Innovative MSP launches lucrative China connectivity services

Hundreds of European companies have offices and manufacturing facilities in China. ambiFOX planned to capitalize on this massive market opportunity by offering fast and dependable cross-border WAN connectivity services to mainland China.

Traditional routing solutions and legacy SD-WAN products are notoriously inefficient, expensive, and inflexible. Most rely on antiquated VPN tunneling schemes that squander bandwidth, impair application performance, and inhibit QoS management.

ambiFOX sought a versatile and cost-effective software-defined networking (SDN) platform to power its SLA-backed WAN connectivity service.

ambiFOX selected the Juniper Networks Session Smart SD-WAN (formerly 128 Technology) solution as the foundation for its ambiWAN China network connectivity service. Session Smart SD-WAN is an advanced, service-centric networking solution that provides agile, secure connectivity with unmatched economics, efficiency, and simplicity.

ambiFOX was already using the Session Smart Routing portfolio to support a variety of managed services and was well versed in the product’s advantages.

“The (Session Smart SD-WAN) solution eliminates the limitations of traditional SD-WAN solutions,” explains Daniel Gebing, CEO and founder of ambiFOX. “With (Session Smart SD-WAN), we can deliver value-added services that are unthinkable with conventional MPLS networks.”

The fully software-based Session Smart SD-WAN solution is China Cybersecurity Law (CSL) compliant, operates on a variety of hypervisors and CSL-compliant servers, and supports zero-touch installation and provisioning for fast setup and administration—with no site visits.

ambiFOX deployed the Session Smart SD-WAN solution in several Alibaba Cloud data centers to create an adaptable, high-performance multitenant backbone with direct connectivity to mainland China. The MSP also deployed Session Smart Routing in various Microsoft Azure data centers to balance intercontinental performance and transport expenses in other regions across the globe.

ambiWAN China network connectivity services let businesses quickly extend their private enterprise networks to its mainland China sites, improving collaboration and productivity. Employees in China can seamlessly access corporate directory services, unified communications and collaboration platforms, file shares, office productivity suites, and any other company-sanctioned applications and services, whether hosted in a corporate data center or in the cloud.

The Session Smart SD-WAN solution helps ambiFOX extend service reach, move up the value stack, and expand revenue opportunities. The solution eliminates expense and complexity, helping the MSP accelerate time-to-market, increase business agility, and improve margins. ambiFOX gained a distinct competitive advantage, helping the MSP attract and retain customers.

Key benefits of the Session Smart SD-WAN solution include:

• Rapid service agility: In stark contrast to competitors, ambiFOX can turn up new customers in days rather than weeks or even months with traditional MPLS-based VPN services. In addition, ambiFOX can re-provision services and adjust bandwidth in real-time to satisfy evolving customer requirements and fluctuating business demands.

• Low operating expenses: Session Smart SD-WAN helps ambiFOX contain WAN transport expenses and improve the bottom line by minimizing protocol overhead and bandwidth consumption, and by securely consolidating multiple customers onto common Alibaba Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) inter-region connections.

• Optimal routing: Unlike alternative solutions, the Session Smart SD-WAN solution lets ambiFOX manage and control traffic at the edge, helping the MSP limit backhauling, minimize latency, and enforce compliance. For instance, ambiFOX can break out mainland-China-destined traffic locally, route Asia Pacific traffic via Hong Kong, and backhaul corporate traffic to the customer’s Germany headquarters, optimizing network performance and reducing transport costs.

• Multicloud economics and resiliency: The Session Smart SD-WAN solution lets ambiFOX leverage multiple cloud providers to improve global performance and contain intercontinental transit expenses. The solution intelligently routes traffic based on policies and real-time network conditions, automatically selecting the right path for the right application at the right time, optimizing economics, availability, and service quality.

• Granular visibility: Unlike conventional solutions that encapsulate all dataflows into a single overlay tunnel, the Session Smart SD-WAN solution gives ambiFOX network administrators end-to-end visibility into individual traffic flows, streamlining performance monitoring and troubleshooting to improve customer satisfaction and retention.

• Market access: Juniper’s newly acquired 128 Technology helped ambiFOX penetrate the massive China network connectivity market quickly and cost-effectively. After several successful customer deployments, ambiFOX spun up a separate business unit to take full advantage of the financial and functional benefits of the Session Smart SD-WAN solution.