Building a Future-Ready Network with SD-WAN
A Law Firm with over 150 attorneys practicing from more than a dozen offices throughout Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota, transformed its network to remove operational complexity, increase visibility, and enhance organizational agility while significantly reducing costs in the process.
Challenge
The Law Firm’s aging equipment was nearing end of support, and multiyear service contracts for internet edge devices were expiring. Backup internet lines were available at certain offices, but the Firm didn’t have the right technology to fully leverage redundant circuits. The Firm also lacked the visibility into application performance to make intelligent traffic routing decisions.
WANs had changed significantly since the Firm deployed their WAN, and MPLS was not keeping pace with the changes. Their MPLS connections were expensive, and deploying new circuits required a long lead time. The cost and inflexibility of their network, along with the rapid rise of remote work and cloud adoption, compelled the Firm to reassess their traditional MPLS technology and consider a software-based approach to managing their WAN.
Solution
The Law Firm turned to Cerium Networks to help them develop a future-ready, agile approach for optimizing network connectivity between remote branches, data centers, cloud instances, and employees working from home. After assessing the Firm’s existing environment, defining network requirements, and evaluating future organizational goals, Cerium and the Firm determined that a software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) solution would reduce MPLS costs and make the network more resilient and secure while preparing the Firm for a future move to SASE architecture.
Results
By consolidating diverse architecture at various sites under the umbrella of a single, SD-WAN network solution, the Law Firm is receiving a host of benefits. In addition to improved network performance, resilience, and security, enhanced visibility into network traffic patterns has enabled the Firm to cut costs and reduce its reliance on MPLS. The Firm is committed to continual digital transformation that leverages proven technologies to enhance user experiences and minimizes operational disruptions. The move to SD-WAN puts the Firm in a good position, with multiple options for expanding and upgrading the network.
Making the Business Case for SD-WAN
