The Town of Tonawanda, New York needed dependable and secure VPN for its VoIP system. Officials first considered MPLS, but discovered Peplink after extensive research. Peplink partner West Networks then showed them how they could save 92% without compromising reliability.
Requirements
Network Manager Andrew Pudlak sought a way to load balance the Town of Tonawanda’s network, which used MPLS FiOS backed up by proprietary licensed 4.9Ghz public safety long-range point-to-point wireless. In designing a solution that would interconnect multiple sites for a VOIP system rollout, Andrew initially looked into MPLS options. But the costs were staggering. The cost-performance ratio of MPLS would not be easy to justify. So Andrew set out looking for other solutions. When he learned of Peplink, he called and was referred to Peter West of West Networks. Peter then proposed a solution using Peplink Balance routers, which could provide the speed and reliability the Town of Tonawanda needed for much less than MPLS.
To date, my devices have been up and running continuously with no intervention for 114 days with zero issues. I recently just installed the 1350 in my HQ… and in 17 days I have passed 2.3TB of LAN traffic through the box with zero issues and my latency has never jumped over 5ms.”
Andrew W. Pudlak, Town of Tonawanda, NY
Solution
Peter demonstrated a proof-of-concept and explained how Peplink routers could use SpeedFusion to create a secure site-to-site VPN and bond the 50Mbps FiOS, all backed up by PTP wireless to eliminate downtime and increase bandwidth.
Andrew was impressed and decided to go with Peplink. His setup includes 9 critical locations, with a municipal police station acting as HQ. The remote sites funnel all traffic over encrypted 256-bit connections to a central data center. From there, traffic is routed from one central firewall / gateway to the internet.
Solution Topology
I was quickly discouraged when a 3Mbps (MPLS) connection… was going to set me back $96,000 a year. I knew there had to be a better way for less money and faster speeds.”
Andrew W. Pudlak, Town of Tonawanda, NY
Results
The new topology simplifies administration for Andrew’s IT team. The network can be configured to send all VPN traffic through HQ. Now, instead of using a web filter at every site, there’s just one for the entire organization, further reducing resources needed for operation and maintenance. At the same time, Andrew can take advantage of QoS, bandwidth restrictions, and WAN traffic prioritization on each site, giving him full control of his network.
Deployment
Balance Series
SD-WAN for enterprise deployments of all sizes
