The New WAN:

Why the Private Internet

Will Replace MPLS
Stable buildings need solid foundations and enterprise-grade services are The convoluted
no different. If the underlying transport is too erratic no application service
will look too pretty. Add in the limited number of routes and long distances
routing, multiple
between Internet regions and global, Internet-based enterprise services carriers, high packet
become predictably erratic. So if you’re not going use the Internet as your loss at carrier
basis for a global SD-WAN, what are your options? The traditional answer,
of course, has been MPLS. But several technological improvements are exchanges and more
converging now to offer another choice, what we call the UberNet. make the Internet
Is the UberNet right for your organization? unpredictable.
Let’s find out.

MPLS or the UberNet 2

The Case for MPLS
As a privately managed backbone with built-in Quality of Service (QoS), Committing to a
MPLS suffers none of the Internet’s erraticness. Yes, that’s old news, but the
strengths and pains of MPLS bear reiteration to understand the value of the
dedicated capacity,
UberNet. maximum latency
MPLS services deliver the predictability the Internet is lacking. Whatever and maximum time
contention exists for its backbone is managed by the MPLS provider. Packet to repair makes
loss and latency statistics are more consistent and much lower than those of
the Internet. And to back up that point, MPLS services come with guarantees MPLS services very
around availability (99.99% per year uptime), packet loss (1% is typical) and expensive.
latency on a route-by-route basis. Just as important, MPLS services are
mature services built for the enterprise. Aside from the SLAs, they come with
integrated invoicing, end-to-end delivery and management.
But like anything, there’s a price for this kind of dedicated infrastructure.
Committing to a dedicated capacity, maximum latency and maximum time to
repair makes MPLS services very expensive. Anyone who’s purchased MPLS
bandwidth for their business and Internet DSL for their home has endured
the surreal experience of paying three-times and even ten-times more per
Cost Packet loss
megabit for MPLS bandwidth.
MPLS Connection
The cost of MPLS bandwidth impacts more than the bottom line. IT
managers must economize bandwidth spend to meet budgets. As such,
branch offices get sized with just large-enough connections. These narrow
connections are increasingly incompatible with today’s larger data flows.

Data Traffic

MPLS

The problem is only made more acute traffic shifts to the Internet and
in the cloud. Providing remote offices with direct access to the Internet
necessitates securing that connection with a full stack of advanced security
services. To avoid those costs, many MPLS-based enterprises centralize
Internet access. But centralizing Internet access requires Internet- and cloud-
bound traffic to be backhauled to the centralized Internet portal. Precious
MPLS capacity is consumed and Internet and cloud performance may
degrade due to the well known trombone effect.

MPLS or the UberNet 3

The Case for MPLS

Less pronounced, but perhaps equally important, is the rigidity of MPLS New MPLS
services. New installations can take 30 to 90 days and as much as six
months depending on the location and infrastructure. Since remote offices
installations can
are sized with limited bandwidth, new applications or changes in application take 30 to 90 days
dynamics can force bandwidth upgrades, which may also take weeks. and as much as six
And there’s more. With bandwidth at a premium, companies often invest in months depending
additional equipment to extract the most out of MPLS. WAN optimization,
for example, become particularly important. The additional equipment on the location and
obviously increase capital costs, but also complicates management and infrastructure.
troubleshooting.
Finally, you’re locked into the network coverage of the particular MPLS
provider. Invariably, some offices sit outside the coverage area. MPLS
providers must connect their network with other local or regional MPLS
providers, increasing costs.
MPLS services are out-of-step with today’s market. They’re expensive and
take too long deploy. But they’re the necessary evils of enterprises - or so it
would seem. Shifting dynamics always lead to innovations enabling us to
replace old guards with new solutions. MPLS is no exception.

Branch

HQ

Branch

Branch

Long installation Lots of Expensive Vendor

period appliances upgrades lock-in

MPLS or the UberNet 4

The UberNet:
An Alternative SLA-backed Backbone
The UberNet is a A combination of industry developments including massive global IP transit
capacity deployments, accelerated packet processing platforms, and cloud-
global, predictable, based software services are enabling a new kind of high-quality, SLA-backed
and secure network backbone. We call this new backbone: the UberNet. The UberNet is a global,
with MPLS-like predictable, and secure network with MPLS-like performance and low costs.

performance and The UberNet is built from IP transit services across global tier 1 IP
backbones. Internet providers access the greater Internet in one of two ways.
low costs. If they’re large enough, then other Internet providers will want to access
their networks and the two providers will peer with one another, swapping
traffic. If they cannot attract that level of attention then Internet providers will
purchase access to a backbone in what are called Internet transit services.
Internet transit, the private Internet, avoids erraticness that largely comes
from provider peering. Transit services generally keep packets on one
backbone. They’re typically backed with guarantees of “5 9’s” availability and
1 percent loss. And transit services cost a fraction of MPLS.

Branch

Branch HQ Branch

Branch
Branch

MPLS or the UberNet 5

The UberNet: An Alternative SLA-backed Backbone

Of course, there’s more to a service than the transport, and no one Performance,
transport can cover the entire globe. Here's the second innovation. By
creating a software-defined overlay across multiple tier 1 backbones,
availability, and
the UberNet can choose the optimum backbone at any one time. The coverage superior to
result: performance, availability, and coverage superior to any one any one network.
network.
To select between backbones, the points of presence (PoPs)
comprising an UberNet monitor the tier 1 backbones for latency
and packet loss. The PoPs build an encrypted mesh of tunnels and
direct traffic to the optimum tunnel using application-based routing
protocols.
Availability means more than multiple backbones. Each PoP is also
built from multiple, redundant computing units. Should one computing
unit fail, another one automatically takes its place. Here’s the third
innovation. Whereas PoPs were built from proprietary hardware
and appliance, the UberNet leverages improvements in software
architecture and COTS hardware. All core functions in the PoP are
implemented in distributed software. No proprietary hardware or Performance Expenses
appliances are used for core functions. As fully distributed software, The UberNet
the UberNet can be made incredibly resilient at comparatively low
cost. And in the unlikely event that an entire PoP should fail or become
unreachable, the distributed architectures allows traffic flows to
failover seamlessly to the next closest PoP. There is no direct bind
The UberNet leverages
between a customer location or users and a particular provider improvements in
resource. software architecture
Since there are no major hardware dependencies, PoPs can be spun
and COTS hardware.
up anywhere very quickly. All that’s needed is COTS hardware (or the
virtualized equivalent). Getting PoPs near a customer's’ locations All core functions
shortens the “last mile” and allows the sophisticated routing and traffic in the PoP are
steering of the UberNet to optimize long haul traffic.
implemented in
Locations connect to the nearest UberNet PoP through the general
distributed software.
Internet. The Internet’s impact is minimized by using fiber-based,
business-grade Internet services and connecting to PoPs within No proprietary
25 milliseconds. Availability is improved with diversely routed hardware or
connections, particularly if one is 4G/LTE. The result: uptime can
far exceed typical Internet connectivity and even MPLS local loop
appliances are used
resiliency. for core functions.

MPLS or the UberNet 6

 MPLS or UberNet?
Every major disruption starts with a displacement of the “tried true.”
The cloud displaced virtualization who disrupted the server industry
The Cato Cloud is the who changed the mini computer market.
first UberNet service. Backbones are no different. With the UberNet providing the same level
of uptime as MPLS and bringing built-in advanced security, ubiquitous
The Cato Cloud
coverage, and support for the cloud, SaaS, and mobility, why would
converges networking anyone pay 10x more for MPLS?
and security into one
seamless resource. MPLS UberNet

A single set of security SLAs

and networking
policies govern • Availability 99.99% 99.99%

all sites, SaaS

• Packet Loss 0.10% 0.10%
applications, cloud
resources, and mobile Security

users. With the Cato

• Encryption
Cloud, networking
and security becomes • Advanced Security

simple again.
Nodes

• Sites

• Private Cloud

• SaaS Applications

• Mobile Users

Global Coverage

Price High Low

MPLS or the UberNet 7