Welcome to the second installment of our “Why Peplink” series. This article focuses on SpeedFusion, Peplink’s proprietary VPN solution.
The first article in our “Why Peplink” series focused on SD-WAN technology.
Having a VPN, or Virtual Private Network, solution isn’t unique in and of itself. All the big networking hardware players provide it. A private computer network that functions over a public network, a VPN allows employees to securely access company networks no matter where they are.
The most common form of VPN, IPsec, encrypts data and transmits it through a single WAN connection—like DSL, for example. It can be effective, but as more and more businesses move to cloud-based data storage solutions, a single WAN connection becomes a liability. If that connection goes down, a business is dead in the water until it returns. That downtime can negatively impact sales, customer experience, data transmission, and critical communication.
Peplink recognizes that a traditional VPN is necessary in some instances. But, seizing on the future needs of businesses, they have also expanded and improved offerings with four unique stages.
Peplink calls their first VPN stage PepVPN. On top of all the benefits of conventional VPN technologies, PepVPN also offers:
- Long-distance ethernet cable over any WAN link
- Seamless transition between and compatibility with any device
- Compatibility in any dynamic IP environment and NAT
The second stage of Peplink’s VPN technology adds a hot failover layer, which uses multiple WAN connections instead of just one. “These multi-WAN connections build resiliency, redundancy and session persistence,” FrontierUS’s Director of Strategic Accounts, Michael Maitland, explains.
Michael uses an example of a VOIP call to further illustrate. “If you are on a voice call using a VPN with only one connection and that connection fails, your call terminates. You have to start over,” he says. “But if you have hot failover, a call won’t terminate when one connection goes down; it will failover to another one. You won’t even realize the failover happened.”
The other big players have failover too, you might argue. In many cases, though, competitor technology takes additional time to negotiate failover, and there isn’t session persistence, which means your VPN call might experience glitches or momentary lapses.
The third stage of Peplink VPN is WAN smoothing. FrontierUS channel sales account manager Jon Kellogg explains it this way: “This is where the same packet of data is sent over multiple WANs and whichever one gets there first is used. This technology is beneficial for broadcasters and video streaming.”
“Let’s say a company wants to livestream a concert being held in a remote area. There’s not a lot of bandwidth available, but the company needs low latency and consistent throughput,” details Michael. “WAN smoothing takes multiple internet connections (for example, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile) and duplicates the data packet down each connection. If the Verizon connection gets the data there first, that’s the connection that’s used.”
Finally, the fourth stage is bandwidth bonding. This is the highest level of SpeedFusion, and while it’s used the least, it’s very important. “Bandwidth bonding takes multiple internet connections and bonds them together to create a larger, super-fast tunnel,” Jon says. “This creates more bandwidth availability and increased speed and reliability.”
Michael adds that bandwidth bonding is extremely beneficial for mobile command centers, engineering and construction sites, medical x-ray vans, and dental buses. “In these cases, large files of data need to be transmitted back to a site quickly. With SpeedFusion bonding, you can plug in connections for any provider to get more bandwidth instantly, or you can unplug connections to keep costs under control.”
“I tell our Peplink partners they won’t find a VPN engine like SpeedFusion anywhere else,” Michael says. “Plus, SpeedFusion is extremely simple to set up. You only need three pieces of information, and it configures in about a minute.”
But what if a company’s entire hardware stack is another brand? Or, what if a company recently invested in hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment, and can’t afford to replace it all with Peplink? While either scenario seems to be an obstacle, there’s good news!
“At Frontier Computer Corp., we take a look at what makes sense for companies both from a financial and functional standpoint. We’ll never mandate that a company replace an entire network,” Michael reassures. “A single Peplink product can create improved functionality without a huge investment, and Peplink products play well with other brands. Plus, every Peplink router comes equipped with SpeedFusion.”
Interested in learning more about SpeedFusion? Take a look at our best practices.
FrontierUS Channel Partners have access to the full range of Peplink technology and products.
