HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN

We currently use HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN solution as our method for connecting our sites via SD-WAN. Primarily our environment is a fully meshed environment, which is an easy to configure option with the HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN solution. It's a very reliable product which allows for our high uptime demands that has come with an amazing customer vendor relationship.

The HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN excel in environments where you do a lot of your East - West segmentation is done by another device. While these devices can do basic firewall functions, it's their not true intent. If you can group what you want your traffic to do into a few basic groups, this product will work great (think all Guest Traffic gets low priority and sent directly to the internet, VoIP gets sent directly out but high priority, and most internal traffic gets medium throughput). There are ways to really tinker reach the desired goals but this can be a double-edged sword of those configurations being forgotten about. There is also the use of templating which if you have a larger environment, this product will make some normal configs (think SNMP) more streamlined. The units are also highly reliable, built with HA in mind - our company has only experienced a single version that had a memory leak that we just needed to remember to reboot every 90 days while we waited for the next update (which came in like 4 months).

We are utilizing the Aruba Software Defined WAN (SD WAN) as a means to give us far reaching access to remote and geographically separate sites that will enable them to function the same (or similar) to how they would directly on the LAN. It has solved the problem of not being able to manage these locations as if they were local.

Have remote sites and need them to feel local? Want to get all your locations virtually on the same network? This is the way. And if you're like us and need an easy way to manage all your remote locations in one place this is the tool you want to use.

Software Defined WAN is growing a lot this year and when we had some issues connecting to our external and remote locations we needed something that could also manage those sites in one easy place. We had trouble doing this with our existing infrastructure, but now our sites are all connected with the [Aruba Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN)] and we couldn't be happier.

You really have to have the exact needs we did to require a system like this. Connecting external buildings or remote offices that don't have a great way to metro net or VPN back into the network can use this solution and it makes things alot easier. If thats your same situation this may be a simpler way to accomplish that.

Aruba Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) is being used as a means to centralize some specific remote sites in our organization. It's a way to centrally manage them as opposed to the problem of managing each specific router at each site as a solo network. It helps us solve the issue of deploying rules and changes separately, which would be much more time consuming.

While I do believe the product to do most of its features quite well, it's when you want to delve into the deeper functions that things get a little less clear and sometimes confusing. And getting a technician who knows the product well can be a tough task. For users with a large Aruba network, it is a great tool however.