This blog is authored by Babu Peddu, Senior Product Marketing Manager, HPE Aruba Networking.
Legacy networks were not designed for today’s cloud-based world and can lower productivity and efficiency, resulting in costly maintenance, security risks, and compatibility issues with modern technologies like multi-cloud networking, AI, IoT, or 5G.
Backhauling cloud-destined traffic to the corporate data center for security reasons is no longer practical—there is simply too much data going to the cloud, and it’s being created everywhere—including the edge.
Traditional architectures based on MPLS also fail to meet the demands of modern cloud-based enterprises. MPLS is less flexible than internet links and other modern connections such as satellite and 4G/5G, and even internet links are not ideal, often suffering from jitter, packet loss and latency. Modern WANs can deliver private-line-like application performance over the public internet at a lower cost.
Advanced SD-WAN is a cutting-edge technology that modernizes infrastructure to deliver seamless, secure, and optimized access to business-critical applications across a multi-cloud environment. The result is reduced downtime and higher productivity for both on-prem and cloud-based networks.
Modernizing your network with HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN
The HPE Aruba Networking Edge Connect SD-WAN platform empowers organizations to meet the demands of modern workloads by:
- Connecting your businesses from edge to cloud with a single SD-WAN fabric across many locations, data centers, cloud, and SaaS.
- Adapting in real time to changing network conditions to select optimal paths automatically.
- Eliminating the need to backhaul cloud-destined traffic to the data center through application-first packet identification and intelligent steering of cloud-destined traffic.
- Enabling you to build a unified and optimized WAN edge solution that provides the highest quality of experience, advanced security, supports multi-cloud networking and continuously adapts to changing business needs.
With thousands of production deployments globally, enterprises have identified four key areas for choosing the HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN platform to upgrade and modernize their network infrastructure.
1. Highest quality of experience
HPE Aruba Networking uses multiple techniques to optimize application performance. Path conditioning mitigates packet loss and jitter often found in internet links, WAN Optimization reduces latency due to distance, and AppExpress dynamically selects the best path for critical applications based on real-time traffic observation and synthetic polling.
HPE Aruba Networking Business Intent Overlays (BIOs) dictate and translate business needs into application QoS and security policies. With the EdgeConnect SD-WAN platform, network administrators can continuously analyze and elaborate network condition changes and automatically apply policies to adapt traffic handling and comply with the business criticality of every application. This results in increased agility and improved control and performance while reducing operational complexity.
2. Seamless integration
The EdgeConnect SD-WAN platform seamlessly integrates with HPE Aruba Networking SSE or other third-party SSE solutions to establish a robust SASE solution providing secure access to hybrid workers, advanced threat protection, and data security.
It also includes a next‑generation firewall that provides advanced security and cyber-security features such as deep packet inspection, IDS/IPS, DDoS mitigation as well as application and user identity awareness. This gives the ability to block malware from entering the network based on application, identity and context, regardless of the port/protocol used. The Threat Logging feature provides network and security analytics back to HPE Aruba Networking Central or a third‑party SIEM such as Splunk to monitor threats in real time, enabling IT to quickly take action.
3. Multi-cloud networking
The platform supports multi-cloud networking by seamlessly deploying virtual SD-WAN instances within major cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. This enables end-to-end connectivity across diverse environments, ensuring applications hosted in the cloud can communicate efficiently and securely.
Additionally, it intelligently steers traffic to the cloud based on first-packet identification and security policies. Trusted application traffic, such as voice and video traffic, is directly sent to the cloud, while other traffic is sent to an SSE solution for further security inspection.
4. Continuous adaptation
The HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN platform is a self-driven, self-healing, and self-optimizing network that reduces the impact of brownouts and blackouts by continuously monitoring and using analytics to detect changing conditions and trigger immediate adjustments. Adaptive Internet Breakout enables users to connect to any application without any manual intervention from IT.
The platform was designed from the ground up as a single system. It unifies SD-WAN, firewall, segmentation, routing, WAN optimization, and application visibility and control in one centrally managed platform. This provides businesseswith secure and optimized access to cloud services, devices, applications, and resources, regardless of location.
HPE Aruba Networking Central powers the EdgeConnect SD-WAN fabric and provides a full‑service AIOps suite that automates common troubleshooting and configuration activities. Central includes AI Search for tips and solution guides using natural language based on generative AI (LLMs). This helps simplify deployments and predict potential issues before they impact performance, leading to improved reliability, efficiency, and user experience.
2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for SD-WAN Report
HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect platform is industry recognized and was named a leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for SD-WAN for the sixth consecutive year. As an industry-recognized SD-WAN Leader, HPE Aruba Networking can support your journey to a secure, high-performance, and self-driven SD-WAN. Download the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant Report for SD-WAN here.
Amplify your network performance with EdgeConnect SD-WAN and discover a new era of enhanced simplicity, scalability, reliability, security, and user experience.
Related links
HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN overview
Not all SD-WANs are created equal: Performance matters
Making the shift to a business-first networking model
HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN Solution data sheet
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Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
This Magic Quadrant report was previously known as Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure.
HPE acquired Silver Peak in 2020. Silver Peak was recognized as a Leader in the 2018, 2019, and 2020 reports and again in 2021 and 2022 as part of HPE.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN, Jonathan Forest, Naresh Singh, Andrew Lerner, Karen Brown, 27 September 2023.
