Cloud Made Simple | High Availability Meraki SD-WAN Design

Client Overview:

Cloud Made Simple is A UK and Australian based IT Managed Services provider, they reached out to Sydco Networks to assist them with a network uplift for one of their clients in the hardware industry. As the company expanded its operations and digital infrastructure, they required a reliable, secure, and scalable networking solution to maintain seamless connectivity across its offices, warehouses, and cloud resources.

The Challenge:

Cloud Made Simple faced several networking challenges:

• Unreliable Connectivity: The existing wide-area network (WAN) was dependent on traditional MPLS circuits, which were often slow, expensive, and prone to outages. This led to service disruptions, especially in remote or underserved locations.
• Growing Bandwidth Demands: With the company’s increasing reliance on cloud applications, collaboration tools, and IoT devices in warehouses, there was a significant rise in bandwidth requirements, stressing the network’s existing capacity.
• Lack of Failover Mechanisms: There was no automatic failover or high availability (HA) built into the current network design. If one link went down, critical operations were impacted, affecting the speed and efficiency of global logistics operations.
• Complex Network Management: Managing the network across multiple regions, each with different infrastructure needs, became increasingly complex. Cloud Made Simple team struggled with troubleshooting, network visibility, and configuration consistency across locations.

The Solution:

Sydco Networks implemented a High Availability Meraki SD-WAN solution to address these challenges and improve network resilience, performance, and manageability. The solution included:

1. Meraki SD-WAN Architecture: Sydco Networks designed an SD-WAN solution using Cisco Meraki equipment that integrated multiple transport types, including broadband internet and an LTE backup link. This allowed Cloud Made Simple to optimize their clients network by choosing the best available path based on performance, cost, and reliability.
2. High Availability (HA) Design: To ensure maximum uptime, the SD-WAN design incorporated dual Internet connections at each site, with automatic failover between them. This provided a redundant path for traffic, ensuring business continuity in case one link failed.
   • Dual WAN Interfaces: Each location was equipped with two Meraki MX security appliances, connected to separate ISPs, and connection types, maximising network resiliency.
   • Automatic Failover: If one connection experienced latency or failure, traffic was automatically routed through the backup connection with minimal disruption.
3. Cloud-based Management and Visibility: The Meraki solution’s cloud-based dashboard provided centralized control and visibility of the entire network. Cloud Made Simple’s team was able to monitor network performance across all locations, configure policies, and deploy updates remotely, simplifying operations and reducing management overhead.
4. Traffic Shaping and Prioritization: To accommodate the growing bandwidth demands, Sydco Networks implemented traffic shaping and QoS policies that prioritized critical business applications, such as real-time shipments tracking and cloud-based ERP systems, while ensuring that lower-priority traffic, like guest Wi-Fi, was allocated bandwidth accordingly.
5. Enhanced Security: Each Meraki MX appliance included advanced security features such as intrusion prevention, secure VPN tunnels, and malware protection, ensuring that the network remained secure even when using less secure internet connections like broadband or LTE.
6. Scalability: The SD-WAN solution was designed to be easily scalable, allowing for the seamless addition of new sites or regions. This flexibility would support Cloud Made Simple’s clients growth and allow for future upgrades without significant redesigns.

Results:

The High Availability Meraki SD-WAN design delivered several key benefits to Cloud Made Simple’s client:

• Improved Network Resilience: The dual WAN links and automatic failover ensured 99%, drastically reducing the risk of network downtime and service disruption. Cloud Made Simple’s clients operations continued smoothly, even during link outages.
• Optimized Performance: The SD-WAN automatically selected the most efficient path for traffic, ensuring faster speeds, reduced latency, and more reliable performance across remote locations. This was particularly important for cloud-based applications that relied on consistent connectivity.
• Reduced Costs: By replacing costly MPLS circuits with more affordable broadband internet and LTE, Cloud Made Simple’s client significantly reduced its WAN costs while still achieving high performance and reliability.
• Simplified Network Management: The Meraki cloud dashboard provided Cloud Made Simple’s team with a single, intuitive platform to manage all network devices, monitor performance in real-time, and quickly troubleshoot issues across multiple locations.
• Scalable Infrastructure: The solution allowed Cloud Made Simple to easily add new locations to the network, with no need for complex configurations. As the company expanded, the SD-WAN design could quickly accommodate new sites with minimal setup.

Conclusion:

The High Availability Meraki SD-WAN design helped Cloud Made Simple’s client overcome network reliability and scalability challenges, providing a flexible, cost-effective, and resilient solution. With improved uptime, optimized performance, and simplified management, the company was able to enhance its operations while ensuring secure, high-speed connectivity across its growing network.