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Why Peplink: SD-WAN Technology

It’s not uncommon for a practice or thing to exist and function before an official name is attributed to it. For example, people were taking pictures of themselves decades before the term “selfie” was coined. It was just a picture. And men found spaces to be alone, play video games and hang with other guys long before we called it a “man cave.” It was just a room.

Peplink’s SD-WAN technology was like that. The company was combining the power of multiple WAN sources into one unbreakable connection long before there was a name for it. All the engineers at Peplink wanted was to provide resilient connections that could fail over.

“Around three years ago or so, we started hearing the term SD-WAN,” recalls Frontier channel sales account manager Jon Kellogg. “When we dug into what the term meant, we discovered it was what Peplink had been doing all along.”

Our beginners guide to SD-WAN explains the technology in layman’s terms.

Call Peplink the OG of SD-WAN, if you will. And because they were riding that wave before it was cool, their products have a leg up on the competition. Peplink’s technology is not only of superior quality, it’s affordable, plays well with others, and offers maximum flexibility.

“Peplink has a multitude of SD-WAN capable product lines that serve many different niches,” says channel sales account manager Matt Bouren. “There’s a Peplink product for enterprise offices, educational institutions, the oil & gas industry, maritime, and public transportation. But the products also cross verticals. The Peplink MAX Transit is typically used in transportation, but the maritime industry is catching on and using it on yachts because it’s affordable and does the job.”

Peplink products are scalable, as well. “Some companies start with a small Balance router. Then, as they grow, they incorporate the enterprise-level Balance devices,” Jon explains. “Once they’re ready to incorporate cellular connections, they can move to the Peplink SDX products. The new modular design focus is allowing customers to pick a device that meets their needs now but can grow with them in the future.”

Matt adds that the new MAX HD4 MBX has removable modules for when 5G comes out. “They’re prepared for the future, and the technology is more advanced than the competition.”

But advanced technology doesn’t mean it’s difficult to use. Ease of use is a major benefit of Peplink’s SD-WAN routers. “Peplink shows you what to do to get the devices up and running, but they don’t cloud the user interface with unnecessary information,” Jon goes on to say. “The advanced features are there if you need them—and know how to use them—but having them in the background is what makes Peplink easy to use.”

Finally, Peplink can be a complete SD-branch solution, or it can be bolted onto another solution where needed. “Peplink can be the entire end-to-end, soup-to-nuts ecosystem,” Jon says. “But if all you need is a cellular router to add to your current solution, Peplink won’t disappoint.” The additional benefit to Peplink’s SD-branch solution is it can be managed through any web browser using InControl 2. The cloud-based management system allows network administrators to configure, monitor and troubleshoot from anywhere.

Peplink engineers describe the company’s SD-WAN advantage in this way: “We have developed a potent combination of products and technologies that can help you build SD-WAN networks with unbreakable connection resilience, unmatched deployment flexibility, and intuitive ease of use.” Jon and Matt couldn’t agree more.

Make sure you stay tuned for Part 2 of our “Why Peplink” series where we will talk about SpeedFusion.

FrontierUS Channel Partners have access to the full range of Peplink technology and products.