SD-WAN accelerates security, automation, and WAN edge replacement - Citrix Certifications

If you’re moving to Citrix Workspace, implementing VoIP or mission critical apps over the WAN, have limited or unreliable WAN services, moving apps to the cloud, or experiencing site network outages, you need to investigate Citrix SD-WAN.

Here are some of the goodies Citrix SD-WAN 10.2 delivered:

Cloud Connectivity Options

• SD-WAN acts as the on-ramp to the Azure cloud with Azure Virtual WAN, enabling Microsoft’s massive customer base to connect securely and easily to its global hub of data centers.
• New support of Microsoft APIs allows SD-WAN to minimize latency with direct internet breakout of trusted, latency-sensitive Office 365 traffic from office locations on the first packet.

SD-WAN for Microsoft Office 365

Citrix supports Microsoft’s Office 365 Network Connectivity Principles, with SD-WAN 10.2 providing reliable connections directly from office locations to the nearest Office 365 front doors, reducing latency and improving the user experience in the branch.

With cloud services such as Office 365, traditional WAN architectures no longer make sense. Traditional WAN architectures like MPLS were not meant to handle internet-bound traffic and were architected when apps were housed in data centers inside the security perimeter. But backhauling this traffic through a data center increases latency and has a negative impact on the user experience.

Citrix SD-WAN provides reliable connections directly from office locations to the nearest Office 365 edge nodes. The Microsoft Office 365 Endpoints web service publication provides Microsoft’s Office 365 endpoint URLs and IP addresses. With support for new Microsoft APIs, Citrix SD-WAN uses the endpoint data to enable direct routing of internet traffic from the branch to Office 365 edge nodes. Learn more here.

SD-WAN and Zscaler API Integration

Citrix SD-WAN allows for the creation of policies that enable direct internet breakout from the branch and Zscaler’s Cloud Security Platform. This ensures simple security for IT by inspecting all internet-bound traffic in a cloud service close to where users connect.

Citrix SD-WAN supports Zscaler APIs providing automation for fast configuration of IPsec tunnels to Zscaler Enforcement Nodes (ZENs) in Zscaler’s cloud network. ZENs are full-featured, inline internet security gateways that inspect all internet traffic bi-directionally for malware and enforce security and compliance policies. A more dynamic, secure, and fast connection over the last mile is delivered by Citrix SD-WAN.

The Zscaler API provides the two closest data center locations to each branch, allowing SD-WAN to steer traffic effectively. If one link goes down, the secondary active link provides seamless high availability, ensuring no disruption or security breach.

Together, Citrix SD-WAN and Zscaler enable faster adoption of SaaS and cloud applications in distributed enterprises. Learn more here.

Networking Improvements

Support of PPPoE (point to point protocol over ethernet) and enabling SD-WAN to act as a DNS forwarder allow customers to further consolidate routing infrastructure at the branch by incorporating edge-router functionality.

ISPs use PPPoE to provision DSL services. Tunnels are established over DSL connections to ISP routers and then go directly to the internet. A DSL modem converts these signals to ethernet signals for the router to understand the traffic. PPPoE is used to deploy and monitor these connections. SD-WAN can now act as a PPPoE client allowing it to take over some existing client services router capabilities to enable customers to replace edge routers with SD-WAN.

SD-WAN can redirect the traffic DNS requests to specific servers based on what type of application or domain users are trying to access. For example, a network can have custom apps like ones in yourintranet.net, so SD-WAN can send that DNS request to the local DNS server installed in the data center. If the user wants to access YouTube or Google or a SaaS app, you don’t have to backhaul the DNS requests to the data center; you can redirect the DNS requests to the generic server IP like 8.8.8.8 that Google posts or any ISP DNS server. This will help offload DNS requests from getting backhauled, as well as support any custom domains you use.

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