CATO Networks

OCTOBER 9, 2017

TMC, a global, integrated media company, has awarded Cato Cloud a 2017 Internet Telephony SD-WAN Excellence Award. Congratulations to Cato Networks for receiving a 2017 INTERNET TELEPHONY SD-WAN Excellence Award, said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC.

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WAN Wide Area Network MPLS Internet 52

CATO Networks

SEPTEMBER 20, 2022

Most enterprises look at SD-WAN as an MPLS alternative , hoping to reduc e their MPLS connectivity costs. SD-WAN ROI Driver #1: Reducing MPLS Connectivity Costs Enterprises have long invested in managed MPLS services to connect locations. With SD-WAN, companies avoid consuming expensive MPLS capacity on Internet traffic.

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WAN MPLS SASE Firewall 52

CATO Networks

OCTOBER 31, 2018

Traditional hub-and-spoke networking has enterprises backhauling WAN traffic from branches over MPLS circuits to a central site and applying security policies before sending the traffic to the cloud or the public Internet. SD-WAN has emerged as a popular alternative to MPLS.

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CATO Networks

JUNE 6, 2018

For example, an MPLS connection and an Internet connection. Internet Backhaul moving large amounts of data between major data aggregation points. Although its expensive, organizations often use MPLS to backhaul branch traffic to their corporate data centers to secure traffic and enforce policies.

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CATO Networks

AUGUST 17, 2021

SASE merges the network optimization capabilities of SD-WAN with a full security stack, including Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), and more. By choosing the best available path, SD-WAN provides better performance and reliability than broadband Internet.

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Network Networking NaaS SASE 52

CATO Networks

MAY 24, 2022

Azure SD-WANs MPLS and SD-WAN Problem When organizations start relying on Azure, two problems become increasingly apparent. You can continue to rely on your centralized security gateway, backhauling traffic from branch office inspection by the gateway before sending the traffic across the Internet to Azure. Lets see how.

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WAN Cloud Network Networking 52

CATO Networks

MAY 18, 2021

The companys original WAN operated on a telco bundle from a carrier that provided a global MPLS network and worldwide Internet services to the various sites. Secure Web Gateway (SWG) services in the cloud were used to secure the web traffic. Level 2 sites required one MPLS and one Internet link.

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CATO Networks

DECEMBER 8, 2024

In the face of rising bandwidth costs and the limitations of MPLS , IT teams turn to SD-WAN, a more flexible and cost-effective solution that leverages public internet links to improve performance and reliability. However, the shift to SASE is not just a one-time swap of technologies.

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CATO Networks

DECEMBER 24, 2019

Middle-Mile Network Optimization Techniques: Reducing Latency In the past, MPLS provided enterprises with low-latency, albeit expensive, connectivity between sites. WAN optimization appliances emerged to solve that problem, providing the means to extract the maximum usage out of available MPLS capacity.

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CATO Networks

JULY 26, 2022

The new darling of the networking industry would free us from the shackles of legacy MPLS services. It was cute, shiny, and taught enterprises how to walk — walk away, that is, from MPLS to a network designed for the new world. It would give us even more more security, better remote access, and faster deployment.

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WAN SASE MPLS Internet 52

CATO Networks

AUGUST 23, 2016

To securely connect users at any company location to business applications, or to secure traffic over the internet, we could either connect remote sites with an appliance on the perimeter site, or backhaul all the traffic to a datacenter. Backhaul traffic through the company datacenter and exit to the internet from a central location.

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CATO Networks

MAY 16, 2018

Our 2018 survey included over 700 respondents from IT enterprises that currently run MPLS backbones. Streamlining the network security infrastructure and providing secure Internet access from any location were the top 2 reasons for moving to SD-WAN in 2018. Forty-two percent said it reduced the cost of MPLS service.

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WAN MPLS Firewall Cloud 52

CATO Networks

MAY 16, 2022

As with all our PoPs, Marseilles isnt just a gateway that secures traffic to and from the Internet. Cato SPACE provides enterprise-grade threat prevention, data protection, and global traffic optimization for East-West traffic to other Cato PoPs and North-South traffic to the Internet or the cloud.

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CATO Networks

SEPTEMBER 27, 2017

Security between locations, though, was not an issue provided the WAN was based, as most were, on a private MPLS service. With its ability to separate customer traffic, MPLS services give enterprise IT professionals enough confidence to send data unencrypted between locations. This requires a shift in our security models.

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WAN MPLS Network Security Internet 52

CATO Networks

MARCH 22, 2022

Rising MPLS Bandwidth Costs MPLS is expensive and eats up a large portion of IT spend. Stage 1 businesses are those that spend a significant, yet manageable, amount of their budget on MPLS. SASE can be adopted gradually and grow incrementally as current MPLS contracts expire.

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CATO Networks

MARCH 15, 2018

The MPLS architectures of most enterprise WANs adds far too much latency to Internet- and cloud-destined traffic. Other problems, including extensive deployment times (as much as 90 days) and high bandwidth costs (think double or more their Internet equivalents), make MPLS incompatible with evolving enterprise requirements.

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WAN Wide Area Network Network Security MPLS 52

CATO Networks

JANUARY 2, 2022

But whats particularly interesting for anyone moving away from a global MPLS network or otherwise looking at WAN transformation is the impact NaaS will have on evolving the enterprise backbone. Only by converging SASE with NaaS can companies eliminate costly, legacy MPLS services. But SASE alone cant replace MPLS.

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CATO Networks

MARCH 2, 2023

This is something that MPLS does not provide because it cannot support the cloud evolution that the manufacturing industry is experiencing. Additionally, global expansion is a major challenge due to the cost and complexity of turning up new sites, especially in locations where MPLS is not easy for carriers to offer and support.

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CATO Networks

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

Converged functionalities include SD-WAN, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS), cloud-access security broker (CASB), DLP and secure web gateway (SWG). SASE can connect any network: the internet, MPLS, cellular networks and more.

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CATO Networks

JANUARY 18, 2017

The Cato Cloud replaces your secure web gateways, MPLS backbones, SD-WAN and WAN optimization appliances, Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs), and on-premises firewalls, UTM, and VPN appliances.

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Firewall MPLS WAN Cloud 52

CATO Networks

APRIL 2, 2019

At the edge of this network, customers can connect their branch locations, corporate data centers, mobile and remote users to the core network via their preferred carrier services (MPLS, broadband, LTE, etc.) using secure tunnels. Each entity connects to the communication hub nearest them to reduce latency.

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CATO Networks

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021

Googles recent announcement of the GCP Network Connectivity Center (NCC) joins other similar services such as Amazons AWS Transit Gateway and Microsofts Azure Virtual WAN. Private backbones enable high quality connections that don’t rely on the public Internet. In the world of private backbones this translates into PoP coverage.

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SASE Cloud Gateway MPLS 52

CATO Networks

MAY 24, 2021

The PoP is just a connection point a gateway, of sorts where the external world (i.e., site to site traffic), or to the general Internet. The fact is, many SASE providers use the Internet as the backbone network between their PoPs. There is little or no control over the packets that are traveling on that Internet backbone.

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IaaS SASE Internet WAN 52

CATO Networks

FEBRUARY 21, 2019

One of the key requirements of Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) is the ability to connect to service providers via the Internet. As I discussed in my previous blog , few companies, especially global organizations, have Internet access at every branch. An architectural example is shown below.

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WAN Internet Cloud Network 52

CATO Networks

APRIL 15, 2018

This allows a comprehensive security policy to be enforced on WAN and Internet traffic, for fixed location and mobile users. For example, if some branch locations are not connected via MPLS , separate firewalls may be required, forcing security administrators to manage separate network security policies.

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Firewall WAN Network Security Gateway 52

CATO Networks

OCTOBER 5, 2021

To put that another way, SSE blends – Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) – Secure web gateway (SWG) – Cloud access security broker (CASB) – Firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS) and more into a single-vendor, cloud-centric, converged service. All Internet traffic is sent to the Cato Cloud for inspection and policy enforcement.

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CATO Networks

JUNE 19, 2017

FWaaS is a cloud-based architecture that eliminates the need to deploy firewalls on-premises, mainly in remote branches, in order to provide site-to-site connectivity and secure Internet access. Ultimately, the primary use case for Palo Altos new service is a secure web gateway and not a full blown replacement of edge firewalls.

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Firewall WAN Network Security Cloud 52

CATO Networks

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

Customers were looking to move away from their MPLS networks and the backhauling of Internet traffic to a secure internet gateway at the datacenter. The new network was built on edge SD-WAN devices, Internet last mile, and secure direct Internet access at the branch.

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SASE WAN Cloud Internet 52

CATO Networks

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

Its also no secret that traditional networks add latency to UCaaS sessions, backhauling all cloud (including UCaaS) traffic to a centralized, secured Internet gateway. And once on the Internet, latency remains unpredictable as UCaaS traffic is subject to the public Internet.

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Internet WAN Network Networking 40

CATO Networks

NOVEMBER 19, 2019

It is easy for an enterprise to fall into a false sense of security because they can view all the traffic traversing MPLS links. The problem is today enterprise WANs are a mix of MPLS, Internet-based VPNs, mobile users, and cloud services. I can even see down to a single person and how much bandwidth (s)he is using.

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Network Networking WAN Cloud 52

Kentik

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

Designed before the dawn of the commercial Internet, the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is a policy-based routing protocol that has long been an established part of the Internet infrastructure. Why is an understanding of BGP helpful in understanding Internet connectivity and interconnectivity?

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CATO Networks

JULY 19, 2023

Zscaler offered a secure web gateway (SWG) as a service. It solved an urgent problem – users wanted direct internet access from anywhere without the need to backhaul to corporate VPN concentrators appliances or data center firewalls. Lastly, ZTNA used the same approach to access private apps in datacenters.

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Firewall Cloud SASE Wide Area Network 52

CATO Networks

OCTOBER 27, 2022

Key components include SD-WAN, Firewall as a Service (FWaaS), Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Data Loss Prevention (DLP), and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). Migration of MPLS to Secure SD-WAN The legacy MPLS services connecting locations are unsuitable for supporting cloud adoption and the remote workforce.

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CATO Networks

JUNE 5, 2018

Deploying a new site for SD-WAN requires an SD-WAN gateway be deployed on-site. Unlike unmanaged Internet connections, a provider-owned backbone provides an MPLS-like SLA-backed latency but at an affordable cost. In addition, cloud traffic can be optimized with shared Internet Exchange Points (IXPs).

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WAN Wide Area Network Data Centers Application 52

CATO Networks

OCTOBER 13, 2019

Appliance-based SD-WAN and MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) simply arent designed to address these use cases. MPLS was designed to provide dedicated, reliable, and high-performance connections between two endpoints before cloud and mobile took over the world. Secure Web Gateway (SWG).

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CATO Networks

JANUARY 3, 2018

As pointed out in this post by Cradlepoint , distributed enterprises must be especially vigilant regarding the constant dangers specifically at the Networks Edge, which is particularly vulnerable since it is the gateway into the corporate WAN. Software-defined wide area network is a new way to manage and optimize enterprise networks.

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Network Networking WAN Wide Area Network 52

Kentik

MAY 16, 2018

Standards organizations, including the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), are also stepping in to codify 5G specifications. Many enterprises are replacing their fixed MPLS wide area networks (WANs) with virtualized software-defined WANs (SD-WANs) to reduce costs.

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