How One Unified Platform Gives You More Control Over Branch Networking

by ZPE Systems | Mar 18, 2019 | Uncategorized

Branch networking comes with its own set of challenges that can get in the way of normal operations. As a network engineer, you’re tasked with preventing business disruptions while simultaneously scaling, troubleshooting, and managing network connections. This can be a daunting challenge that may lead to slow deployments, inevitable downtime, and unoptimized connectivity.

The good news is, Nodegrid was built from the ground up to address these major concerns with branch networking. Read on to see how our branch-in-a-box solution helps you scale, troubleshoot, and manage with one innovative system.

Make Branch Networking Easy to Secure and Scale

Consider the common challenges of scaling and adding branch locations to your enterprise network. You’re typically left to ship preconfigured devices to each site, which not only adds more time and cost, but more risk as well. What if these preconfigured devices get lost or end up in the wrong hands? Because they contain user accounts, passwords, and other sensitive information, having these devices get lost or stolen puts your network at greater risk of attack.

Once your devices successfully reach their destination, the real work begins. You need to manually set up all appliances at the location, which involves logging into each individually and making appropriate configurations. This takes even more of your time and money, and leaves you open to potential setbacks that can occur due to human error. What if your compliance documentation contains a mistake, or your IT personnel unknowingly repeat an error while deploying 10, 20, or even 50 new sites?

Nodegrid was made to address these concerns of security and scalability. Nodegrid appliances consolidate network functions, sport Linux OS for third-party application hosting, and feature ZPE Cloud connectivity.

When adding a new branch location, you don’t need to ship anything preconfigured. Ship bare-metal Nodegrid devices, which eliminates the threat of having your data lost or stolen, and simply plug them in. Zero touch provisioning means all configuration data can be automatically downloaded from ZPE Cloud, only when your devices are safely at their destination. This capability is even extended to devices that you connect to Nodegrid appliances.

Suddenly, backdoor security threats are no longer an issue, and neither is costly human error, since all your branch locations can be deployed consistently via the cloud.

Pinpoint Problems for Better Troubleshooting

Face it — troubleshooting issues could be a much more intuitive undertaking. But it’s difficult, mostly because of the sheer number of devices you deploy at each location. When something goes wrong, you probably refer to your spreadsheet that shows specific device information for each branch. From there, you might run through troubleshooting protocols to narrow the list of potentially problematic devices and what the issue might be, and then you can finally work toward a solution.

Nodegrid does away with all the hassle, because it uses consolidated devices and Nodegrid Manager software that pinpoints problems for you.

Nodegrid devices are powerful, featuring x86 64-bit architecture that accommodates third-party application hosting for cyber security, SD-WAN, firewalls, and more. For switching, routing, and computing, you need only a single Nodegrid device. This reduces potential points of failure so you can solve issues easier. On top of this, Nodegrid Manager is software that gives you a complete view of all your network-connected devices. It features alerts and notifications that let you know of problems before they occur. Together, Nodegrid’s hardware and software make it simple to pinpoint issues and prevent downtime.

Manage Using one Intuitive Platform

With many devices at each branch location, it’s likely that your hardware stack includes multiple vendors. This is part of achieving a right-fit solution for your enterprise, which can serve you well when looking at the bigger business picture.

But when you get down to the details of managing branch networking, this mishmash of vendors can be a nightmare. Each device has its own OS and interface, which can exhaust your staff. You need to spend time and money training them to become proficient with each. Still, even your best experts can become quickly fatigued when they’re forced to transition from device to device, interface to interface, protocol to protocol, and so on.

One of the best parts about Nodegrid is that it answers the question, “What if it could all be done using one tool?” That tool is Nodegrid Manager.

Nodegrid Manager shows you every device connected to your Nodegrid appliances, and features Guest OS that gives you total out-of-band control regardless of vendor. With one intuitive interface, you can control your entire infrastructure, get deeper visibility and insight into your network, and even extend features to bridge gaps between devices. It can all be done remotely as well, so you can manage and optimize your branch networking no matter where you are.