Open source SASE and SD-WAN vendor flexiWAN has partnered with Clevernet to improve performance for enterprises with AI-based WAN optimization software.
The partnership with Clevernet enables flexiWAN to add WAN optimization software to its SD-WAN solution without the need for network infrastructure changes or upgrades to physical equipment. Using Clevernet's WAN optimization software, the combined solution improves the performance of a WAN connection by using simultaneous multi-paths (SMP).
"A customer installs flexiWAN and Clevernet, site-to-site, from its office in New York to its data center in Utah and connects them via one Internet service provider (ISP)," flexiWAN explained in its press release. "The Clevernet AI is constantly analyzing all the possible paths from New York to Utah and then choosing numerous optimal routes. This means that when data is being transferred, instead of taking one route it takes multiple and therefore the entire file arrives at destination much faster.
"It also gets there more reliably since if one path has an outage, there will always be other routes. The more ISPs in use or MPLS connections, the better since SMP will be able to find even more paths."
Amir Zmora, the CEO and co-founder of flexiWAN, said in an email to FierceTelecom that flexiWAN first started looking at WAN optimization as part of a proof of concept trial for a large service provider about a year ago.
"We came back to this in early Q4 of 2020 as we saw that now is the right time to add this to the solution," Zmora said. "In the performance tests conducted in Q4 of 2020 we saw very good network performance improvements."
According to a statement by Clevernet's CEO and CFO Mario Nemirovsky, the average network speeds improved by a factor of six while also making SD-WAN more reliable.
"Then, in long delay, high bandwidth networks, Clevernet can speed it up by 17 times," he said.
The tests were conducted with Clevernet running as a virtual machine (VM) alongside flexiWAN's edge device, flexiEdge.
"It will take several months to get this as an application, which is a market driven decision, although a VM level solution is also valid in the uCPE space," Zmora said.
The combined solution will later be added as an application that runs in the flexiEdge data flow.
FlexiWAN's software includes a centrally managed SD-WAN solution in open source that has integration points in the core of the systems that can integrate third-party logic from various companies.
By enabling third-party integration, flexiWAN can break vendor lock-in by creating an open source ecosystem with vendors that specialize in various areas such as deep packet inspection (DPI), security, WAN optimization, session border control, VoIP, and other traffic-specific optimization logic.
The core flexiWAN solution can enable application-specific detection and optimization logic by software-as-a-service applications. It also can integrate with open source DevOps tools, and even with other SD-WAN vendors.
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