Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform Reviews

The use cases are pretty broad simply because we were optimizing the network and the use case if a site had multiple MPLS locations or they were paying for MPLS point to point connections. The main use case was to eliminate the MPLS through the primary carrier, like AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile. We would identify all of those use cases where any site that was leveraging a service called Aryaka which was a whole mesh network. We were removing all of that and migrating to Silver Peak over the internet.

Once we had a site where we were using Orchestrator and Unity Edge and we would see the traffic come up. Once we would put in the appropriate change controls and migrate the traffic over from the MPLS, we would see a reduction in traffic by up to 40% between what the MPLS connection was with the new internet Silver Peak connection was using. Companies that had a 10 megabit line that they were using on MPLS would essentially not get a full 10 megabit throughput. When we migrated it over to Silver Peak, given that Silver Peak did acceleration, deduplication, and traffic mapping, we would see a significant improvement in not only the usage of bandwidth but also the deduplication of data that did not need to traverse the wide-area network. 

We had several clients that were paying $7,500 a month for an MPLS line for one single 10 megabit circuit and we were able to take that from $7,500 a month down to $500 a month for two 10 megabits circuits that added redundancy where before they did not have redundancy and it gave them a much better throughput. That was using a standard MPLS line. We put in two 10 megabit internet circuits and put Silver Peak on them and then removed the MPLS circuit. That took their bill from $7,500 a month down to $500 a month.

That's why as soon as we did that and we showed some of our other internal clients what could be achieved, everybody wanted to be first. After that, the flood gates opened and we were up and running.

There were router replacements where some sites might've needed to upgrade their router infrastructure with Silver Peak, you didn't need to do that because it could also function as a mini router. 

There were considerable money savings.

Their WAN optimization in terms of wireless connectivity doesn't have a very good cellular capability. I know of another company that does a much better job called Peplink. I have not specifically used Peplink but I am hearing from a lot of my clients who say Peplink has a great product and does things similar to the way Silver Peak does, but they had a better EdgeConnect type of device that functions very well on cellular connectivity.

I have been using Unity EdgeConnect for four years and we have it deployed to 300 locations over the globe.  It is an encrypted piece of hardware so make SURE you follow correct guidelines for exporting the technology outside the USA.

It's very stable. Out of the 500 devices that we shipped all over the world, we had one that had something wrong with it. It was a hardware failure and we sent it back to Silver Peak and they shipped us another one. And they were back up and running within a week.

Scalability is there. We would buy 500 devices at a time and I spent about four and a half million dollars and they could roll those out in a couple of weeks. The ability to turn it around from Silver Peak to the client was very fast.

The solution was very scalable because the WAN optimization and a Unity EdgeConnect devices would handle anything up to the level of a data center. Boost was the ability to scale up and down performance capabilities from a data center, from the large site in seconds. The scalability of the product is good from a hardware perspective through all of their Edge devices.

There are plans to increase usage. This was deemed one of the most successful projects that we deployed and every new site that comes online gets one of these Silver Peak devices.

Their technical support is very good. They are very responsive. If we had a call or sent an email in, we would typically get at least an acknowledgment within four hours. They worked with us on many occasions when we saw where improvements could be. They were very adept at looking at what we were trying to do. Especially when it comes to application performance and availability capabilities, they were very open. I would give them a high rating, a very positive rating for their customer service and support. 

There was a huge business case that I wrote to replace the Aryaka mesh network and Aryaka did not like that at all. As a matter of fact, three CEOs called me trying to convince me not to do that, but the Aryaka business case just didn't fit the company I was with anymore. We did replace all of our Aryaka sites with Silver Peak.

The primary reasons that we replaced it were because of cost and performance on the network. Aryaka would not do any traffic shaping or traffic management through a wide area network. If you were contracted to have a 10 megabit line and your traffic got up to 10 megabits or maybe spiked and went over say by 11 or 12 megabits, they would just drop your packets. They would not try to resend them. They would not try to buffer them. They just dropped them. We showed them that on several occasions. They refused to acknowledge that they would drop the packets, but we showed them several sites where we said, look, you see here, here are the packet snippers we're watching every packet that goes, here's one that's going through your device, and all of a sudden it drops. They never came back with a solution or a workaround or anything. So we had to get off of this. It's not worth it. We replaced also several NPLS connections from AT&T.

The process was very straightforward for the initial setup. It was so straightforward, even I could do one. And for executive management to be able to do an implementation is saying a lot.

The setup was very straightforward in that connecting the hardware is three wires - four wires if you include a power cable. So once you have the unit, what we term "rack and stack" and we would send pictures to the site and it didn't have to be an IT person to plug this in. We would show them that exactly this color cable goes in this slot, this color cable goes in that slot and then turn it on. And as soon as it's on, then we'll take it from there. And my team would finish the setups, but the site needed to have a public IP address, which was typically not an issue. And then once we configured the site and tested the traffic over it was almost plug and play. Very rarely did we have any special kinds of troubleshooting. If we were not told all of the IP address ranges that a site typically had, then that could have been an issue. But once you've learned that and you've written down the lessons learned for it, we never had that issue again because we would make sure that the sites would tell us every IP address range so that we would not miss any IP addresses that needed to go through the Silver Peak device.

It was very straightforward and we could start reporting on a site what their current bandwidth was, what their traffic speed was when they're getting a full 10 megabit per second or what was the degree of deduplication and traffic shaping that was being done. Sometimes I would talk to the application developers and say, look, your application is constantly doing this and sending huge amounts of data over the WAN; how about if you didn't do that and redo your application to be more efficient in the data transmissions. A lot of them did that and that to me was a kind of an offshoot benefit. It allows you to be able to look at inefficient applications that need to be written in a much more SDLC format.

The deployment would predominantly take roughly three to four days to bring a site online. That was once the equipment was on-site and we had a site contact who could unbox the machine, unbox the box, rack it and stack it and power it up and then we would get it configured and then it would be ready for traffic for testing. So I'd say it would take about a week.

You typically will license the hardware and you license the software to access the hardware capabilities. The price will range anywhere from a hundred to $300 a month. There are no additional costs. 

The additional cost that is needed would be the internet costs. Since most companies, most site locations already have an internet connection. That's a cost that has to be included as part of the cost of Silver Peak.

Out of the 2.7 million that we saved over two years about half came from MPLS and half came from Aryaka savings. 

Silver Peak needs to come up with a 5G solution. They are clearly the leader in the SDWAN software-defined networking for wide area networks. When you're shipping outside of a domestic you well better have your paperwork and documentation set properly. Otherwise, you are going to get in trouble with the government which is typically the United States and the government that you're sending the device to. If you're sending one to France, Germany, anywhere in Europe, there have very strict trade requirements and regulations that have to be filed. And I would dare say that the majority of the companies that are dealing with this now are not in compliance.

My advice to someone considering this solution would be to understand what your sites are doing. If they already have public IP addresses or if they don't, they need to get. If they have point to point, they need to look at what their current level of redundancy is. Many of the sites that we went through had only a single external connection to the internet or to a hub provider, like AT&T, a carrier they need to have, and it's cheap enough now to have two distinct lines such that in the event one line goes down, they're not completely down. They can still have some level of redundancy.

I would rate it nine out of ten. 

We use the solution for network management. It provides a management layer for 200 locations. We have EdgeConnect to control with parameters, etc.

The important feature is the insight page. This is in a part of the management website where we have all the statistics about the net condition with a perimeter in one place, giving me enough information about the current status of the network.

The network intelligence could be improved. It provides valuable insights. This network intelligence is important to get more information. There could be more improvement in module issue tests and Internet connectivity.

I have been using Aruba EdgeConnect for three years.

The product is stable.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

The scalability depends on the skills. There are a few network administrators with over 260 locations. In every location, we have 100 people. We have over 26,000 users using this solution.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

We have contacted customer service multiple times, including the Falcon partner. They were willing to help and support us.

Positive

Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform can be compared with VeloCloud, VMware, and Meraki from Cisco. Based on my comparison, Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform is better in terms of look and feel.

The initial setup is simple. Companies buy it because it's simple to set up and configure.

The platform's pricing is not low and not high. It's affordable for enterprise and mid-sized businesses.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect for three use cases.

We have deployed it in a bank customer for a VPN over the internet for a backup to the MPS. 

We use it for managing satellite microwave and fiber connections with different latencies in the same location.

In a multi-branch enterprise, we used the solution for two links on each site with other links together all aggregated in one network.

The most valuable feature of Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect is the boost.

I have been using Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect for approximately five years.

The stability of Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect is very good and quiet.

Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect is scalable.

I have many clients using Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect but they do not know they are using my service.

The support from Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect has declined since Aruba acquired them. The knowledge and speed of the agents could improve.

I need to transfer units between customers. Most of the issues that I have with the support are with licensing. It is difficult and always takes time.

The initial setup of Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect is straightforward. The full setup of one customer network on the 14 branches took us approximately 48 hours. This includes the installation of hardware, other solutions, and the installation switches on the branches

We used an integrator for the implementation of Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect.

There is an annual license required to use Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect.

As an integrator, I recommend Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect. However, it does depend on the use case.

I rate Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect a nine out of ten.

The feature that allows defining different profiles for the users is the most valuable feature of the solution.

At the moment, for us, it is a very good solution because it has all the features we need and it is not so expensive. Hence, it seems to be a good solution for us.

The support, which is the direct support from Aruba, has shortcomings and needs to be improved.

I have been using Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform for two years. Also, I am using the solution's latest version. My company is a reseller of Aruba.

The solution's network is very stable. It works fine. We have no specific feedback about the adaptability of this network.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

It is possible to scale the solution with regional hubs, so it seems to be very scalable. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

To be specific, the number of end users using the solution is something that depends on our customer since a customer has shops, and I think that for each shop, there are around eight to ten employees. There are also data centers and offices with a hundred people, I suppose, for each office. Around several thousand use the solution.

Regarding the initial setup, once the training has been done and one is in the job of practice, then the solution is quite simple. We also have junior resources perfectly performing the initial setup of the devices during the network deployment.

On a scale of one to ten, where one being difficult setup and ten being easy setup, I rate the setup an eight.

The solution is deployed on the cloud. It is directly on the Aruba cloud.

Now I think that we have a very good process, and we are able to make a deployment in two to three hours.

Normally, one person on-site and one remote person for configuration are required during deployment.

On a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high, I rate the pricing around five to six. It is not so expensive.

We are working with four different technologies at the moment. It depends on the choice made by the customer. We can't suggest technology in any case until we talk with the customer.

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.

Our company is a partner and has a rapport with Silver Peak. We use the solution to improve organizational functions by optimizing automation. 

There are two options for deployment. A lot of customers want hardware in their environments. Others have cloud-native environments and use virtual machines. The preferred method is virtual but it depends on a customer's business needs. 

We currently have two customers using the solution. One prefers on-premises and the other prefers the cloud version. 

The solution includes features for SD-WAN and WAN such as batch conditioning and optimization. 

Real-time techniques can be used for hardware or software in WAN optimization. Traditional WAN does not have this advantage. It is a wonderful track that gets you private or public internet first, then the negative effects of non-orderable packets. 

More technical sessions should be offered for deploying the solution. There are different circumstances for each customer. One might need the solution virtually and one might need it as a hardware. Demo implementations showing a variety of options would be beneficial. Data sheets, guides, and videos on the portal are good but not enough because we need to know more about the solution. We want to be strong technically with regard to deployments. 

We want more information on the add-ons and the solution's deep advantages. For example, our customer has experience with Riverbed WAN optimization. We have a trusting, long-term relationship with the customer and want to be able to guarantee the solution is better. With the solution being new to Egypt, we see the features and capabilities but need to know they will work in our customer's environment. 

I have been using the solution for four months. I am very interested in the solution and have registered for courses to obtain a certificate. 

The solution is stable so I rate stability a ten out of ten. 

The solution is scalable so I rate scalability a nine out of ten. 

Technical support is very, very good and much better than competitors. Continued support is provided and appreciated. 

I rate technical support an eight out of ten. 

Positive

The setup is really easy. Even without a demo, we can easily implement using the guide. 

We implement the solution for customers. 

The solution is new to Egypt so customers don't know it well. They are experienced with Riverbed and we are becoming experienced with the solution. 

WAN optimization is used by huge businesses in Egypt. Gartner is the flagship tool but we follow this and feel the solution is a better option. 

The solution is a wonderful product based on the user guide, sheets we receive, and demo presentations. The SD-WAN and WAN optimization are unique features. 

I definitely recommend the solution and rate it a ten out of ten. 

Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect is used to manage VMware.

I have been using Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect for approximately two years.

Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect has high availability.

The scalability of Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect is good. You can create a cluster and deploy more VMs.

This solution is only used by approximately three administrators.

I have not used the support from Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect.

The initial setup of Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect is not straightforward. It took us approximately four hours to deploy.

We are integrators, we did the implementation of Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect ourselves.

The license for Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect is paid annually. 

The license features should improve in the solution. For example, when you purchase VMware, it starts at a low level that has some functionality. When you want to expand, the difference in the price is substantial. I purchased the lower functional version for $4,000, and now if I want to upgrade, they ask me for $80,000. This is a $76,000 difference, there's no logic, but this is VMware.

My advice to others is before they implement the solution they should have the knowledge of how to use it.

I rate Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect a seven out of ten.

Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform is best suited for multiple environments that need better connectivity. You can optimize its bandwidth and give better connectivity in terms of packet losses. 

The tool's most valuable feature is bandwidth optimization. 

I expect automation in the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform's next release. 

I have been working with the product for one year. 

Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform is stable. 

The tool is scalable. We have customers who have deployed it in over 3,000 locations. There are two customers in my territory. 

We have a dedicated distributor. 

You need experience to do the deployment. It is not complex. We did the deployment within a week. You have to deploy the product in both locations and configure it. 

You can get both yearly and monthly options in licensing. It is not expensive. 

I rate the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform an eight out of ten. 

We use the Aruba platform for connectivity for our enterprise to run our business operations.

The platform is very user-friendly. It allows clients to manage their network and view bandwidth, application performance, and application bandwidth usage across all locations. The platform's many features made it easy for us to transition from SD-WAN.

There were issues, but now it is improving.

I have been using Aruba for four years.

The product is stable. There were issues related to box management, but it is now stabilized.

The solution is scalable and suitable for enterprise-level business.

We initially faced challenges with the platform in 2018 and 2019. The underlying GNS technology was relatively new and not fully equipped to handle the complexities of our environment. However, the platform has been steadily improving. They have resolved over 50% of the reported bugs, and the platform is becoming more stable and reliable. Initially, we were operating with a single network feed, which presented many challenges.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward, requiring two engineers for onsite and remote each. The deployment typically takes less than an hour. However, installing Cisco ENC devices, such as the 5403 or 5400, can be more challenging and require additional troubleshooting.

The solution is easy to maintain.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.