace of mind that comes from knowing your platform is powered by top-tier connectivity solutions. Say goodbye to the fear of downtime and hello to a world where every digital interaction is smooth, fast, and reliable.

Interested in a connectivity consultation or eager to learn more about Bigleaf’s impact on eCommerce? Learn more about how Bigleaf can revolutionize your eCommerce connectivity by visiting our website or getting in touch with our team. Contact us today to ensure your online business platform is equipped to succeed in the digital marketplace.

Achieving uninterrupted access to cloud applications

Sean Valant — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:04:00 +0000

We live in an era where the names of cloud-based applications have literally become verbs. Slack me! I’ll Zoom you! Most of us spend a large part of our workday in either Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and need uninterrupted access to maintain those vital connections. We share files through Dropbox, and thoughts through Evernote. The list of cloud-based applications seems to grow every day, from Adobe Creative Suite and Salesforce to HubSpot, Trello, and GitHub.

Not to mention Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud Applications. When it comes to convenience, collaboration, productivity, and scalability, there’s just no better option than cloud applications.

Your head might be in The Cloud, but your feet...

Your feet are in your office, and what that means is that your access to any data that lives in the cloud, as well as any applications running from there, are all subject to your actual network connection.

This is where issues of speed, stability, reliability, and even fundamental access come into play. For example, some cloud applications even depend on your IP address remaining the same in order to sustain your active session; a change in IP means the session drops and you may need to reconnect or re login.

Maintaining a stable, reliable, and dependable connection to your cloud-based applications is essential for protecting your workflow. But unfortunately, there’s just so many variables at play that can cause instability, jitter, or other connectivity issues, prohibiting you from achieving the uninterrupted access you need.

No dropped Zoom or Teams calls and no need to re-login to any cloud-based tools.

One of the most helpful features of Bigleaf is the direct connection Bigleaf has with over 150 cloud content and carrier networks. Not only does this increase the security of your cloud app connections, but also delivers the reliability you need to achieve not only uninterrupted cloud application access but also that magical flow state where productivity starts to run at the speed of creativity!

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

Bigleaf solves every single issue mentioned above, and more. For that IP address example, Bigleaf provides Same IP Failover, which means even if your main circuit crashed entirely, like if a construction crew physically severs the line, your traffic would be immediately and seamlessly routed to your alternate circuit(s) without your IP address even changing. That’s uninterrupted access. You likely wouldn’t even know the traffic reroute took place, it would be that seamless. Of course, more important than you not knowing is that your cloud applications wouldn’t know either.

Future-proofing Your Cloud Connectivity with Uninterrupted Access

Bigleaf not only immediately begins working to optimize your network and your cloud connectivity from the moment you plug it in, but it’s also designed to grow with your business. Our single circuit, multiple circuit, and High Availability configurations ensure your network is always optimized and your cloud access is uninterrupted and lightning fast!

Visit our website to learn more now!

A version of this content was originally published as part of our Linkedin Newsletter, Bigleaf Bytes, in January 2024. Subscribe now on LinkedIn.

[Video] Starlink comparison against fiber, cable, LTE, and GEO Sat, plus static IP via SD-WAN

Bigleaf Networks — Thu, 19 May 2022 22:31:43 +0000

Recently Bigleaf founder Joel Mulkey got hold of the latest high-speed, low-latency, low-earth orbit (LEO) technology, Starlink. He conducted a hands-on comparison of how the technology performs against fiber, cable, LTE, GEO Sat & static IP via SD-WAN. See how they did.

Today I’m going to talk about low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite, like Starlink, and how you can use that for business connectivity needs. I’m here at my home office and notably, I don’t have any landline connectivity. I have a fixed wireless circuit from a local regional wireless ISP or WISP, a cellular option, LTE connection, as well as a geosynchronous satellite option. And so, we’ll add to those a LEO Sat through Starlink and take a look at what it does.

Setting Up Starlink

To install Starlink, you first use their app to scan the sky to see if the location that you’re planning has a clear view of where their satellites will be flying by.

*Welcome to my networking rack here in the house. In here, I’ve got a switch and my Bigleaf router, my SD-WAN router, and there’s three WAN circuits connected. We’re going to hook up the fourth today!*

We can see here, I’m logged into the Bigleaf Web Dashboard. I pulled up my house. And on the overview page, I can see I have three WAN circuits configured so far. What I’ll do is I’ll go into our configuration tab here, go into edit mode, and I’ll add a new WAN circuit. You can specify geostationary or low earth orbit for your satellite type and the platform will adapt accordingly. And just a moment ago, the tunnels came up.

Comparing The Data

We now have some graph data.

I want to address a few questions I think might be running through folks’ minds. First, how do I think about Starlink versus most landline type circuits, fiber cable, DSL, that kind of thing?

I think the health alarm data we can see is really useful to know how these comparisons sit. If I was to go pull up another customer site, which I’ll do here.

So this location, we have some Comcast fiber. This is in Oregon. This is a typical fiber health graph. Literally nothing. This circuit above here, this is a cable circuit, looks pretty clean as well. Users are not going to notice too much of what’s going on here. You’ve got a little bit of jitter upload and download at times. I would say this is pretty squeaky clean for a cable circuit. You can see them totally clean sometimes, but this is a nice cable circuit. We see them with plenty of packet loss and other issues at times. We’ll take a look at another location here. This top circuit here is again, Comcast fiber. So we can see, it looks pretty clean. There’s a couple blips. So, this one could be user impacting. This is middle of the day. You have basically a mini outage.

Then Frontier Fios. We’ll take a look at that one. Again, looks pretty clean, a couple blips there, not too big of a deal.

So back to my house: If you compare those graphs against the Starlink graph for the same time period, it’s got periods in the middle of the night where it looks pretty clean, but during the day, there’s definitely a lot of variability. And that’s what I would probably highlight.

With most wireless type connections, they’re going to be more variable than a landline circuit. Yet, they are also a great redundancy path. Throughput wise, that can vary as well. So, fiber’s typically going to offer you more throughput than what we’re seeing with Starlink, which is around somewhere between 60 and 120mg down and upload is very variable up from zero to 15 megabit up at my location here.

Let’s take a look at other health paths like ViaSat. ViaSat is a geosynchronous satellite, and we can see that quality wise, it’s actually very good! Now this graph doesn’t reflect the absolute latency of the path to traverse to geosynchronous orbit and back. The latency that our platform measures is in the form of relative one-way latency. So, our technology does some things to adapt for that, knowing that geosynchronous satellite does have that higher latency, just kind of in the background.

You might wonder, well, what’s difference between geosynchronous satellite and low earth orbit satellite? I drew a cute little diagram here to show that. (4:22)

So, if you’ve got my house, the red depicts essentially what is happening with the lower earth orbit, where there’s a shorter path from my house to the satellite, to the ground station, which then is connected via fiber to whatever data I’m reaching, some data center, whereas the geosynchronous satellite is a much larger distance. So, the reason the latency is much lower is because it’s taking a much shorter path, just geographically.

The time of flight of the RF signals is reduced.

Compare Against LTE Circuit

Now, if we compare against the LTE circuit I have, the LTE circuit is much more consistent in its behavior and much lower in packet loss, but the throughputs a lot less. And when I’ve tested here, I’m getting about 4mhgs each way on that circuit max.

And then lastly, the fixed wireless circuit I have from a local residential fixed wireless provider. We can see that during times of load, there is significant jitter and packet loss. I’d say it sits in between the LTE and the Starlink as far as variability.

So, all in all, each wireless circuit does have its pros and cons. And you need to look at what’s available in your area and trade-offs of throughput and performance characteristics.

Static IP Address

Now, what about a static IP address? That’s something that a lot of businesses need to be able to deploy with certain use cases, VPNs, or hosting a server, that kind of thing. And none of the circuits that I have, have a standard static IP address.

They’re all using a DHCP provided NAT IP address. And the nice thing is with Bigleaf Networks, I actually have a static IP block. Bigleaf creates a tunnel across each of these circuits and delivers a single public static IP address over them. Just like you would get if you had BGP in a carrier-grade enterprise environment.

The nice thing is with Bigleaf Networks, I actually have a static IP block. Bigleaf creates a tunnel across each of these circuits and delivers a single public static IP address over them.
Joel Mulkey

So… What About SD-WAN?

Lastly, do you need SD-WAN to make use of lower earth orbit like Starlink?

Well, looking at the health of the circuits at my home here, I would say YES. If I had just this one circuit, or even if I had multiple circuits with a less sophisticated load balancing QS mechanism, I wouldn’t be able to do things like voice calling or Zoom — those sorts of sensitive applications — in a reliable manner.

And we could see examples of that here. I had some Zoom calls this morning, all this green saying VoIP was the Zoom traffic. And we could see that the SD-WAN platform really had to adapt hard to make best use of that. So, here’s my LTE circuit that used that for upload traffic.

This was around 10:30 to 10:50 AM and we could see that the alarms were fairly low at that time — level two jitter was all that it was seeing. The down link looks like, in part, on the fixed wireless circuit around 10:40 to 10:50 timeframe. (6:50)

It’s kind of jumpy because it was I think moving the traffic around and it’s likely because alarms varied. So, there’s some traffic that ended up on the fixed wireless, and then other traffic ended up here on the Starlink circuit at that time. So the platform was adapting to make sure that each packet was writing over the best possible circuit.

If I didn’t have that in place, my Zoom quality would not have been as good. Now, would it have been unusable? In this case, no. Starlink alarms aren’t terrible at that time.

If they were level four or five, yeah. At that point, that’s when people are unclicking their video. They’re going to just audio or saying, “Hey, can I call you on the phone?”

More On Starlink x SD-WAN

Another SD-WAN feature of note that Starlink really will need to be successful in the business environment is something that can provide QoS over very variable bandwidth circuits.

Via Iperf testing through the platform, we can see this is download testing. This is just raw Iperf traffic varying between 50 megabits a second up to 100. (8:44)

In the upload direction, we see traffic varies even more considerably, 9mgs down to 1mg.

Important: If you just have a static QoS policy applied to the circuit saying it’s 10mgs or something, that QoS isn’t going to work. The traffic’s going to hit constrictions within the Starlink service, get buffered and either dropped or delayed. So, you need a platform like Bigleaf that can detect that variability and bandwidth, adapt to that, and ensure QoS prioritization through that path, even as conditions change!

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think Starlink and low earth orbit are fantastic technologies. I’m really excited about what they bring to bear for folks in rural areas like me and businesses that can’t get good landline connectivity or need a really solid redundant path that offers more throughput than LTE can!

For business-critical use cases, I would combine it though with SD-WAN and another circuit, if you have, and we’d be more than happy to help you out with that at Bigleaf Networks.

Thanks for that walkthrough, Joel. We really appreciate it!

You can learn more about making the Starlink Satellite part of the connectivity plans at your business & see how Bigleaf can improve your connectivity for all your connection types by requesting a FREE demo. If you have any questions, send us an email at sales@bigleaf.net.

How can Starlink satellite service be a part of my connectivity plans?

Amy Chan — Tue, 10 May 2022 17:02:41 +0000

There is a new option to consider for business-class satellite internet connectivity: low earth orbit (LEO) technology. Starlink is currently the most broadly available global solution for this high-speed, low-latency broadband. It’s innovative LEO technology is a game changer for businesses who rely on satellite service for high-speed internet. For organizations who struggle with latency using old school geostationary (GEO) satellite connectivity, Starlink provides a viable alternative.

Beyond the limits of physical connections

The pathways from most homes and businesses to the internet are through cables. Those cables may be coaxial, copper, or fiber, but they are physical lines connecting that building to the Internet. Despite all the innovation and advances over the past decade, an astounding number of rural businesses struggle with reliable and performant network access. Sixty-six percent of rural small businesses say poor internet or cell phone connectivity negatively impacts their business. This issue now receives more attention as more people shift to remote work, wherever they reside.

“Old school” geostationary satellite connectivity

For over 20 years, GEO satellite technology has been available in North America. It provides broadband connectivity to most places that can see the sky. Generally sold under the brands Exede, ViaSat, and HughesNet, it continues to be a lifeline for people in rural areas who have no other provider options. However, the service can be expensive, and performance is inferior to landline options available in more densely populated areas. This can mean slower downloads and VPNs, poor video conferencing quality, and spotty streaming service.

For providers, it takes a lot of investment and work to make even this level of service available: The satellite dishes for Exede customers in the Americas likely point up at Viasat-2, a 14,000 pound satellite that launched in 2017 after taking 40 months to build. That one device cost $600 million.

The drawbacks of GEO Satellite

Connection anywhere you can see the sky is great, but GEO satellite service clients do have to contend with some limitations. In particular, latency. The Viasat satellites are in orbit 22,000 miles away. That means every bit of traffic has to travel a total of 44,000 miles up and back. The result is latency of around 600 ms – over half a second.

Viasat has improved on this through creative TCP optimizations in their platform, but those optimizations don’t help tunneled traffic like VPNs and SD-WAN, or other non-TCP traffic like most VoIP and video. Since real time calls take two-way communication, the high latency makes a Zoom participant delayed over one second in conversation. It requires a lot of patience to have a meeting when everyone must wait for those pauses.

Enter Starlink, LEO connectivity

The newcomer, and seeming game-changer, for those seeking a satellite connection is Starlink. Starlink leads the way in the LEO space. LEO is a different approach and a different type of connection.

Instead of a single giant geostationary satellite 22,000 miles away, Starlink utilizes a swarm of thousands (as of this writing 2,112) of smaller, relatively cheaper satellites. Starlink launches a new batch of satellites every week or so. They are less than 1/20th the size of ViaSat-2 (around 650 pounds) and create a constellation of satellites across the sky. The antennas at both the service location and at the ground station where the constellation is connected into the Internet switch between the satellites as they orbit past, just like a cell phone in a car zooming down the highway switches between towers as seamlessly as possible.

Key to reducing latency, the Starlink satellites are only around 200 miles up. That is 1/100th the distance to the GEO orbits. The result is low latency of around 40-60 milliseconds – a number quite similar to wired broadband in urban areas.

Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper are promising new technologies. Perhaps we can look forward to a future when connectivity is not tied to physical wires. It could create opportunities and lower the cost of internet connectivity worldwide.

Our founder Joel Mulkey often works from his rural home where terrestrial connectivity options are sub-optimal (only very slow DSL is available), so he is always on the lookout for ways to improve his connectivity. He recently unboxed and installed his Starlink “Dishy” terminal, which he will connect to his Bigleaf router and mix with connections from a fixed wireless provider, 4G LTE, and a GEO satellite service. Check out his video on the results from that installation.

If you are looking to lean on Starlink for critical connectivity, it is healthy to be suspicious of its reliability.

What are the concerns with Starlink?

LEO connectivity is complex and unproven. If you are looking to lean on Starlink for critical connectivity, it is healthy to be suspicious of its reliability. Can it perform as claimed? While Starlink is aiming to provide 1 Gbps, current customers are getting between 40 and 150 Mbps down. And when will they work out the kinks? On a weekend in April 2022, Starlink users across the globe experienced extensive outages that the company has not explained. The Starlink support page is sparse and not particularly informative.

Using the best of Starlink in any situation

For the lower latency and potential throughput increase that Starlink provides over the older GEO technologies, getting it for his rural location is hugely appealing for Joel. But as a sole source of connectivity, he can’t tolerate any unexpected outages.

“This is a place that Bigleaf really shines. I gain all the benefits of this new technology without being subjected to the drawbacks. Bigleaf will optimize my use between Starlink and my other connections in real-time, insulating me from any outages or brownouts. Plus, I get a static public IP address block that works over all of my wireless circuits.” Joel said.

Bigleaf and Starlink applied

Bigleaf allows the connection of up to 4 circuits. Along with rural locations that lack options, a LEO satellite link could be valuable for any facility seeking a redundant connection that does not use the shared routes of many physical service providers. If a backhoe takes out the cabling to the building, Starlink would be unaffected.

With Bigleaf, a “backup” connection does not sit dormant awaiting an emergency. Unlike a traditional failover-only circuit, Bigleaf’s AI utilizes all connections simultaneously and with their same-IP failover, can automatically route traffic to the best available circuit if one fails. Even existing video conferences continue without dropping.

"This is a place that Bigleaf really shines. I gain all the benefits of this new technology without being subjected to the drawbacks. Bigleaf will optimize my use between Starlink and my other connections in real-time, insulating me from any outages or brownouts."

Joel Mulkey, Bigleaf Networks, Founder and CEO Tweet

Bigleaf’s ability to automatically monitor your circuit conditions, intelligently load balance, and make routing and QoS changes in real time further adds to its ability to deliver performant connectivity. In the instance of a rural site without any ideal broadband options, users can combine a more reliable but lower bandwidth connection with a less reliable but higher bandwidth account to get the best of both.

In short, Bigleaf can monitor the health of satellite connections in real time, along with the other circuits being used, and route the identified traffic types down the respective circuits that will deliver the best application performance. This allows a user to optimize the circuit conditions of the LEO satellite path even if there is high latency or jitter.

Even if you don’t choose Starlink, you can mix a 4G or DSL network connection (typically faster and fairly reliable) with a GEO satellite connection (available almost anywhere) and real-time apps would automatically use the lower latency network while file transfers would use the larger bandwidth connection.

To further support the use of Starlink, Bigleaf has recently included a preconfigured LEO satellite setting. Site operators can connect their Starlink base station to the Bigleaf router and quickly configure it to recognize the LEO satellite circuit

Starlink won’t be the last innovative network access technology

Starlink is an exciting option that was hard to believe possible just a few years ago. Many people are holding their breath to see what 5G capabilities will come to the market. One thing is certain: Technology will continue to offer new ways to connect us. As new options grow and refine, Bigleaf allows them to be utilized to their best now.

Learn more about how we can do so for your business by requesting a free demo today.

Beyond uptime: It’s time to make “usable uptime” the KPI for your company’s Internet

Bigleaf Networks — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 23:52:54 +0000

Internet disruptions aren’t just annoying, they’re creating big problems for your business. Sales calls drop, meetings are interrupted, time is wasted, customers are frustrated—and it’s happening more often than you may think.

For years, we’ve thought about Internet disruptions in terms of “outages” when the internet is just off. But today’s high-performance applications like video chat, VoIP calls, CCaaS and collaboration tools can become unusable even when the internet is technically up. To put an end to the disruptions, we need to understand the full range of these issues, what causes them and how to stop them.

“Uptime” doesn't equate to usable

Your internet can be live, and useless. Don’t believe it? Ask your sales team if they’ve ever been on a Zoom call that had to be rescheduled because of choppiness. Or ask your head of HR if any virtual company meetings have ever ground to a halt because the connection was “unstable.”

In both of those cases, the internet was live. Your firewall would be able to ping its destination and would never think to fail over traffic to another circuit. But the internet wasn’t “usable.” That is to say, the users couldn’t do what they needed to do. For IT, that’s what matters most—not whether the Internet was “up,” but whether it was “usable.”

“Usable uptime” is the new key metric for business internet

At Bigleaf, we’ve built a definition of usable uptime based on thousands of customers’ experience. In its simplest form, our definition of usable uptime requires:

Less than 2% packet loss
Less than 60ms of jitter
Less than 40ms of one-way relative latency. You could simplify this to a more common absolute round-trip latency of 100ms.

For Bigleaf, this equates to a circuit health alarm level of 0 through 2 out of 7, a threshold that’s exceeded more often than you may think.

The cost of unusable internet is huge

In fact, across thousands of circuits, we’ve found an average of 274 hours per year of “unusable uptime”, far beyond the 38 hours per year when the circuits were actually down hard. So for an average business using technologies like Zoom, MS Teams and VoIP phones, their internet is “unusable” for a total of 312 hours every year!

According to Gartner’s downtime cost calculations, that 604 hours equates to over a million dollars in lost productivity and sales every year. So why isn’t every business optimizing for “usable uptime”? Frankly, because it’s been too hard to measure and even harder to control…until now.

Optimizing for “usable uptime” has never been easier

Legacy networking technologies like failover and SD-WAN have traditionally made it difficult or impossible to track, let alone improve usable uptime of internet connectivity. You may have tried a few options yourself over the years.

Every firewall has internet failover built in, but it only fails over when the circuit is down hard, not when it’s live but unusable. SD-WAN showed a lot of promise, but most vendors require manual configuration that’s almost impossible to get right, and it only helps site-to-site traffic. Getting to truly usable uptime requires a different approach. That’s where Bigleaf comes in.

Bigleaf is designed to simply deliver truly reliable connectivity over the internet. Our plug-and-play installation connects you to our backbone network over up to four ISP connection—making those connection work like one singe ISP with a Bigleaf IP block. That means we can provide visibility and control along diverse paths to anywhere your traffic needs to go.

What’s more, Bigleaf’s intelligent software automatically categorizes your traffic and identifies performance issues, allowing it to react in seconds to ensure your users never feel the bumps in the road. No more guessing and testing at policies and configurations. Just reliable connectivity for all your users.

Finally, our web dashboard shows you everything that’s happening across every circuit at every location. That means you’re always in control of the conversation and never guessing when things go wrong.

All of this means that Bigleaf can deploy anywhere, over any ISPs, for any applications, and we can have you up and running in as little as two weeks.

Start optimizing for “usable uptime” at your business

Ready to make usable uptime a reality at your business? There’s no better time than now.

If you already have a way to measure your packet loss, latency, and jitter on an ongoing basis, you can start tracking usable uptime using the definition above. It’s great to get a baseline and see where you’re at.

If you’re ready to make usable uptime the new standard for your IT team, we’d love to show you how you can get there in as little as two weeks.

Learn more about how Bigleaf can transform your business for the better by requesting a FREE demo. If you have any questions, shoot us an email at sales@bigleaf.net or contact us through the website.

Internet Maturity Model 101

Bigleaf Networks — Sat, 30 Oct 2021 03:10:00 +0000

Bigleaf’s unique SD-WAN offering provides your customers with an internet HOV lane for key cloud applications. Watch this 30-minute webinar to learn what separates Bigleaf from other SD-WAN players. We talk about our propriety AI for QoS, same-IP failover, and reliable, owned backbone network.

New Denver PoP expands the Bigleaf Cloud Access Network

Amy Chan — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 15:30:00 +0000

We’re excited to announce that Bigleaf’s Cloud-first SD-WAN platform has grown once again with the addition of our newest point of presence (PoP) in Denver, Colorado. This new gateway cluster expands the Bigleaf Cloud Access Network, allowing us to keep up with growing demand in the region. 

Denver is one of the major peering locations in the country. As we’ve continued to expand, and we see our customer base expand, there’s more need to have a more diverse set of PoPs. This is an opportunity for us to expand our footprint within the US and gives us another major peering location to ensure we have the kind of low-latency, highly performant experience our customers need.

Our new PoP sits inside CoreSite’s Any2 Denver exchange at 910 15th Street, directly peering us with major networks including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix and Verizon digital.

As Bigleaf grows, we’ll continue to expand our presence across the US and around the world. We’re already seeing more demand in Northern Virginia as well as Miami and Australia. So, keep your eyes peeled for more info on new PoPs.

Contact us to learn more about Bigleaf’s Cloud Access Network and how it can help you deliver better network performance for your business. If you’re an existing customer and want to learn more about the new Denver PoP, email us at support@bigleaf.net.

Making network management manageable

Amy Chan — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 16:00:00 +0000

Two factors are currently driving businesses to become more and more reliant on stable internet connections. First, cloud adoption continues to surge. One recent survey showed that more than 88% of respondents used at least some cloud services, and 25% plan to move all operations to the cloud – and that was recorded in January 2020, before the pandemic focused even more attention on cloud solutions. Cloud services are increasingly flexible and scalable, allowing users and organizations to deploy them at any time.

Second, more workers are working from home over residential internet connections. Residential network connections are less stable than business networks and face a number of additional challenges, such as sharing bandwidth with non-business applications and offering less reliability. Most importantly, they are not in the control of the company’s IT department.

Network infrastructure isn’t keeping up with cloud adoption. IT teams are dealing with more pressure and responsibilities to create reliable and performant networks. Traditional networks require hands-on management for every change, from adopting new apps to internet connection issues. Internet connections see an average of 3.5 hours of downtime and 23 hours of unusable performance per month.

How can a business run well when its network is not set up to adapt to ongoing uncertainty and continuing changes? The solution is a smarter network which can automatically and dynamically adapt to changing conditions, delivering a reliable, high performing foundation for so much of the business operations.

Cloud applications and today’s IT teams need a new kind of network that focuses on adaptability, changing without manual efforts and configurations. Bigleaf is an intelligent, flexible solution delivering this autonomous and adaptable connectivity that ensures cloud applications behave as intended.

Simple setup, autonomous operation

It can take a lot of work and attention to ensure organizations have the reliable, high-performance network they need to thrive. Manually configuring, troubleshooting, and maintaining these high-performance networks across dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of locations, users, and applications is a daunting task for any IT department.

Imagine a performant network that understands what’s happening within it, end to end, and can apply actions that help it run optimally. An intelligent network can do this dynamically and without regular attention and mindshare. It can be set up and managed simply, without weeks of planning, assessments and programming. This reduces the tactical workload placed on IT departments, bringing the best possible network connection to each application without prior planning or complex QoS schemes.

Bigleaf’s SD-WAN adapts intelligently to variable network performance across one or multiple connections. Bigleaf uses a cloud-based architecture that we own and operate to automate traffic monitoring and optimization. The Bigleaf router arrives pre-configured and sits outside of your existing firewall. It looks just like a normal internet connection to your firewall.

Not just a router

Buying multiple internet connections is simple, but getting the most of multiple connections is not. Bigleaf’s SD-WAN delivers performance benefits through an intelligent platform that is more than just a router. It combines routing with a cloud service, a dedicated network, a support package, and an intelligent, automated load balancer to maximize the performance of internet connections.

Bigleaf’s Cloud Access Network connects Bigleaf routers to major peering centers via a carrier-grade, purpose-built IP network. This system performs real-time monitoring of each network circuit ten times per second in both directions. It identifies applications and applies QoS policies to each circuit. It is always aware of circuit state and adapts in real time to network conditions, using all connections for their best use and, in the case of an outage, performing seamless automatic network failove r. VoIP calls will continue on the same IP. All of the autonomous routing and failover work happens behind the scenes.

The Bigleaf approach to load balancing is the next generation of software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN). It provides more intelligence than BGP routing, more reliability than a simple dual-WAN firewall, and more flexibility than a traditional SD-WAN solution.

Autonomous routing drives great business stories

Bigleaf has already seen autonomous, intelligent routing help companies that were struggling with cloud adoption.

New Seasons Market was growing in locations and employees. As their IT infrastructure became more complex, they began moving critical line-of-business applications to the cloud. Reliability is crucial in a company that needs to manage inventory and customer transactions across so many locations. Bigleaf’s same-IP failover and other cloud-first SD-WAN features helped New Seasons optimize multiple internet connections to achieve zero down-time.

The mortgage credit union service TruHome has prioritized a cloud-first mindset. Adopting Bigleaf, with its plug-and-play configuration, allows TruHome to provide excellent, competitive service without requiring a full-time network technician.

To get more details about these Bigleaf customer success stories, and to learn more about how it has helped other businesses succeed, download the ebook, Building an Optimized Network with Bigleaf.

Finally: Resilient and autonomous networking for cloud-focused businesses

Amy Chan — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 20:15:38 +0000

In addition to being excellent tools for collaboration, voice and video are also effective network diagnostic tools. With their sensitivity to circuit conditions, interactive voice and video more easily reveal problems with internet performance that other applications can limp through. A certain amount of packet loss and jitter won’t do much to your email or even a file download, but a video call will freeze, distort, and drop.

These issues reveal that your network likely needs an update. It needs to be reimagined for what we need it to do today…and what we will need of it tomorrow.

Enabling cloud-first business

To run the business the way that they imagined, the leadership of the mortgage service provider TruHome had a vision of improving their telephony system and becoming a cloud-first organization. To support all of that, they needed a more resilient network that wasn’t subject to outages or poor performance. However, moving beyond traditional network transport was daunting, because their call center locations were the heartbeat of their business.

Although cloud-based voice over IP (VoIP) solutions offered a lot of tempting advantages, any move that would increase the risk of downtime or compromise call quality was a non-starter. Their leadership, IT team, and consultants knew the stakes were high as they forged ahead planning a resilient, multiple-location network. They imagined a network that didn’t just improve their call quality but also positioned them to take advantage of other cloud-based applications for the future.

Data networks that use legacy architecture designed with an on-premise server mindset can hamper the evolution of business technology. Branch offices traditionally used carrier-based circuits on costly, rigid MPLS networks that centralize connectivity and bind together the network reliability of every location. This made sense when business resources were hosted on-premise at a single location.

Now and into the future, traffic is increasingly going to cloud-based resources, not to a central office. TruHome’s vision of a resilient, distributed network that relied on the internet and cloud-based solutions was a good plan. Unfortunately, the challenges they faced were different than what they were familiar with or prepared for.

The internet is a jungle filled with potential outages, poor BGP configurations, and flaky routers. The more you learn about how the internet functions, the riskier it sounds to rely on it as your business lifeline every second of every day.

And yet, this is what we do. The good news is that reliable, cost-effective internet performance is possible. With an intelligent software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN), businesses can run mission-critical applications in the cloud without worry. As needs and applications change, the business can continue to adapt, all without major overhauls or downtime.

The SD-WAN needed today

The new technologies that enable business operations are less often found at centrally located on-premises servers. Other services are not all at the same location, either: phone, collaboration, transactions, and data originate with different providers that each need to be reliably accessible.

Networks should be more intelligent, dynamically and autonomously supporting the continuous evolution of business technology. IT teams can’t be focused on the day-to-day changes, particularly for their distributed workforce. SMBs need their IT staff and vendors to be working on long-term initiatives, not constant tweaks to QoS or troubleshooting flaky phone calls.

Organizations, especially SMBs, benefit greatly when they can count on their network to manage their traffic intelligently. The type of SD-WAN needed today understands the current challenges of ISPs and IT teams. It adds intelligence to an organization’s network by autonomously:

assessing and adjusting to the conditions of a circuit in real-time
recognizing business-type application traffic and prioritizing it end-to-end across a network, even when new technologies are introduced
utilizing multiple connections for their best use, from load-balancing traffic across all circuits to delivering redundancy and seamless failover where connections stay up; continuing phone calls and internet access like nothing happened.

Today’s SD-WAN needs to achieve reliability and resilience without constant personal attention. Business-class traffic should travel reliably across commodity broadband without the need for technical staff to constantly monitor and make complex, manual configurations or compromise on firewall security.

The Right SD-WAN

The key to the TruHome plan was an SD-WAN that could intelligently optimize how traffic behaved on a network and provide the performance that VoIP and unified communications as a service (UCaaS) required. For it to have long term value, the implementation and ongoing management needed to be simple.

Before they found Bigleaf, the TruHome implementation was in trouble. The cost and complexity of a cloud-first network with the appropriate security controls was daunting. Knowing what problems the internet would throw at them, the planners were not convinced the architecture would be reliable. There was too much on the line to accept that.

“It’s one thing to run your data applications on ISP circuits and your telephony on a standard carrier separately. If one is down, some operations can still continue. When you are running data and telephony needs over the same solution, that means you must up the ante on your edge network and data circuits. It means you need a topology that allows you to leverage multiple diverse carriers and solves every outage scenario you can throw at it, not just the ones you think to write policies for.”
John Pentlin, Vice President of IT, TruHome

Resilient and Autonomous Networks to Ignite Distance Collaboration

TruHome has been able to realize its vision of a resilient and autonomous network by implementing Bigleaf.

The Bigleaf Cloud Access Network peers to 150 cloud host providers, bringing cloud resources “closer.” Operations are less vulnerable to the many outages, breakages and slowdowns that occur across the internet.

The Bigleaf equipment and the Bigleaf Cloud Access Network function autonomously, providing intelligent responses to issues on the internet and to new applications brought online. No IT person needs to be available. No QoS rules need to be configured.

Operating as the firewall’s connection to the internet, the Bigleaf SD-WAN solution does not require any modifications to the firewall itself.

With reliable business-class voice and UCaaS over their internet connections, TruHome relies on intelligent, autonomous networks built with Bigleaf. With redundancy that maximizes the function of all connections and dynamically optimizes for mission critical services, they can move into their cloud-based future.

Want to see intelligent networking in action? Check out our webinar with Lionakis IT Director Matthew Onken, “Creating a Resilient Network.”

[Case study] TruHome goes all-in on cloud telephony with Bigleaf SD-WAN as the foundation

Bigleaf Networks — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 04:45:00 +0000

Learn why John Pentlin, VP of IT at TruHome, moved their 200+ call center reps to a cloud-based phone system, the networking challenges they faced, and how Bigleaf helped them along the way.

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[Case study] DP Fox builds their future in the cloud with Bigleaf SD-WAN as the foundation

Bigleaf Networks — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 22:34:00 +0000

Learn how DP Fox chose Bigleaf SD-WAN to provide the cloud-ready internet they needed to keep all their locations online and keep their cloud apps performing as needed.

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[Case Study] Jet’s Pizza adopts Bigleaf Networks cloud-first SD-WAN for failsafe, always-on internet

Bigleaf Networks — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 22:31:00 +0000

Learn how a top pizza chain franchise owner eliminated down internet, slow application performance and missing customer orders with built-in, multi-carrier back-ups from Bigleaf.

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Cloud-first SD-WAN for today’s cloud-enabled business

Bigleaf Networks — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 22:46:00 +0000

Bigleaf provides a software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) solution built with a Cloud Access Network that enables you to ensure performant uptime for any cloud-based technologies across all sites and users.

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Making home internet work for business applications

Amy Chan — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 14:59:30 +0000

We’ve been fielding lots of questions from Bigleaf partners and customers looking to get applications like Zoom and Microsoft Teams to work reliably over residential internet. So we asked Bigleaf’s Founder & CEO, Joel Mulkey, to join us for a 30-minute chat/Q&A to discuss the most common issues and answer your questions.

When we asked the audience, “Have you heard complaints about home internet performance from team members or clients?” we weren’t surprised to find that 84% answered “Yes.” That’s because there are legitimate differences between home and business internet that can cause issues for your business apps.

Watch the recording to get the full story on:

Home vs office internet
Challenges for business applications
Diagnosing issues with apps like Zoom
Available solutions and tools

If you’re having issues running your business applications over home internet, we may be able to help. Check out Bigleaf for the remote office and let us know if you have any questions.

Crappy internet: It’s a bigger problem than you think

Amy Chan — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 16:42:54 +0000

If you’re responsible for IT at a small or mid-sized business (SMB) you know this pain all too well. It starts with a support ticket that the phones aren’t working right. But when you go to check them, they’re working fine.

You call the ISP and wait on hold for hours only to have them say, “There are no issues on our end.”

You call the VoIP provider and they tell you to call the ISP.

You’re left waiting until the next complaint with no idea how to fix the issue. It’s a never-ending game of whack-a-mole that leaves end users frustrated. New technologies start to look like bad choices, and IT pros are left with an embarrassing problem they can’t fix.

Cloud and SaaS technologies are enabling a wave of growth and innovation for SMBs and mid-sized enterprises. Whether it’s UCaaS, Office 365, a point of sale (PoS) service, or an industry-standard SaaS app, cloud technologies can transform a business, making it more innovative and competitive. These technologies have something else in common: they all need a reliable connection from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to work properly.

Unfortunately, as most have experienced, almost all ISPs have trouble providing a reliable and performant connection. The complex nature of the internet causes every ISP to have occasional outages and performance issues. In turn, those issues wreak havoc on end-user experience in the form of dropped VoIP calls, choppy video conferencing and unresponsive apps. These issues erode user confidence, reduce productivity, and prevent organizations from implementing and adopting the new cloud-based technologies they need to compete.

So how do you end the cycle? Well, let’s start by taking a look at some of the root causes at play, some of the traditional approaches that have failed and how a new technology like Bigleaf could fix it all.

Outages are only the beginning of your problems

A quick visit to Downdetector demonstrates that there are always ISP outages somewhere. Sometimes outages last days, more often they’re over in seconds. Either way, outages are a major disruption. But as annoying and visible as they are, outages aren’t the real culprit of most ISP-related business disruptions.

This outage map for a prominent carrier is indicative of broader ISP issues experienced on a daily basis.

Most user complaints are caused by ISP performance issues that are far more common than outages. Latency and packet loss show up in choppy VoIP calls. Jitter can make calls sound robotic. These kinds of performance issues happen when the network is overloaded or a partial outage causes packets to re-route over sub-optimal paths. Problems like these create costly, time-consuming disruptions in a business precisely because the underlying issues are almost impossible to detect and resolve.

Let’s put these outages and performance issues into perspective. According to Bigleaf’s own monitoring data, the average ISP circuit suffers 3.5 hours of downtime in a month. That’s pretty shocking. But what’s more surprising, and frankly more concerning, is the 23 hours of “unusable” performance in a month.

“Unusable performance” happens when packet loss, latency and jitter are so bad that you can’t make a VoIP call, run a video conference, or use a real-time application effectively. So that’s almost a full day — or three full business days — of total disruption per month.

So, with those two challenges in mind, we’re now talking about more than 24 hours each month where sales can’t make calls, customers can’t reach support and productivity grinds to a halt.

A lot of us tend to assume these ISP issues only happen in places like Drain, Iowa or the middle of the Mojave Desert because of lack of choice. The reality is that business and tech hubs like Denver, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, and much of the Bay Area are also danger zones for many prominent service providers because of oversubscription and aging infrastructure.

But it’s been this way for decades. What’s the big deal?

Unreliable internet isn’t just an IT annoyance, it’s a companywide problem

Many SMB and mid-size enterprises tend to overlook these bandwidth and performance issues until it’s too late. You can overlook a faulty ISP if Dan from accounting experiences buffering while watching a cat video at lunch. But there will be organization-wide heartburn if the CEO’s conference call fails while he’s presenting to the London branch about their new GDPR mandates.

Quite often, a high-profile failure like this leads to frustration across the organization, and the onus of that failure typically falls squarely on the IT department or MSP. As you might remember from the intro, that process rarely turns out the way we might hope. These technology failures continue, eroding trust in that tech personnel and casting doubt on the new technologies themselves.

We’ve found that application reliability drives end-user adoption of new technologies. When you roll out mission-critical software that doesn’t function right, that impacts every corner of your organization in the form of downtime, lost revenue, and erosion of trust from customers.

Why wait for an embarrassing disaster to learn that your ISP is hindering new technology adoption or frustrating your colleagues and customers?

It’s time for a cloud-first *approach to internet connectivity***

Whether your business is already knee-deep in Cloud applications or just starting out with VoIP phones, you need a reliable network for them to ride on, one that is 100% dependable for both today’s usage and tomorrow’s demands. The real goal here is to build an architecture that transforms commodity broadband into enterprise-grade service and does not send you diving for the antacid all the time. We call this a Cloud-first approach to internet connectivity

It starts with redundancy. Since every ISP has outages and performance issues, it’s essential to have multiple ISPs connecting you to your critical Cloud applications. Instead of betting on one big fiber circuit, diversify across a smaller fiber and cable provider. It’s great to have a 4G circuit for diversity in the worst-case scenario.

Redundancy can’t prevent disruption in real-time if it’s not managed in real-time. Your dual-WAN firewall can failover in the case of a hard outage, but any calls or session-based traffic will drop. Even then, you’re only using one connection at a time, and not to the best effect. Luckily there are new intelligent technologies like Bigleaf SD-WAN that auto-detects your application needs and adapt to changing ISP conditions in real-time. It monitors circuits constantly, prioritizes your most important apps and ensures that ISP performance never impacts the end-user experience.

No technology stack remains static for long. When more new apps are deployed and traffic patterns change, your network should adapt without having to change policies or configurations. With Bigleaf SD-WAN, performance-sensitive traffic is instantly classified and prioritized over functions such as bulk file download. This isn’t based on static app-specific rules, but instead intelligent auto-adaptive heuristics and algorithms. In other words, no matter what technologies you adopt your network will always keep up…and the CFO’s London conference call is never derailed by Dan’s cat video.

With the right solution, it’s possible for SMB and mid-sized enterprises to realize the same performance, redundancy, and reliability enjoyed by enterprise-level corporations. With a cloud-first network purpose-built for your needs, you don’t suffer from daily internet woes.

With the right solution, everyone in your business receives the same cloud-ready Internet. VoIP and UCaaS perform flawlessly regardless of outages, packet-loss, jitter, or lag. Critical apps never fail because their traffic is always prioritized. Your users never feel the impact of ISP issues and your cloud technologies always perform the way they should.

Because we do ask a lot from our ISPs, it is critical that we strengthen them with technologies capable of delivering enterprise-grade, worry-free service — improved performance for every app, anywhere in the world.

You can finally solve the “crappy internet” problem.

SaaS at the Business Edge: Are Your Downtime Fears Justified?

Amy Chan — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 17:02:59 +0000

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) business applications have clear advantages. They have great pricing. They are convenient and easy to manage. You get cutting edge technology. However, to get them implemented we have to overcome a very valid objection:

Sometimes the internet breaks.

Over the course of two hours on 24 June 2019, the internet broke down for most of the United States. Popular websites and apps were inaccessible on browsers and phones.

The cause was achingly human while also being deeply technical. It is called a route leak: A Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) route list that was intended as a map to guide traffic between a few networks was published to networks that should not use those directions. It is like all the rush hour freeway traffic being routed to a suburban side street.

As a result, traffic for 2,400 networks was unfortunately sent through the network of Allegheny Technologies in Pennsylvania. Their infrastructure was not up to the task and most requests failed.

This 80-year old metals manufacturing company was not meant to be a major hub of the Internet, but for two hours in 2019, it was! (Source: Wikipedia public domain)

BGP is one of the many arcane arts that usher traffic across the internet. The “inter-net” is a connection of many autonomous networks, and BGP provides rules for how to get from here to there by moving data from one network to another. A BGP route is somewhat like the turn-by-turn directions you get from Google Maps, only it tells data how to get from a server in Bellevue, Washington to your customer support desk in Trenton, New Jersey.

Propagation of a bad BGP table is preventable. This was clearly an error that everyone agrees never should have happened, but it did. And while the Allegheny incident was a high-profile breakage whose source we can identify, this sort of thing happens in harder-to-diagnose ways all the time.

Due to the nature of internet infrastructure and the laws of probability, they are inevitable. The internet will break, connections will drop, services will fail for no obvious reason.

The more you know about how the internet functions the more difficult it is to believe that it works at all. Along with leaky BGP routes, services depend on DNS, content delivery networks, cloud service providers, and a variety of technologies run by different companies falling well beyond the reach of the customer support or sales person whose web browser is displaying a cute “504, timed out” message instead of the new customer’s loan document.

Where does that leave your business operations, particularly now that cloud-based SaaS applications are taking over?

If your vendor is not taking your concerns about outages seriously, they clearly don’t know much about the “modern” internet.

The concern naturally increases when the risks are greater. The closer the cloud-based solution is to customer engagement where customers are won and lost, the more reasonably nervous you would be about uptime.

If you are a car dealer and your parts lookup is cloud-based, short downtime is awkward and undesirable.
If your customer-facing staff rely on a scheduling system based in the cloud, downtime is an absolutely terrible prospect.
If your medical clinic’s electronic health records or electronic medical records are cloud-based, downtime is completely unacceptable. Significant downtime needs to be beyond belief.

For some locations, such as many rural and suburban areas of the US, the internet breaks worse and more often. When considering a cloud-based or SaaS solution for a business, concerns about downtime are legitimate and substantiated. Regardless of the technical advantages, inconveniencing customers isn’t worth it. Putting the weak links of the internet between the business and customer interaction at the service counter isn’t worth it.

As technologists, we can’t just complain and shirk connectivity. These applications are the key to being competitive in the modern marketplace. We have to make cloud solutions functional and reliable. They simplify business operations, keep technology up to date, and save money.

Despite everything fragile and subject to failure between that key service and our users, we have to create resilience the right level of resilience.

Key Network Issues for SaaS Deployments

Uptime and bandwidth
Management and support requirements
Security

Uptime and bandwidth

Some things you don’t want to know, such as how many problems the internet has at any one time. Not every issue makes the news, but even very short incidents can cause problems for mission-critical real-time applications. A hiccup at the ISP can be enough to drop a call or tangle up a customer service response.

A study of Bigleaf router performance data shows that a typical single-ISP business experiences 3.5 hours of internet downtime a month. What’s more, they experience an additional 23 hours of severely degraded service from jitter, low throughput, and other internet problems that don’t register as downtime but the effect on applications – and thus customer experience – is the same. It is downtime by another name.

Calculating management and support

When networking gets critical, the solutions can be very involved. They can become a problem in themselves. When deciding on quality of service (QoS) settings to optimize a Voice over IP (VOIP) system, are you impacting another mission-critical system? Is YouTube video downloading important to a business operation or can you lower its priority? Do you have to manually tweak and then stress test these applications to see how they interact?

As new applications emerge and the business develops new expectations of network performance, maintaining the network, troubleshooting problems, and new installations can be significant time and budget burdens.

Security in all things

Security has to be a part of every conversation now, and the resolution of our network challenges is no exception. The perimeter firewall is a centerpiece of current network security strategies. Particularly in regulated industries with compliance requirements, the business needs to have control over their firewall to keep rules and monitors up to snuff. Network solutions can interfere with existing firewalls and potentially provide a new attack vector.

The Uptime Reality

Bigleaf Networks was built with all of these concerns in mind. Our SD-WAN platform allows clients to seamlessly use multiple ISPs for higher reliability and performance of their network making them more reliable than any one ISP by itslef.

In the course of our business, we have a window into the reliability of the internet. In a recent month, all the circuits that our clients used averaged 92.5 percent reliability. That is not measuring just major outages but also moments when throughput, errors, or jitter is preventing the internet from being usable.

Our data also shows the solution: with Bigleaf implemented, uptime at the client location was 99.88 percent.

Bringing a business-critical SaaS application into the office is exciting but scary. There are no guarantees in this world, but using the right SD-WAN solution means that, the next time someone transposes a couple numbers on a BGP table, your operation is more likely to stay up and running.

Matrix learns the secrets of a cloud-ready network

Amy Chan — Wed, 22 May 2019 15:41:14 +0000

How to build a cloud-ready network

Matrix Networks got its start in 1984 supporting and installing PBX phone systems. Over the years, the company’s embrace of internet technologies and cloud computing solutions has helped its customers navigate a constantly evolving network landscape.

Matrix Networks attributes this success to the company’s principled approach to cloud-ready network solutions based on three decades of experience.

In an interview with Bigleaf, Kyle Holmes, president of Matrix Networks, explained the company’s strategies for moving customers to the cloud.

As companies shift their businesses to the cloud, what are some of the things you’re seeing?

A lot of people don’t realize they are already in the cloud. In fact, many of them are farther along on their cloud journeys than they think they are. That’s because every business application is moving to the cloud. Every application on a desktop has a web version today. That has resulted in an increase in IT sprawl, as the cloud makes it easy for individual departments to make their own buying decisions.

Is there a secret formula you’ve found for building a cloud-ready network?

There’s a right way to build a cloud-ready network. We call it Matrix Connectivity as a Service (MCaaS). Through a combination of purposeful network design, disparate circuit sourcing, and SD-WAN optimization, we’re able to intelligently manage a customer’s internet bandwidth. From carrier-agnostic circuit sourcing to built-in, company-wide redundancy, 24/7 support and monitoring, and consolidated billing, MCaaS has simplified the way our clients experience connectivity, allowing them to focus on what matters: their business.

We’ve had a lot of success because we’re principled about our approach to what it takes to build a cloud-ready network. Customers want something easy that just works and they want one partner for their connectivity strategy. It’s why our MCaaS is so popular. It’s what our customers want because it’s everything they need in one package with one bill.

What role does SD-WAN play in the solutions you deliver to clients?

In many client engagements, we’re seeing SD-WAN displace existing MPLS networks because SD-WAN delivers better reliability, more speed, and cloud access. And beyond the technical benefits, SD-WAN makes it easy for company IT managers to migrate their applications on private networks to the cloud, giving their own customers — the users — better speed, reliability, and access flexibility. It’s always good to remember there’s usually a human at the other end of your solution and anything you can do to make their life easier is a good thing.

Are companies you work with aware of SD-WAN or is this something you introduce to them?

A couple of years ago, if you mentioned SD-WAN to someone it would be the first time they had ever heard of it. Today, everyone’s heard of it, but nobody understands it. That’s largely due to the fact that there’s a lot of market confusion around the term where people think they’ve got what they need and they really don’t.

SD-WAN is a broad term that means different things to different people. In our case, customers don’t come looking for SD-WAN, but we’re able to show them why they need it.

Your approach to SD-WAN is different than a lot of companies in the market.

For us, SD-WAN takes on two plays: One, we took a hard stand to require SD-WAN in every UCaaS solution we sell. That’s non-negotiable for us. Because deploying UCaaS without SD-WAN is like driving a car without a seatbelt.

The other is as an MPLS displacement where companies are migrating applications to the cloud from a private network and realize they suddenly have different security and reliability requirements.

What makes Bigleaf different?

There are three network connectivity types: site-to-site, cloud-based, and hybrid SD-WAN. Companies can live off a single dumb pipe and hope nothing goes wrong. But we all know that networks inevitably go down. Or they can create a better experience using SD-WAN.

Bigleaf falls right in that cloud SD-WAN sweet spot. There aren’t many that do, fewer that do it well, and none that were built specifically for the cloud like Bigleaf.

To put it bluntly, Bigleaf is an upgrade to the internet. Bigleaf allows companies to migrate to the cloud with minimal changes to their network or existing firewall infrastructure. It’s simple and it works. And that’s why we’ve made it a mandatory part of our offering and also why it sells so well.

What advice would you give to others?

It’s easy to fall prey to the marketing around the cloud and SD-WAN. You need to find a partner who has sifted through the sand for you. When you find that partner, pay attention to the dashboard experience they offer. Visibility is important.

And remember, carrier networks go down. Don’t be dependent on just one. When CenturyLink went down last year, 80% of our clients were on their network. None of them called us. And a big reason they didn’t was because they had Bigleaf as part of the solution we built for them.

[Video] How Bigleaf SD-WAN improves Office 365 adoption and experience

Amy Chan — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 16:52:27 +0000

This month, we headed up to Seattle, WA to talk at Microsoft’s Machine Learning and Data Science conference about Bigleaf’s unique SD-WAN approach and how we’re helping improve Office 365 adoption and experience. Our founder and CEO, Joel Mulkey, was there to help explain why companies using Office 365 are rethinking their network architecture as more and more of their business technologies are moving to the Cloud.

Fortunately for us, the cameras were rolling…

Video Transcript

Hi. I’m Joel Mulkey, founder and CEO of Bigleaf networks. The world of business is in the middle of a massive shift right now. The cloud is taking over, and Office 365 is driving much of that. However, the connection between users and the cloud is preventing adoption in many cases. IT leaders are scared to deploy the great applications that folks like you were building. There are two main reasons for that.

The first is that the internet connection connecting to the cloud is unpredictable. We monitor thousands of internet connections all over and based on that data, we see that each internet connection on average experiences three and a half hours of downtime in given month. On top of that, if the connection up, it’s not necessarily healthy. You’ll see there are twenty-three hours of unhealthy time where the circuit is basically unusable.

The second major issue is that networks aren’t keeping up with the cloud revolution. Users are able to bring apps into their environment at any time, and Enterprise networks are built on static network policies. That’s a collision where the network is just simply not able to adapt as users procure and deploy these applications.

The cloud requires a new kind network, a new kind of Internet. One that’s smarter. That’s Bigleaf. Bigleaf has deployed software defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) to hundreds of mutual business customers. Those are Microsoft customers who are getting the application experience the developers intended because the network is no longer in the way.

Let me talk you through what this looks like.

Bigleaf is built into the internet backbone, the core of the internet. We also own and operate our own core Network. We deploy routers and servers and data centers all over.

We peer that network with hundreds of different networks, including [Microsoft’s]. We then deploy a small router at each customer location and between those endpoints we run our intelligent network software. This platform gives full visibility and control over the whole internet path ensuring that the application user is getting the experience that they should. Because we own this network, we peer it with over a thousand different Cloud applications. This means no matter what the user’s using, whether it’s a Microsoft app or something else, they get a consistent experience this what they were expecting.

Now want talk to you through four areas that we’re innovating in network today. The first is, when you deploy Network Technology, it needs to be easy to implement. Otherwise, it won’t be used. Bigleaf is simple. Our router drops in in between the customer’s firewall and their internet connections. That connects back to our core Network and that’s it. We don’t touch the LAN. We don’t touch the security. We simply focus on internet reliability and performance.

The second area is reliability. Users are expecting a very real-time experience today. If you’re on a key phone call and it drops, or even if it’s glitchy, people upset. Or, if you’ve got a video, you’re streaming and it picks the lates people wonder what’s wrong with the application or what’s wrong with the network. At Bigleaf, we address this through intelligent software that inspects each internet connection ten times second, gathering huge amounts of data on packet loss latency, jitter and capacity. We then take that data and make real-time routing decisions on it to keep the user experience great. You can think of it like a genius network engineer who has access to statistics on the whole internet path end-to-end, and who never takes any restroom breaks, never takes a day off and commits no errors.

The third area is flexibility. The problem with networks built on static policies, like much of today’s Network Technology, is that they don’t adapt to the continual evolution in applications where users are adding things constantly. At Bigleaf we believe users shouldn’t have to worry about how to make their network deal with new applications. So we use intelligent software that automatically identifies those applications through algorithms and heuristics and classifies them into six different categories. We then take that traffic end-to-end across the internet and prioritize it even when it’s congested our users get the best possible application experience without having to manually configure their Network.

The fourth area I want to touch on is autonomy. Autonomous software is very exciting. You’re all here because of that. What we see in the networking space is that it can be applicable to take away the low-level details of managing how to implement the network and releases people to focus more on the outcome that they really want. When I look at autonomous software, I see that it tends to sit in this Sweet Spot somewhere between full manual control and full automation in network software and routing technology.

Like what we do. You can automate it pretty heavily and have that be successful. That’s because computers are better than humans at real-time network monitoring and routing decisions. And the scope of the problem is small enough that you can build autonomous software effectively to accomplish things. Networks built on autonomous software means that administrators are happy because their networks behave like they intended them to, even when conditions change, and users are happy because their applications work right all the time. Bigleaf customers are happy customers.

We make their applications behave like they were intended with our direct peering to Microsoft network and our automatic classification of all types of cloud traffic. Bigleaf is the best way to connect to Office 365. If you want to learn more or talk about how we can work together. Please see me the back afterward. Thank you.

DP Fox builds a cloud-first future with Bigleaf

Amy Chan — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 15:46:38 +0000

Meet Grant Zondervan. Grant, who is VP of IT at DP Fox Motors, accelerated his company’s cloud journey with internet optimization from Bigleaf Networks, to support future growth at the large chain of auto dealerships.

Every day, IT leaders like Grant are moving critical business applications to the cloud. That transition brings a whole new level of flexibility and speed to those companies, but many IT pros still need stable, reliable internet options to keep cloud technologies up and running as intended. Bigleaf delivers that solution in a cloud-first SD-WAN, supporting resilient internet connectivity and contributing to success stories like Grant’s.

Grant Zondervan, VP of IT at DP Fox/Fox Motors

Grant moved DP Fox’s most important software to the cloud, and his IT organization grappled with uptime challenges along the way. Bigleaf has helped him to meet those challenges as DP Fox continues to expand business operations and add new locations.

Read the full DP Fox case study for all the details. To learn how Bigleaf can help your company improve cloud performance and user experience across multiple locations, schedule a free demo or drop us a note.

Cloud-First SD-WAN – The Future of Enterprise Networking

Joel Mulkey — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 18:28:18 +0000

Cloud-first SD-WAN Defined

SD-WAN has become a confusing term. Just like “Cloud”, it can mean a few things. Here at Bigleaf we’ve put a stake in the ground — we are Cloud-first, providing the best possible experience for Cloud and other Internet based applications.

When I say “Cloud” in this post, I’m talking about public cloud, SaaS, hosted services like VoIP and virtual desktop, and other Internet-accessible resources. So when I say we’re “Cloud-first”, that means we built our platform from the start to optimize the experience for those applications rather than other networking needs.

The alternative, which other SD-WAN vendors have built for, is MPLS replacement. These “private networking first” products provide VPNs to connect offices together, to datacenters, or to private cloud environments. While we acknowledge there’s a need for private connectivity, and we have a strategy for it, it isn’t our primary focus.

These distinctions of SD-WAN/Cloud designs and use cases are crucial to understanding the value that SD-WAN brings for a business.

The Evolution of Enterprise Networking

Analysts and other industry experts agree that Cloud is taking over and private networking will become less and less important over time. But how long is that going to take? It certainly varies based on company culture, size, and geography. Based on conversations we’ve been in with IT executives, other vendors, and analysts, we believe the shift for the majority of businesses will happen over the next 2-5 years.

Here’s a great example from Cisco’s Global Cloud Index:

Public cloud services are growing far more aggressively (44% CAGR) than private (16% CAGR).

So if you agree with the industry experts that in 2-5 years Cloud connectivity will be more crucial than private connectivity, how should that educate your networking decisions?

Investing in the Future

We decided to build Bigleaf specifically for Cloud and other Internet based applications. We built our SD-WAN platform with a dedicated back-end core network. We co-locate our own equipment in datacenters, connecting over our own network, peering directly with every major Cloud provider, ensuring peak performance for Cloud applications. We deliver this as a fully managed, SLA-backed service, so customers can rely on us 24×7.

We also knew that customers would need time to migrate to the Cloud, so we built Same-IP failover and a dedicated outside-the-firewall deployment model. This provides the easiest possible deployments and migrations, plus a comforting security story, since customers don’t need to bypass or replace their firewall.

We believe Cloud and Internet optimization is the best and highest use of SD-WAN technology. If you want more from your network than just a cheaper alternative to MPLS, then we should talk. Bigleaf Cloud-first SD-WAN is the future of enterprise networking.

Bigleaf VPN Enhancement

John Hogan — Fri, 20 May 2016 23:27:14 +0000

Bigleaf VPN Enhancement

You probably know that Bigleaf is the best way to connect to cloud-based applications like VoIP, VDI, and SaaS, over standard broadband. However, you may not know that many of our customers also use Bigleaf as their foundation for site-to-site connectivity, in combination with VPNs running on their firewalls. This diagram shows what that looks like:

Diagram showing how a VPN works with Bigleaf’s overlay tunnels

SD-WAN Complexity and Security Challenges

In the growing SD-WAN space many vendors seek to replace the customer’s firewall and establish site-to-site connectivity using their own equipment. The benefit of this approach is that it makes hybrid WANs leveraging both MPLS and broadband connectivity easier to deploy. This can be a useful design for Enterprise customers with large IT teams that want to keep MPLS as part of their WAN architecture. However, the downside of this approach is that it requires complex deployments and forces the customer to turn their security and firewalling over to their new (and often young) SD-WAN provider.

Bigleaf, Plug-and-Play, Outside the Firewall

Bigleaf provides a plug-and-play implementation that allows for a quick 5-10 minute self-install. Our onsite router drops-in outside of the customer’s existing firewall — no need for complex changes in security policies or equipment. Our philosophy is that most small/mid-sized customers (and many distributed Enterprise customers) would prefer to leave their security policies and firewalling to the trusted vendors that are well-established in the space (Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto, Barracuda, etc.). We also believe site-to-site connectivity needs are diminishing every day as businesses move more and more of their key applications out to the cloud. Site-to-site connectivity needs that remain can often be addressed through a trusted VPN architecture, with a high-performance Bigleaf foundation.

Bigleaf Directs VPN Traffic

When a customer sets up a traditional VPN architecture via their firewalls, Bigleaf’s SD-WAN optimization directs and controls the tunnel traffic to provide a previously-unachievable level of VPN stability and performance. Bigleaf’s system will:

Ensure the customer’s VPN rides the most stable ISP connection
Fail-over the VPN tunnels when necessary (during both full outage and brownout situations) without dropping the VPN sessions
Prioritize critical traffic within the customer’s VPN tunnels, through coordinated packet marking
Prioritize the VPN tunnel traffic above other bulk traffic like Microsoft patch updates and YouTube streaming
Provide all this functionality over commodity broadband ISPs with variable bandwidth, like cable

This is a great solution for customers looking to move away from an MPLS network to take advantage of cost savings, WAN redundancy and/or more ubiquitous connectivity options to cloud applications. For customers that don’t have the IT expertise to configure the VPN features on their firewall, there are many quality providers out there that can assist with managed VPN services. Please let us know if you would like us to connect you with one.

Bigleaf is here to make your IT experience easier and less stressful. SD-WAN technologies can be exciting and enable a ton of new capabilities, but if the end result is a complicated mix of expensive equipment and mind-numbing installation procedures and management, it can be a wrong-fit for many customers. At Bigleaf, our use of SD-WAN technology to complement (not replace) traditional VPNs provides a plug-and-play experience, and makes us truly unique in the marketplace.

The 3 categories of SD-WAN revealed – Learn how to choose

Joel Mulkey — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 05:27:36 +0000

SD-WAN defined

SD-WAN stands for Software Defined Wide Area Networking. It’s a combination of Software Defined Networking (SDN), which was created for use in cloud data centers, and Wide Area Networking (WAN) which is the network outside of your office (e.g. the internet, or site-to-site networks like MPLS and Metro Ethernet).

The SD-WAN umbrella

Network engineers would love to strictly define SD-WAN, but marketing departments have turned it into an umbrella term, like “cloud.” There are many types of cloud services, like SaaS, PaaS, Public, Private, and Hybrid Cloud; and similarly there are multiple categories of offerings that come with an SD-WAN label. This guide will help you decipher the choices and shed some light on the decision-making process.

The 3 categories of SD-WAN

1. Cloud-managed routers and firewalls

How do you make 15-year old router and firewall technology look appealing? Add a cloud-based web management interface and market it as SD-WAN! That’s essentially what you’re getting with this category. You buy a network appliance to connect your ISP circuits into, and instead of logging into an interface on the actual device to configure it, you now log into the vendor’s shiny new cloud-hosted management dashboard.

Common labels

Load Balancer, Aggregator, Firewall, Bonding Appliance, Link Balancer, Failover Router, Dual-WAN
Cloud Managed, Cloud Provisioning, Cloud Based
Centralized Management, Single Pane of Glass, Dashboard

Pros

Low Cost
Familiar Vendor

Cons

15-year-old technology at the core
No real-time adaptation to ISP performance issues for cloud traffic
Ineffective (upload-only, fixed rate) QoS
Generally have access to all your private LAN data (see note on security in category below)

2. VPN services and devices

Most “real” SD-WAN offerings fall into this category. They are meant as a lower cost tool to displace MPLS for site-to-site connections. At their core, these devices and services provide site-to-site VPNs, just like standard firewalls or routers.

So the question becomes: what’s the difference between these SD-WAN solutions and standard network edge devices like firewalls? Well, there’s nothing significant at first glance. They boast of cloud-based management (as noted above), plus other existing networking hardware features like application or user-based security and routing policies, or WAN-optimization features like compression or TCP optimization.

But there is a major differentiator, and that is awareness of and adaptation to quality issues on the network paths between sites. Traditional firewalls and routers don’t monitor for or adapt to issues like 3% packet loss or 70ms jitter. These performance issues that affect real-time applications can now be identified and resolved through SD-WAN. Buyer beware: how this detection and adaptation works differs greatly by vendor, with varying results.

One big factor you’ll want to consider when looking at this category is that you’re now trusting your network security to your SD-WAN vendor. Since they’re providing the site-to-site VPNs, all of your private traffic is now touching their equipment, unencrypted. That brings up some questions:

If someone hacks their cloud-based management can they access your private data? Are you sure?
Is their system and/or company PCI, HIPAA, or [insert your compliance need here] compliant?
How do their security practices and implementations compare with the security offered by major brands like Palo Alto, Watchguard, Checkpoint, Cisco, and others that spend huge resources on this?

If you choose one of these devices or services, be sure you feel good about the answers to those questions.

Common labels

SD-WAN, Cloud WAN, Intelligent WAN, MPLS replacement, Hybrid MPLS, Cloud Networking, Overlay WAN
Realtime, Adaptive, Dynamic, Variable
Cloud-Managed, Orchestrated, Controller, Control Plane, Forwarding Plane
Security Policy, Application Aware, Application SLA

Pros

Usually lower cost than MPLS
Adapts site-to-site traffic to changing network performance (but generally not public cloud applications)
Strong QoS for site-to-site (not cloud) traffic, as long as network bandwidth is 100% stable (generally only SLA-backed fiber or T1s)
All-in-one box for firewalling, VPNs, DHCP, NAT and other network edge needs

Cons

Ineffective QoS for cloud traffic like VoIP, VDI/DaaS, and SaaS
Non-seamless or no network performance adaptation for real-time public cloud traffic
Many solutions are very expensive hardware, plus yearly maintenance/support fees
Typically highly complex, requiring lots of configuration and fine-tuning
Generally require ripping out your existing firewall, or disabling many of its features
Often trusting your security to a younger company focused on fast growth

3. Internet and cloud optimization

Bigleaf is the leader in this category, providing optimization for access to the cloud, and for remote access to on-site resources. Public-cloud and other Internet-based applications are the most difficult to optimize connectivity for, because traditionally there is so little visibility and control to the public cloud. Unlike site-to-site VPNs, which are relatively simple to set up and monitor, connections to cloud services like VoIP and SaaS involve a lot more complexity.

To optimize internet-based applications like cloud, you first need visibility. Bigleaf monitors each internet connection from your office to the core of the internet 10 times per second, across the exact same paths that all of your data travels. This end-to-end monitoring typically covers over 98% of the path from your office to your cloud applications.

You then need control. Bigleaf routes all your traffic via our redundant gateway clusters in the core of the internet. We collocate these in datacenters called “Carrier Hotels.” These locations are the major internet peering points in each region, ensuring you have the lowest possible latency. Because we route all your traffic through these gateway clusters we have 100% control of the routing and QoS prioritization of your traffic. This dedicated network architecture is core to our success in optimizing cloud-based applications.

Of course, you also need the best possible network security. There are many vendors that have spent hundreds of millions of dollars building advanced network security offerings, and you’re probably already using them. With Bigleaf, you can keep using your best-of-breed security solutions, and still get cutting-edge SD-WAN benefits for your traffic! Bigleaf drops-in between your firewall and your ISP connections, optimizing traffic while your firewall handles security and VPNs. This creates a stable, reliable, and adaptive foundation for both cloud-based applications and site-to-site VPN traffic.

Common labels

Internet Optimization, Cloud Optimization, Cloud Acceleration
Distributed Architecture, Split Architecture, Cloud Routing
Seamless Failover, Same-IP Failover, No-Drop Failover
Intelligent Load Balancing, Mid-Stream Adaptation
Cloud-Managed, Automated, Seamless, Simple, Plug-n-Play
Dynamic QoS, Cloud QoS, QoS over Broadband, VoIP QoS, SIP QoS

Pros

Automatically adapts both site-to-site VPN and public-cloud traffic to changing network performance
Strong bi-directional QoS for both site-to-site VPNs and public-cloud traffic that adapts to changing network bandwidth (great for cable and wireless)
Compliments existing firewall/security
Doesn’t touch private network data
Usually lower cost than SLA-backed circuits (plus Bigleaf adds a service SLA even when circuits don’t have one)
Easy to use with no complex configuration

Cons

Not an all-in-one network-edge box with advanced security functions
Typically small increase in baseline latency
Overlay tunnels add slight throughput overhead

Which SD-WAN option is right for you?

While there can be many considerations to end up at the right vendor, the decision of which category is pretty simple. Here’s an infographic with some basic questions to help you choose:

While SD-WAN can be confusing, I hope this guide has made the options clear and oriented you in the right direction. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to request a demo, we would be glad to discuss if Bigleaf is best for your environment.

QoS over the Internet for VoIP and Cloud Apps, Part 2

Joel Mulkey — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 16:06:44 +0000

This is a follow-up to the 1st post of this 2-post series on our Dynamic QoS Prioritization. This will be more of a technical deep-dive on QoS and how our implementation works.

Bigleaf QoS Concepts, In-Depth

Let’s dive into the details, through all 5 concepts discussed in the previous post.

Smart Sacrifice

Legacy network appliances (routers, firewalls, load-balancers) provide a self-contained device that attempts to provide useful control of traffic at one point in the network path. These devices provide high efficiency (there is no tunneling overhead) and sometimes low cost for basic versions, yet sacrifice in almost every other area. For more details on how they compare, check out this comparison against Bigleaf.

Then there are the newer Software Defined Networking (SDN) entrants in this space such as Bigleaf. Some have adopted the term “SD-WAN” to describe use of SDN across Wide Area Networks (WANs). Unfortunately, just like “Cloud” can mean many things from private VMs to public-facing SaaS services to Hosted VoIP, SDN and SD-WAN are marketing terms that vary widely in meaning. Some use them to describe simple features like cloud-based device administration, while others use them to mean fully separated control/data plane architectures, and everything in between.

So the question you need to ask is, what are the sacrifices or tradeoffs they are making? Buzzwords don’t matter, the experience for your users does. Unlike other offerings, we at Bigleaf sacrifice a little bit of speed and latency for vastly improved reliability, performance, and user experience.

We do this by tunneling all user traffic through our gateway clusters. This means there’s tunnel overhead (typically about 8%) and a geography-dependent latency increase (typically 5-20ms). Internet-based applications don’t even notice the tiny latency increase, and with broadband circuits so prevalent, the tunnel overhead is basically meaningless. However, what this tradeoff gains us is Seamless Failover of all applications, effective QoS across the public internet, and everything else you read about on this website, without caveats.

Internet Path Visibility

Typical load-balancers and firewalls decide if an internet circuit is up or down by pinging Google or some other IP address out the circuit. If the pings go away then the circuit is down.

First issue here: Up or down, on or off, that’s the granularity available. Real-time applications like VoIP and VDI require far more delicate treatment than this, as they are sensitive to even 1% packet loss.

Second issue: Varying internet paths. Thanks to internet routing protocols like BGP, once traffic leaves your office it can take many internet paths, it’s “The Web”! This is a neat tool for viewing how hugely internet paths can vary. Below is a screenshot showing an example of why this is an issue.

The big dot is your ISP, some of those other dots are the stuff you’re trying to interact with on the internet. Notice how there are a gazillion paths? Just because the path to Google is clean, does not mean that path to your business-critical applications is clean, or even up!

So SD-WAN fixes this right? Not in many cases. With most other offerings, the providers will tunnel some of your traffic back to their cloud servers, but not other traffic. This is a huge issue when quality comes in to play. As this visualization shows, the path tunneled back to their cloud datacenter(s) may be clean, while other paths are nasty or even offline.

Here at Bigleaf we recognized that we can’t sacrifice visibility of what the internet is doing to your application traffic. We absolutely have to know what’s going on at all times for all traffic. Because of this, we tunnel all traffic back through our gateway clusters, your traffic and our monitoring traffic. This ensures that we have fine-grained details on performance of the full internet path that your traffic is taking into the core of the internet. With Bigleaf, the path our monitoring traffic takes is the same as almost the entire path to your VoIP provider, to Google, to Salesforce, and everywhere else.

We monitor that path 10 times per second with custom monitoring packets that our on-site router and gateway clusters pass back and forth. This gives our SDN algorithms packet-loss, latency, jitter, and capacity data for each direction along the whole path, updated in real-time.

There is a small portion of the internet path that we don’t fully see and control – the path between our gateway clusters and the endpoints your traffic is flowing to. Typically that path is just a few hops away on the backbone of the internet (which tends to be the most reliable portion), and with many networks it’s only 1 hop away over connections that we control.

Total Control

The state of QoS on most internet-facing routers and firewalls is sadly very broken. Users think they can check an “enable QoS” checkbox, put in a few rules, and have something that works. As mentioned in the previous post, inbound QoS is basically uncontrolled with on-prem-only solutions due to UDP traffic (and often TCP traffic too).

To get around this issue, we implement control at both ends of the internet path. For upload traffic we control everything at our on-premise router, nothing too special there. For download traffic though, we control all traffic in the core of the internet, at our gateway clusters. These gateway clusters are located in carrier hotels, essentially datacenters that are core internet peering points. We operate our own network rather than using cloud providers like Amazon where resources are shared. These decisions ensure that customers have the lowest latency to the endpoints they are trying to reach, and that we have complete autonomy to run the network in a way that provides maximum performance with no compromises.

In our gateway clusters and on-premise routers we classify user traffic into 6 different categories, rate-limit and queue traffic as needed to ensure proper QoS prioritization, and then send it out through our tunnels. Those categories are:

VoIP
Hi-priority Interactive
Med-priority Interactive
Low-priority Interactive
Bulk Transfers
Default

Because this is happening at both ends (your office and the core of the internet), we have full QoS control over almost the entire internet path. When we say that our QoS works you can believe it, and we’re glad to help you test it if you’d like.

A Creative and Evolving Ruleset

The six QoS priorities above are useless without rules to classify traffic into them. There tends to be 3 widely used philosophies to QoS rules:

Have none
Have none, except for a few specific ones for those really sensitive applications
Use Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) for super-fine-grained control with thousands of rules

#1 obviously is no good. #2 is getting better, but there are lots of basics it leaves uncovered. Maybe business critical applications will work OK, but users may hate the rest of their internet and cloud experience. #3 could be effective, but do you want to maintain that, and do you want to pay for hardware powerful enough to run each traffic flow through thousands of rules?

We’ve come up with a better, more creative method. We have a base ruleset that covers almost all applications, not solely with specific rules but also with other methods that identify traffic beyond basic ports and protocols (but without the overhead of DPI). This ruleset provides an excellent experience for almost every customer and application situation.

However, we acknowledge that any fixed ruleset won’t meet every need, and it needs to change over time. That’s one huge benefit of Bigleaf’s SDN technology – it evolves. When we update the ruleset with new optimizations, those get implemented on your service automatically. You get the benefits, with no additional cost or work. And if you need something custom that our base ruleset doesn’t handle then we can also implement custom per-site rules.

Real-time Adaptation

This part is pretty crucial. Without real-time adaptation, nothing described above matters. If the network devices at each end of a path don’t have accurate speeds set, then they can’t buffer traffic and prioritize it – other hops along the path will do that, almost surely without regard to your desired QoS priorities.

Pretty much all routers/firewalls/load-balancers are rather dumb about speeds for QoS. They either assume that the speed or throughput capacity of a given network path is equivalent to the speed of the port that it’s connected to (e.g. a 100Mbps ethernet port), or that if a speed is set in the UI for the port (e.g. 40Mbps) that the speed will never change. Internet paths are often congested though. Cable circuits experience heavy congestion in the last-mile. DSL and Ethernet-Over-Copper circuits often experience middle-mile backhaul congestion, and all circuits are prone to varying bandwidth due to network failures and peering congestion.

So how should this be fixed? We spent a lot of time back when we started Bigleaf working on this problem, because it’s not easy to solve. A few SDN-type solutions run a bandwidth test at boot-up or device set-up to evaluate the circuit throughput. The problem with that is that throughput changes! Consider a typical 50M/10M Cable circuit. At varying times it may have capacity like this:

6AM: 50M/10M
9AM: 43M/6M
2PM: 47M/7M
8PM: 39M/9M

Theoretically you could just set the QoS rate-limiting settings to 39M/6M for this circuit and have success, but what if you set it wrong? And what about all the bandwidth you’re wasting during better times? That’s not good enough for us.

We created a patent-pending mechanism that automatically adjusts the QoS rate-limiting settings as circuit capacity changes. This ensures that for both download and upload, you get the most possible speed from each internet circuit, without sacrificing constant QoS that’s always prioritizing traffic, even during times of ISP congestion. Our devices at each end are the only devices buffering traffic along the path, so we control the QoS priority.

QoS is One (big) Piece of the Bigleaf Solution

If an ISP circuit is so congested that there’s no “clean” bandwidth available, there’s just constant packet-loss, heavy latency, or bad jitter, then we’ll move your traffic off that circuit using our Intelligent Load Balancing. But for most situations Dynamic QoS is a game-changing feature that enables effective use of over-the-top services like VoIP and VDI across the public internet.

Please Sign Up for service, or Contact Us with questions.

Header image by Ministerio TIC Colombia
Last image by MattysFlicks

QoS over the Internet for VoIP and Cloud Apps, Part 1

Joel Mulkey — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 19:14:34 +0000

But does it actually work, in real life, consistently?

This is Joel here, Founder and CEO of Bigleaf, and that’s a question I got tired of having to find answers for. Back when I came up with the concept for Bigleaf, I had grown sick of implementing fancy new load balancers and multi-wan routers for customers, just to be disappointed by all the caveats and false promises. Look at the marketing materials for those devices and you’ll see terms like “Seamless Failover”, and “Intelligent QoS”, yet those promises fall empty in almost all cases, except for specific lab environments that aren’t seen in the real world.

Bigleaf is different. We’re passionate about truly providing effective internet optimization. One of the features we use to do that is our patent-pending Dynamic QoS Prioritization. Our QoS implementation is different that others in a number of ways, which we’ll explore in this 2-part blog series. This first post addresses our higher-level philosophical thoughts about QoS, and the 2nd post will be more of a technical deep-dive.

Bigleaf QoS Concepts

Below are the 5 overarching concepts that go into our QoS Prioritization design.

Smart Sacrifice

You will make sacrifices in your network implementation. Cost, reliability, speed, quality, relationships, and a number of other factors influence how you build your internet and cloud connectivity. At Bigleaf we believe that the cloud calls for a new priority ordering of sacrifices. You’re going to spend hundreds, thousands, or more each month on your cloud applications, and you need connectivity that’s worthy of those apps. We built the Bigleaf QoS system to sacrifice a tiny bit of network latency and cost, so that you can see huge gains in reliability and performance. You no longer have to settle for caveats and poor performance.

Internet Path Visibility

To provide effective QoS a network system needs to know about as much of the path as possible between the application and the users. As you move to Software Defined Networking (SDN) technology like Bigleaf, this is even more crucial. Networks can’t adapt to what they can’t see. Application developers are getting more creative about solving network problems via protocols like Multi-Path TCP, however only the network layer can provide QoS Prioritization, so it’s a crucial place to have visibility. Bigleaf extensively monitors the entire path that your traffic takes from your office all the way to our gateway clusters in the core of the internet. No traffic takes other paths, all of your traffic runs along the path that our monitoring traffic uses, so there are no hidden un-monitored “brownouts” or outages for lower priority applications.

Total Control

QoS doesn’t work unless you control all the traffic passing over a network path, in both directions, along the whole path. This is crucial. You can carefully configure QoS on your router or firewall, with lots of complex settings and rules, and not realize that it’s completely ineffective. And it’s really hard to test QoS properly, so you likely won’t even know until your co-workers complain of VoIP quality or other application issues.

Why is this? Here’s why: There are 2 primary traffic protocols on the internet: TCP and UDP. TCP is like a phone conversation, it goes both ways, and if someone’s talking too fast you can tell them and they’ll slow down. UDP is like a TV show, one-way, if they’re talking too fast then you’re out of luck, the show is useless. The only way to provide effective QoS prioritization is to have total control of download and upload traffic, for all protocols, including UDP.

An on-site load balancer, router, or firewall has no control of inbound UDP traffic (yes, their marketing literature is misleading). Some very expensive on-site devices will attempt to control inbound TCP traffic via hacks of the protocol’s return traffic, but this is only part of the traffic flow on the circuit, there’s still uncontrolled UDP traffic that will destroy QoS. It’s like you’re trying to have a phone conversation, but the TV is on really loud so you can’t hear and there’s no way to turn it down.

Bigleaf controls all traffic, TCP, UDP, and every other IP protocol, end-to-end between your office and our gateway clusters. Total Control for real QoS.

A Creative and Evolving Ruleset

Complexity ruins many great intentions. Do you have time to manage QoS rules all day long, or do you need to deal with business-critical work? Yes, it’s fun to geek out at times and tweak knobs and settings, but that fun quickly turns in to a hassle (or outright failure) with typical complex QoS implementations.

We take a different approach: plug and play ease. Our standard ruleset is creative, correctly handling new applications automatically in most cases. And as the ruleset evolves those changes propagate automatically to all sites, so you benefit continually from improvements. If you do need to get geeky to accommodate some esoteric application we can manage that via custom per-site rules, but our standard rules meet almost everyone’s needs well.

Real-time Adaptation

QoS only works when network devices at each end know how fast the network path is. This is a little-known fact, but it’s crucial for effective QoS. Network devices have to manage traffic flowing into a circuit so that the circuit doesn’t become saturated: full of traffic. If circuit saturation occurs then the devices trying to implement QoS are effectively doing nothing, their rules are no longer controlling the network prioritization. Yet almost all network QoS devices are completely naive of changing circuit bandwidth.

When using broadband circuits, or even SLA-backed circuits like T1s or fiber, the speed of the path between your office and the remote destination is often variable. Speed can be affected by issues along the whole path, last-mile, middle-mile and peering problems. Your internet QoS is ineffective if it’s based on a statically set speed.

Our patent-pending QoS implementation is Dynamic – it adapts to changing circuit bandwidths in real time to ensure that high-priority traffic like VoIP and other real-time applications experience true prioritization across the full path from your office to our gateway clusters in the core of the internet.

You Need It All

Without all of the concepts above, correctly implemented, and carefully managed, QoS across the internet is impossible. With Bigleaf’s Dynamic QoS you get the best possible experience for your VoIP and Cloud traffic in a simple-to-use service. Please Sign Up for service, or Contact Us with questions.

Check out Part 2 where we dive into some technical details about the above topics.

Feature and Last image by MattysFlicks

Cloud-first SD-WAN – Bigleaf Networks

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