3. Current Status and Demand Analysis of Enterprise Branch Networking

1. Business changes brought about by digital transformation

According to IDC research, in 2017, digital transformation has become a consensus among leading enterprises in the entire industry, with 67% of the world's 1,000 large enterprises already considering digital transformation as the core strategy of the company. It can be said that in the past few years, digital transformation has swept the globe, with new opportunities and values constantly being discovered and created with the wide application of new technologies.

In recent years, with the continuous deepening of the digital transformation process, the types, architectures, and usage methods of business in various industries have undergone significant changes, mainly reflected in:

Rapid Launch of New Business:The first thing brought about by digital transformation is the change in business types. Technologies such as AI, VR, big data, and the Internet of Things are developing rapidly, bringing various applications such as facial recognition, video conferencing, video surveillance, and digital marketing systems;

Widespread Cloudification of Business:With the continuous deepening of cloud computing technology, the business architecture has also undergone significant changes. According to data from relevant institutions, by 2018, nearly 40% of Chinese enterprises had used cloud services;

Rapid Expansion of Branches:An increasing number of enterprises follow the development strategy of 'going out', with branch offices expanding rapidly and businesses spreading across the country and even globally;

2.Background of SD-WAN Technology

Against the backdrop of digital transformation, branch offices not only need to interact with the headquarters in a flexible and efficient manner but also need to smoothly obtain external information. In the process of use, in addition to reliable and stable encrypted transmission, users from different industries also require the deployment of VPN devices, switches, firewalls, internet behavior management, and wireless APs to meet the specific needs of different branches. This requires the participation of multiple devices in traditional networking solutions, which deviates from the industry-wide recognized integrated IT construction for branch offices, aiming to improve business access experience, business high availability, and rapid deployment. Under this background, SD-WAN networking technology has emerged as a solution to meet the business needs brought about by the digital transformation process.

Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SDWAN) is a service formed by applying SDN technology to wide-area network scenarios. This service is used to connect enterprise networks, data centers, internet applications, and cloud services over a wide geographic range, aiming to help users reduce wide-area network costs and improve network connection flexibility.

3. Current Status and Demand Analysis of Enterprise Branch Networking

(1) Current Status of Enterprise Branch Networking

Currently, branch network widely adopts traditional dedicated line routers, VPN, and other devices to achieve interconnection with the headquarters. During the networking process, challenges are faced in terms of poor application access experience, high IT investment costs, and complex operation and maintenance management;

• Poor application access experience:

The newly launched applications at the branches include various types of artificial intelligence, facial recognition, order systems, warehousing systems, ERP, OA, SAP, video conferencing, and video surveillance, resulting in an explosive growth in the types and quantities of business. Different applications compete for limited bandwidth resources, leading to poor access experience for core applications;

In the process of extensive cloudification of business, branch offices find it difficult to quickly and efficiently access cloud resources, and accessing cloud services based on the internet faces huge challenges in terms of access quality and security;

In addition, most branch institutions have a single exit line, and once a line interruption or congestion occurs, it will lead to business interruption; even if some branch institutions have adopted multiple exit links, based on router routing convergence, manually switching VPN to the backup line, and other strategies, the fault recovery time is too long, and it is also difficult to meet the high availability requirements of high-continuity services such as video conferences and trading systems.

• High IT investment costs:

Based on the two aspects of data connectivity and boundary security, each branch institution needs to deploy a variety of hardware devices such as routers, switches, VPN, firewalls, and wireless APs, leading to high IT investment costs;

In addition, in the selection of branch exit lines, MPLS/MTSP and other dedicated lines are expensive, and the quality of Internet access is difficult to guarantee. How to ensure access quality while reducing line costs as much as possible has also become another major problem facing branch networking;

• The workload of operation and maintenance management is huge:

Branch institutions are spread all over the country, with scattered geographical distribution and a large number. Using traditional VPN devices, deployment is complex, and business launch is slow. Using MPLS dedicated lines, in some areas, the dedicated lines are not accessible, and a relatively long line deployment period is required. Whether based on Internet+VPN or专线 to achieve branch and headquarters networking interconnection, it is difficult to meet the needs of branch rapid expansion;

In addition, traditional router devices are configured based on command lines, and branch stores and institutions lack professional IT operation and maintenance personnel, making it difficult for non-professionals to participate in basic network management; the headquarters also lacks a unified operation and maintenance management platform, unable to quickly locate faults and remotely handle faults, leading to high operation and maintenance costs and low efficiency.

(2) Enterprise branch networking requirement analysis

a.BusinessBusiness requirement analysis

In the wave of business digital transformation, how to improve the business access experience has become the most urgent need for branch stores and institutions. Based on this, the branch networking equipment needs to have the following capabilities:

• Intelligently identify business, differentiate business types, and arrange transmission priority to ensure that core applications are transmitted first;

• Under the Internet, through transmission optimization technology, improve the quality of application access;

• Supports multiple types of lines such as MPLS, Internet, and 4G LTE, pools WAN resources, and improves bandwidth utilization through various routing transmission strategies;

b.SecurityDemand Analysis

During the interconnection process of the branch and headquarters networking, it is necessary to ensure data transmission security and branch boundary security:

• Data transmission security: through VPN encryption technology, a dedicated network is established on the public network for encrypted communication to improve access security;

• Branch boundary security: branches should have firewalls (4 layers), access control, anti-DDoS, and ARP attack functions to ensure branch boundary security;

c.Operation and MaintenanceDemand Analysis

Due to the numerous branch numbers, scattered geographical distribution, and the lack of professional IT operation and maintenance personnel, in the new networking scheme, it is necessary to build a unified and centralized operation and maintenance management platform at the headquarters to achieve network minimal operation and maintenance. The main requirements include:

• Simplify the deployment and online process of branch IT equipment, achieving zero contact deployment and online operation;

• Realize the visualization and remote operation and maintenance of all network devices, links, and applications through centralized controllers;

d.CostDemand Analysis

The IT investment cost of the branch is one of the important factors affecting the expansion speed of the branch, and how to reduce the IT construction cost of the branch office is also one of the important concerns of the new networking solution:

• Minimize the number of IT hardware devices at the branch to achieve IT integration delivery and reduce hardware investment costs;

• In case of necessity, large-capacity Internet lines can be introduced to replace expensive MPLS专线 lines, reducing the cost of line investment;

4. Enterprise Branch Networking Solution

Replacing the router networking solution with SD-WAN is a new generation of networking solution that applies SD-WAN technology to the construction of wide-area networks, with the ability to connect branches, headquarters, physical data centers, public clouds, and SaaS cloud services, helping users build wide-area networks with dedicated line-level access experience and controllable operation costs.

Branch end: Deployment of SD-WAN Aids router

Deployment of SD-WAN router at the branch to achieve IT integration delivery, the SD-WAN router not only provides VPN networking functions but also provides routing, switching, firewall, flow control, WIFI, 4G access, and other functions, and can be connected to the SD-WAN centralized management platform for centralized visual management, meeting the personalized needs of different branches.

Transmission end: Based on the Internet to achieve link optimization, optimal routing, and VPN encryption
To address the issue of poor business access experience, the SD-WAN router can reduce line packet loss and optimize transmission efficiency through built-in sofast acceleration engine, adaptive FEC packet retransmission, and adjusting the sliding window size, etc. In addition, when there are multiple external network exit lines at the branch, the router also supports dynamically selecting the optimal transmission line based on different application requirements.

Transmission end: Based on the Internet to achieve link optimization, optimal routing, and VPN encryption
To address the issue of poor business access experience, the SD-WAN router can reduce line packet loss and optimize transmission efficiency through built-in sofast acceleration engine, adaptive FEC packet retransmission, and adjusting the sliding window size, etc. In addition, when there are multiple external network exit lines at the branch store, the SD-WAN router also supports dynamically selecting the optimal transmission line based on different application requirements.
Headquarters end: Deployment of high-performance SD-WAN Aids router devices and centralized management platform
The headquarters end can deploy high-performance SD-WAN router devices and establish connections with branch ends; in addition, the center end can also deploy the SD-WAN centralized management platform, realize branch network connection in minutes through easy-to-deploy strategies, and visually manage the SD-WAN devices of all branch offices, achieving zero maintenance for branches.