Optimizing Your Network For The Cloud First World

Optimizing your
network for the

cloud-first world
Why performing cloud and network
modernization together assures
seamless, reliable user app delivery.
Citrix.com | eBook | Align Cloud Strategy to Business Goals 1

Getting the cloud
and your network
working — together
No matter your strategy — hybrid, multi-cloud, all
cloud. Success always depends on one thing —
the ability of your network to keep pace with your
cloud transformation.
72.3%
Even if your network is performing well today,
changing where and how apps, desktops, and data
are stored and delivered will fundamentally
reshape the volume and paths of traffic through
your WAN. But when you make WAN transformation
a part of your cloud project, you can reinvent
what’s possible — delivering operational agility Cloud users who have a mix of
and enhanced security — all at a reasonable cost. on-prem and off-prem1
According to IDC, multi-cloud strategies

are growing
They say the trend is largely driven by the need
to accommodate existing and new apps,
gain organizational agility, and optimize
app environments.
Citrix.com | eBook | Optmizing Your Network For The Cloud-First World 2

Why networks become obstructions on
the cloud journey today
In traditional network architecture, organizations often use WAN to backhaul traffic from remote and
branch locations through the data center because that’s where Internet connectivity and the firewall
are. But that’s problematic for two reasons:
1. Cost - It’s expensive and inefficient to make traffic backhaul to the data center through multiple
hops rather than going straight from each branch location out to the Internet or SaaS.
2. Performance - The data center detour also adds latency, slowing business apps and data. This is
especially damaging since digital workspace performance is the cornerstone of productivity in
the modern workplace.
The network must be transformed to meet the demands of the cloud

IT leaders believe that their organization’s ability to migrate apps to the cloud is hampered by the
increased complexity of their network infrastructure.
82%
feel hindered by
network complexity
40%
say their network
only satisfies some
of their needs1

Solving with a unified app-delivery strategy
Today’s organizations are increasingly motivated to reassess their current network infrastructure.
According to IDC, some 79 percent of worldwide enterprises plan to address disruption through a
unified application delivery strategy — one that extends from on-premises data center(s) out to the
public cloud and across the WAN to your branch offices and remote sites. And a trusted SD-WAN
provider is key to a solution that works in concert with your cloud initiatives.
4 ways SD-WAN readies your network for every

phase of the cloud journey:
1. Supporting SaaS apps and Internet use
2. Migrating apps to the cloud
3. Creating a hybrid, multi-cloud environment
4. Making the Internet available to customers
What organizations perceive are the top benefits

of a unified app-delivery strategy:
1. Increased IT efficiency
• Security and compliance
2. Risk reduction to the organization from any
potential security breaches • Cost
3. Freeing IT staff to focus on more
strategic initiatives What organizations feel are the
top inhibitors a unified strategy
would address when migrating
apps to the cloud1

SD-WAN, SaaS apps and Internet
If your cloud strategy currently includes providing access to the Internet along with SaaS apps, SD-WAN
can help you maintain security while ensuring a high-quality experience for users in any location.
It brings new flexibility and control to the modern enterprise network, making it easy to securely connect
your branches directly. As a result, you no longer have to backhaul remote and branch site traffic,
potentially over long distances, to the central data center. Instead, you can maintain cost-effective, secure
connections directly to the Internet and SaaS applications from every location in your organization.
SD-WAN automatically recognizes Internet sites and individual SaaS applications with deep packet
inspection, thus allowing you to define policies for how individual applications or families of
applications are handled. You can choose what application traffic should immediately break out of the
branch to the Internet or SaaS and which should be sent back to the data center. You even have a say in
which applications are blocked or logged for all users or a subset of users.
And by making your network application-aware, SD-WAN enables a high level of security for Internet
use and cloud-based apps. Data moving across the WAN can be segregated by application or source,
including SaaS and web apps. Then it can be protected using contextual security policies designed
around the specific requirements and risk profile of each app and real-time context of each user.
The integrated SD-WAN firewall can work with the secure gateway of your choice in the cloud and
automatically block undesirable traffic by policy. You have the option to block or redirect SaaS traffic
from the branch to the data center or SWG for every user or a subset of users. What’s more, PSec
or GRE technologies can be used to build a secure tunnel to a Secure Web Gateway for firewall, URL
filtering, and usage tracking data.

SD-WAN and migrating apps to the cloud
Solving for latency Boosting user productivity Simplifying security
As you begin moving business apps from your Intelligent path selection ensures a high-quality As with SaaS and web apps, SD-WAN enables
data center to the cloud, SD-WAN ensures LAN- user experience for applications by detecting app-specific security policies to be applied to
like performance for every app. Cloud application the apps using the WAN and actively managing provide the right level of protection for each app
traffic can be uploaded directly from branch and the traffic for those applications across the without overly restricting the user experience.
remote locations to the cloud without being logical connection. The solution optimizes the For IT, simplified WAN management combined
routed through the data center, reducing latency. performance of applications such as Unified with deep visibility into app and network
Communications while controlling costs by performance makes for a smoother, more
If a problem arises on one link, the network fails reducing the amount of data that crosses the successful move to the cloud.
over rapidly and seamlessly to backup links for WAN and allowing the use of high-bandwidth
always-on reliability and uninterrupted productivity. broadband connections as enterprise-class
WAN connections.
Using a SD-WAN cloud instance, a reliable and
secure SD-WAN tunnel can be built to any cloud 58% 60%
where you are running applications. Multiple Improved Increased
connections to the cloud, including broadband, reliability security
wireless, and private connections such as
Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute or AWS Direct
Connect, are aggregated to create a logical
41% 42% 44%
Consistent Simplified Enhance
connection that is reliable even in the case of a policy and management visibility
network failure and offers abundant bandwidth. control
What organizations say

matters most for
cloud-based app delivery1

Creating a hybrid,
multi-cloud
environment
through strategic
partnerships
If you’re pursuing this type of hybrid strategy,
SD-WAN makes it simpler to support multiple
cloud topologies. And so does having strategic
partnerships with an interconnection data center
company. That will allow you to use SD-WAN
to take advantage of its hybrid interconnection
model for providing high-speed, low-latency
connectivity between multiple cloud providers
and enterprise networks.
This combination enables companies like yours to

support a variety of application delivery strategies
and select technologies based on what works
best for you now and in the future.
Only 24% of organizations

believe their networks satisfy
their hybrid-cloud app delivery1

Extending the Internet to customers
Internet access is an integral and expected part of today’s enterprises. As an example, consumers are
increasingly blending online and in-store retail experiences to enhance the way they shop for, buy, and
receive products. So in response, many retailers are offering guest Wi-Fi access for customer-facing apps
and the open Internet over their own in-store networks. Similarly, Internet access for both business and
personal use is available in healthcare clinics, branch offices, hospitality locations and outdoor venues.
SD-WAN empowers these businesses to meet the security and bandwidth requirements of both
customers and employees wherever and however they connect.
Enterprises offering guest Wi-Fi access or employee Internet access must meet two requirements:
• Ensuring a great experience for customer-facing apps and Internet browsing — when it can be
impossible to predict exactly how many customers will be using them at a given time.
• Making sure that staff can work productively regardless of customer bandwidth consumption
or employee personal Internet use — including for critical business applications and
communications systems.
SD-WAN is designed to allow direct Internet breakout from your branches and retail locations, thus
simplifying your network while providing a better user experience and reserving WAN bandwidth for
business applications.
• Securely connect all locations to the cloud using aggregated links to provide more bandwidth at
a lower cost.
• Apply app-specific, contextual security policies to maintain the right level of protection for each
type of app, traffic, and user.
• Prioritize critical business and customer-facing apps for the best possible performance to ensure that
personal Internet use and web browsing don’t compromise productivity and the customer experience.
• Create a better experience for all users through selection of the best path, local media caching,
and deep visibility into experience quality with an easy-to-use platform for monitoring,
troubleshooting, and data-driven policy tuning.

How prepping your network pays off
Reliability
WAN ensures that branch and remote access to apps is never interrupted by an outage on
a single network link, giving you greater confidence for moving apps to the cloud.
Enhanced user experience

By detecting the applications using the WAN and actively managing their traffic across the
network, SD-WAN enables high-quality branch communications and a high-quality user
experience for all apps.
Greater efficiency
SD-WAN improves efficiency and scalability by simplifying the network, lowering the
cost of network connections, providing deep visibility into application performance, and
centralizing policy definitions.
Security
To support your move to the cloud, SD-WAN provides multi-layered security that allows you to
segregate data based on application or source, enforce secure access control with contextual
security policies, and block or direct individual applications according to your policies.
To learn more visit citrix.com/networking
Source:
1. IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Citrix, “How do Organizations Plan to
Assure Application Delivery in a Multi-Cloud World?” October 2017
© 2018 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Citrix, the Citrix logo, and other marks appearing herein are property of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/
or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other marks are
the property of their respective owner(s).

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Optimizing your

network for the

Citrix.com | eBook | Align Cloud Strategy to Business Goals 1

According to IDC, multi-cloud strategies

Citrix.com | eBook | Optmizing Your Network For The Cloud-First World 2

The network must be transformed to meet the demands of the cloud

Citrix.com | eBook | Optmizing Your Network For The Cloud-First World 3

4 ways SD-WAN readies your network for every

What organizations perceive are the top benefits

Citrix.com | eBook | Optmizing Your Network For The Cloud-First World 4

Citrix.com | eBook | Optmizing Your Network For The Cloud-First World 5

What organizations say

Citrix.com | eBook | Optmizing Your Network For The Cloud-First World 6

This combination enables companies like yours to

Only 24% of organizations

Citrix.com | eBook | Optmizing Your Network For The Cloud-First World 7

Citrix.com | eBook | Optmizing Your Network For The Cloud-First World 8

Enhanced user experience

To learn more visit citrix.com/networking

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