FATPIPE NETWORKS
Internet Redundancy, Reliability and
Speed for Business Continuity
FatPipe FatPipe Networks 20094455 South 700 East First FloorSalt Lake City UT 84107Phone 801.281.3434
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Table of Contents
Introduction.........................................................................................................2
The Need for Extreme Internet/WAN Availability, Security,
Speed and Continuity Planning..........................................................................4
The Business Continuity Mandate for Internet/WAN
Infrastructures....................................................................................................5
Alleviating Risk Associated with Web-based Technologies................................8
Alternative to Expensive and Complicated BGP.................................................8
Value Statement.................................................................................................9
Cost Savings......................................................................................................9
Main Benefits Using FatPipe WARP..................................................................11
Aggregation of any Combination of Internet Connections.................................11
Load Balancing, Site Load Balancing and Speed..............................................11
Inbound Redundancy: SmartDNS......................................................................11
Granular Control of Traffic Flow: FatPipe Quality of Service (QoS)...................12
VPN Capability: FatPipe VPN and Remote User Automatic Failover................12
Easy Management: FatPipe WARP’s Easy to Use Graphical User Interface....12
Multiple Levels of Failover: Auto Unit Failover -- on or off Site..........................12
Seamless and Transparent................................................................................12
Scalable and Flexible.........................................................................................13
Benefits..............................................................................................................13
2
Easy Setup....................................................................................................13
Features and Benefits...................................................................................13
Add on and Features and Functions.............................................................14
Case Study: Hospitality.................................................................................15
Case Study: Finance - Banking....................................................................17
Conclusion....................................................................................................18
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Internet Redundancy, Reliability and Speed for Business Continuity
Global competition has forced companies to assess all of their business practices. A vital component
of this is ensuring business continuity and Disaster Recovery. Prudent business managers have to
plan against disruptions of this sort. Some of the most recognizable problems are due to natural disas-
ters (e.g., Katrina, the 2004 Tsunami, the 2008 earthquake in China), malevolent human acts (e.g., the
terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11th, 2001, and the 2008 attacks in Mumbai),
and acts of God. Fortunately, these are rare, and for most businesses, once in a lifetime occurrences.
For businesses, the most common disruption is the failure of Wide Area Networks (WAN) and Internet
connectivity.
The Internet is one of the most important business communication tools today. WAN infrastructures
play an important role in how companies conduct day-to-day business to enhance productivity levels
and connect with potential customers, clients, partners, and colleagues.
Businesses of all industries regardless of size use Internet connections to run vital web-based applica-
tions including VPNs, ASPs, Thin Clients, and others to achieve business goals. Implementation of
Virtual offices -- where IT systems are centralized to service mobile and remote company staff -- is an-
other trend that underlines the imperative to have a fast, reliable and redundant link to the outside
world. These mission critical web-based applications must be robust and stable enough to transmit
data accurately, in a timely and secure manner. To ensure connectivity for these WAN infrastructures
stay fast, up and running, companies across the globe have turned to FatPipe Networks.
FatPipe is the inventor and leader of router-clustering technology that provides reliability, redundancy
and speed of Internet/WAN connections for business. FatPipe products substitute Border Gateway
Protocol (BGP) or any other routing protocol for balancing load over multiple connections from sepa-
rate ISPs for high bandwidth speed and automatic failover.
This paper identifies the risks associated with using web-based technologies for business as well as
the need for business continuity and extreme availability of WANs. It also delineates the benefits of
using FatPipe products to address these needs. FatPipe products offer the best solutions available to
companies that will bring them cost savings while providing the highest level of reliability, redundancy,
speed and control of data flow over their networks.
4
The Business Continuity and Contingency Planning Mandate for Internet/WAN
Infrastructures
Business continuity plans consist of logical information for how an organization will recover and re-
store partially or completely interrupted critical functions within a predetermined time after a disaster
or extended disruption. Contingency Planning consist of information that outlines processes to be fol-
lowed when disaster strikes. These steps are formulated to minimize the disruption and protect
against data lose.
As the statistics below suggest, there is a steady trend to take preemptive action to avoid the conse-
quences of network downtime by setting up systems that provide redundancy and reliability for busi-
ness continuity.
• 80 percent of executives said it was more important to their organization to have an
information infrastructure that is always available rather than being able to recover
after a business disruption.
- Source: Continuity Central.com based on a study by Beacon Technology Partners
• 76 percent of businesses surveyed expressed that the risk of business interruption
drives them to implement a business continuity plan.
- Source: Aberdeen Group
• 51 percent of businesses surveyed are driven to create and implement business continuity
plans because they are fearful of a loss of critical data due to an unexpected disruption
in communication.
- Source: Aberdeen Group
References:
Business Continuity: Implementing Disaster Recovery Strategies and Technologies, zAberdeen
Group; March 2008
“Fortune 1000 Preparedness or Uninterrupted Access to Critical Information Assessed,” Continuity
Central.com based on research from Beacon Technology Partners 2006
SIDE QUOTE:
FatPipe WARP provides automatic failover of Internet connections, dynamic bandwidth uti-
lization, and efficient data routing tools for business. FatPipe WARP aggregates multiple
data lines of any combination, speed or type from different ISPs providing an effective and
economical solution for business continuity.
5
FatPipe contributes to contingency planning and business continuity in a fundamental way: FatPipe’s
router clustering products intelligently and automatically failover data traffic utilizing multiple data lines
transcending failures that cause downtime. In addition to its signature standard features -- including
failover for inbound and outbound IP traffic, dynamic load balancing, and remote web-based manage-
ment tools -- FatPipe offers dual power units, unit failover at the same CPE, and off-site data recovery
capabilities, (which includes site load balancing, where FatPipe shares traffic between sites), for even
higher levels of business continuity and Internet/WAN redundancy.
FatPipe provides the always-up Internet availability companies need to complete their continuity plan-
ning. Acquiring “extreme Internet/WAN availability” is the most important component of this model.
The Need for Extreme Internet/WAN Availability for Business Continuity Planning
As data communications business models are entirely reliant upon the resiliency and efficiency of In-
ternet/WAN infrastructures, redundancy at the client end becomes an essential issue. It is simple:
when the connection to the Internet is down, offices cannot communicate and customers and remote
users cannot access Intranets, e-mail, database, or other internal servers. In other words, productivity
is lost and revenues will be negatively affected.
“Five-nines” of uptime is not enough for critical business enterprises. Most companies now need “ex-
treme availability.”
Source: End to End Service Level Management in the Converged World, a Whitepaper Detailing
Wide Area Network Challenges and Opportunities, Evolve IP, page 4, 2008.
Referencing the chart above, we learn that that the average outage and degradation statistics result in
dozens of hours in downtime, affecting an average of one third of a company’s staff.
6
Source: End to End Service Level Management in the Converged World, a Whitepaper Detailing
Wide Area Network Challenges and Opportunities, Evolve IP, page 4, 2008.
Referencing the chart above, we learn that that the average outage and degradation statistics result in
dozens of hours in downtime, affecting an average of one third of a company’s staff.
According to a report from BellSouth, the average hourly cost of downtime per industries is significant.
Examples are listed below.
Average hourly cost of downtime:
• Brokerage houses: $6.4 million
• Credit card sales/authorization: $2.6 million
• Catalog sales: $90,000
• Package shipping: $28,000
Source: The Criticality of Frame Relay Backup Systems: the need and the Best Methods for Achiev-
ing Backup Reliability, Joe Spencer, BellSouth Telecommunications 2000
The same report found that one in four companies has experienced a disaster with their network with
a medium length of disaster time of 8 hours. 24 percent had outage times over 24 hours. Since this
data was developed the use of WAN/Internet has grown exponentially resulting in even greater losses
for every hour of downtime. In conclusion, preventing downtime is not a luxury, but an imperative of
Business Continuity.
Evolution of WAN/Internet Redundancy
During the early phases of the development of the Internet and Wide Area Networks, redundancy was
not the major issue. Business use of the Internet was in its infancy, and Business Continuity concerns
were low or non existent because very little commerce was conducted over the Net. As the popularity
of the web grew, and businesses increasingly began using the Internet for a variety of uses, the need
to ensure reliable Internet connections and WAN availability grew.
BGP programming was introduced to route information between autonomous systems. As the need
for robust Internet connectivity tools expanded, BGP was being used by businesses as a means of
having multiple paths to the Internet, thereby imparting a measure of redundancy. In the year 2000,
FatPipe Networks was the first to market a non-BGP solution of Internet/WAN reliability and redun-
dancy for businesses. FatPipe is the inventor and multi-patent holder of router-clustering technology,
a ground breaking, elegant and innovative alternative to BGP programming.
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WARP’s “seven-nines” reliability is designed to address the fundamental needs of businesses who re-
quire reliability and redundancy for their mission critical web-based applications including Virtual Pri-
vate Networks (VPNs) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and servers, including web,
database and email servers. FatPipe provides interoperability of multiple networking services from a
singer Internet Service Provider (ISP) or from multiple ISPs.
By transmitting data over two or more lines together (units can accommodate up to 12 lines), WARP
provides increased speed, reliability and redundancy for inbound and outbound data transfer. FatPipe
WARP is a cost effective and more flexible alternative to BGP. A short analysis is reviewed in the next
section.
Alternative to Expensive and Complicated BGP
FatPipe WARP is an essential part of any WAN infrastructure that requires high bandwidth and ex-
treme network availability. WARP works with all existing hardware and applications and is the clear al-
ternative to BGP.
Unlike BGP, FatPipe WARP:
• Is easy to install and manage
• Dynamically fails-over traffic when lines become unexpectedly unavailable
• Can utilize inexpensive, low-end links such as Cable, ISDN and DSL connections
• Uses lines from different ISPs without the need of ISP cooperation or participation
• Does not require expensive routers or other network specifications
• Does not require high levels of specialized technical expertise
WARP’s features are intelligent, automatic and intuitive; doing all the work for the customer so they do
not have to.
Alleviating Risks Associated with Web-based Technologies
Modern businesses cannot run without Internet access. The advantages of using WAN technology for
business are overwhelmingly positive in terms of offering services to customers, and making business
processes more efficient and cost effective. However, there is no denying the risks associated with
using WAN technology. When WANs fail due to router, line, ISP or backbone failure, productivity and
communication can come to a halt as customers, vendors and staff loose access to information and
services.
SIDE QUOTE:
This has been an outstanding solution to some of our long term and painful business chal-
lenges. I would highly recommend this solution to any other organization that faces the same
challenges.
- Technology Solutions Division Director, American Diabetes Association (ADA)
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Value Statement
FatPipe router clustering devices provide an efficient, effective and economical alternative to Border
Gateway Protocol (BGP) for multi-homing/multi-carrier business continuity, Contingency Planning and
Extreme Availability applications.
FatPipe WARP -- one of FatPipe’s most popular products -- is a patented and patent pending router-
clustering device that provides the highest level of reliability, redundancy and speed of Internet traffic
for business continuity and communications.
FatPipe WARP achieves fault tolerance for companies by creating an easy method of combining two
or more Internet connections of any kind over multiple ISPs and/or backbones. FatPipe utilizes all
paths when lines are up and running, dynamically balancing traffic over the multiple lines, and intelli-
gently failing-over inbound and outbound IP traffic when ISPs, physical lines and/or components fail.
No BGP programming or ISP cooperation is required. FatPipe can utilize any combination of lines in-
cluding DSL, cable, ISDN wireless, T1, and DS3, for combined speed of up to 2 Gb.
SIDE QUOTE:
WARP gives you super protection. If one ISP goes down it automatically fails-over to the second ISP.
It is also a lot less expensive than getting a router – which can accommodate only two lines – to hold
all the ARP tables needed for load balancing between ISPs. WARP provides excellent ROI. We’re not
going down anymore and we didn’t have to purchase that expensive router.”
- LAN/WAN Director, Cobb Electric Membership Corporation
Not only does FatPipe WARP gives customers control over their WAN networks and keeps them up
and running despite line failures. WARP also load balances traffic, providing the highest level of
speed, reliability and redundancy for any Wide Area Network (WAN). WARP accommodates the host-
ing of large sets of internal servers including load balancing servers, e-mail, Citrix, web, and firewall
servers.
FatPipe has helped thousands of customers save money and build dependable Internet/WANs for
business continuity and high availability needs. FatPipe helps dramatically reduce costs while making
Internet/Wide Area Networks more efficient, effective and manageable.
Cost Savings
The cost of downtime can be exorbitant, even detrimental for companies who use their WAN infra-
structure for critical interaction with customers, colleagues, and other business transactions such as
time sensitive financial, medical or legal transactions.
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SIDE QUOTE:
There are a lot of associated soft costs that are difficult to measure in hard numbers, but would stop
the company from functioning properly and have potentially detrimental effects on productivity levels.
FatPipe helped us solve our problems and meet our business objectives.
- IT Director, Advanced Financial Services
As detailed on page five of this report, the main contributors that lead to network downtime are prima-
rily connections failures and router failures. These factors are usually outside of the control of the Net-
work Administrator. Without FatPipe WARP, the Administrator may not have any recourse to the
problem outside of waiting for the vendor or ISP to fix it. Anyone who has ever experienced the pain
and anxiety caused by network downtime will tell you that when routers, last mile connections, equip-
ment, and ISP or backbone failures occur, business is disrupted and can be very costly.
Companies who use their WAN infrastructures for mission critical communication of information are
vulnerable to deep financial losses and a smudge on their reputation if they do not consider the seri-
ous risks associated with running WAN technology. The best way to minimize the risk is to implement
FatPipe WARP, a solution that provides redundancy and reliability businesses need in addition to intu-
itive policy routing tools and dynamic bandwidth utilization.
FatPipe WARP can also lower customers’ reoccurring monthly costs associated with high bandwidth
expenditures by giving them the freedom to aggregate any combination of Internet connections.
WARP aggregates the multiple connections to form a single, virtual FatPipe. It aggregates any combi-
nation of lines, including DS3, E3, T1, E1, DSL, Wireless, and ISDN IP transmissions. The result is
cost savings for companies, replacing expensive backup lines -- such as DS3 and T1s lines -- with
cheaper alternatives like as DSL, cable or Wireless. End users also avoid the problem of the several
potential points of failure associated with using one large line for speed.
FatPipe addresses the need to reduce costs of expensive technical support of a customer’s
Internet/WAN. WARP’s easy to use Graphical User Interface (GUI) and intuitive, automatic and intelli-
gent features is a “set it and forget it” technology. The customer sets it up the way they want and then
simply let it do the job. End users will not need to make any drastic changes to their current network
setup, as FatPipe WARP works with all VPNs, routers, lines, etc. It is the most flexible, expandable
and easy to use Router-Clustering device on the market today.
SIDE QUOTE:
We have had three instances where WARP has already paid for itself.
- Operations Manger, StaffTechs
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Main Benefits using FatPipe WARP
WARP is stacked with features that provide great benefits to end users. Short descriptions of the main
features and benefits are listed below.
Redundancy and Reliability
Integrating WARP as part of a WAN infrastructure significantly enhances system reliability. WARP
transmits data over multiple lines of the same or different types and speed, bypassing failures along
its route when necessary, including router, ISP, line or backbone failures.
Aggregation of any Combination of Internet Connections: FatPipe RAIL™
For outbound IP traffic, WARP combines two or more Internet connections – either the same or dis-
parate lines -- using FatPipe's patented Redundant Array of Independent Lines (RAIL) technology.
There are no complicated router tables to configure; BGP programming is not required. RAIL enables
Inbound Redundancy: FatPipe SmartDNS™
FatPipe's patent-pending SmartDNS provides redundancy for incoming traffic by allowing the host on
the network to be accessible through multiple connections. SmartDNS makes adjustments to the DNS
records when connections fail, and will not resolve host names to IP addresses that are associated
with the failed connection. When a line goes down, SmartDNS guides queries to available lines, thus
providing redundancy for inbound traffic. FatPipe's SmartDNS also speeds up the delivery of inbound
traffic by intelligently choosing the fastest connection.
Load Balancing, Site Load Balancing and Speed
FatPipe's RAIL and SmartDNS technologies not only provide redundancy, they also balance load over
available lines, adding speed to the delivery of data transactions by load balancing.
FatPipe WARP provides four main load balancing methods for customers to select.
• List all load balancing methods here
WARP can dynamically balance inbound and outbound traffic using all available lines. There is no
need to setup router tables or use the more traditional BGP programming. FatPipe also offers site
load balancing, where FatPipe shares traffic between sites to allow end users to utilize all bandwidth
available to them a main site as well as a Disaster Recovery site.
SIDE QUOTE:
Regardless of business type or size of company, WARP provides speed, reliability, and security for In-
ternet/WANs at a minimal cost and effort.
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Granular Control of Traffic Flow: FatPipe Quality of Service (QoS)
FatPipe QoS helps end users optimize the efficiency of their networks by providing tools that prioritize
traffic and assign a user-defined amount of bandwidth based on application (layer-7 QoS), IP Address
or Port. This gives them granular control of how traffic flows on their networks. End users can priori-
tize data flow up to eight levels with respect to priority, latency, and packet loss.
VPN Capability: FatPipe VPN and Remote User Automatic Failover
WARP can be setup as a VPN end-point by using the FatPipe VPN feture. FatPipe VPN allows cus-
tomers to create and configure VPN tunnels between two or more remote networks (site-to-site VPNs)
and with remote users using mobile VPN clients. This feature provides connectivity and automatic
failover for mobile VPN clients -- Road Warriors – people who travel using laptops to access corporate
servers.
Easy Management: FatPipe WARP’s Easy to Use Graphical User Interface
FatPipe WARP offers a secure networking environment that lends flexibility and control to help Admin-
istrators accomplish their tasks. WARP's web-based management tools allow Administrators to ac-
cess the network, view routers, the speed meter and speed chart, and the status of connections from
any remote location. WARP comes with paging and e-mail alert software that can be installed on any
computer on the LAN to notify Administrators of ISP, router, line, or backbone failures. WARP even of-
fers the ability to send SNMP traps to select SNMP manager stations.
Multiple Levels of Failover: Auto Unit Failover on or off Site
In addition to automatically rerouting information when lines fail, WARP also has other redundancy
features such as hot-swappable power supplies, and onsite or offsite failover options. The Dual
WARP setup – comprised of two units installed at one site – provides for automatic Unit Failover at the
same premise (CPE). FatPipe also offers remote site failover to help customers achieve the most re-
dundant WAN utilizing failover between the main site and a Disaster Recovery site.
Seamless and Transparent
WARP is technology and application independent and does not require proprietary components.
Therefore, it does not matter what type of hardware or software technology is used in the LAN.
WARP is router hardware independent and works seamlessly with any type of firewall, caching and
server load balancing devices. It works with all WAN technologies that uses IPSec protocol and over
all operating systems and platforms.
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Scalable and Flexible
FatPipe makes it easy for companies to get make changes to network settings and conduct upgrades.
End users do not need to update or upgrade their systems to integrate WARP; customers can use
their current WAN equipment and software. WARP allows end users to interchange data connection
types, any type of hardware or software.
Easy Setup
FatPipe WARP is easy to install using its Graphical User Interface. Unlike BGP programming, there is
no need to contact the ISP or for the ISP to have proprietary hardware or software at their site.
Features & Benefits at-a-glance
• Complete Inbound Redundancy with FatPipe SmartDNS - Patent-pending technology
intelli gently balances load across all available lines and provides for redundancy of
inbound IP traffic and access to internal servers including Citrix®, web, SCM, CRM,
database and e-mail servers.
• Dynamic Bandwidth Utilization – Select from several load balancing methods including
Fastest Route, Weighted, and Spillover Load Balancing.
• Increased Bandwidth - Aggregates multiple connections of similar or dissimilar speeds
without BGP programming, saving customers money, time and recourses.
• business continuity- Supports multi-homing connections over multiple lines without the
need to make significant changes to a network infrastructure, providing intelligent and
automatic failover for Business Continuity.
• Network Management - Fully supports Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP),
v2 compliant, and MIB-II compliant.
• Policy Routing - Provides Administrators the tools to direct routing criteria based on
application, port or IP. Use the Policy Routing Rule Scheduler to program policy routes
within a specified timeframe, scheduling policies to activate or be disable at specified
times and days of the week.
* Easy Installation and Management - WARP works with the existing infrastructure, and
does not require expensive routers with programming capabilities. It can utilize any
combination of lines and is easy to install and manage using its intuitive graphical user
interface (GUI).
* Unit Failover - An automatic unit failover option is available to customers that want a
standby unit to backup the active unit.
• Basic Firewall - Allows end users to block or allow any inbound and outbound traffic.
• Enhanced support for PPPoE and DHCP connections.
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Available Add-On Features and Functions
• FatPipe Quality of Service (QoS) – helps customers optimize the efficiency of their Internet
connections by providing tools to control congestion and prioritize data for inbound and
outbound traffic.
• FatPipe Site Load Balancing/Failover - Enhances customer Disaster Recovery/business
continuity solutions by providing failover between two or more sites as well as global load
balancing of IP traffic between sites to maximize bandwidth utilization.
• FatPipe VPN - Allows customers to configure VPN tunnels with any standard IPSec VPN
peer for site-to-site as well as remote user VPN tunnels.
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Case Study: A Famous Las Vegas Hotel and Casino UsesFatPipe for Business Continuity
Situation
A construction company accidentally cut a fiber connection that provides Internet services to busi-
nesses on the Las Vegas Strip. The outage prevented Internet accessibility to and from a famous
hotel and casino complex on the strip, which prevented people from making hotel reservations and
purchasing tickets to shows at that location and three of its sister properties whose IT systems were
interconnected.
Solution
This large corporation (that owns the four Las Vegas casinos and hotels referred to) installed FatPipe
WARP at its main hotel/casino on the strip, where the web servers all of the hotels are managed. The
corporation achieved what it was looking for: automatic and dynamic failover of outbound and inbound
traffic and dynamic failover of DNS queries.
Benefits
Using FatPipe technology, the corporation now prevents loss of business or revenue due to ISP or line
failures. Business continuity is ensured, helping the company provide superior customer service.
Synopsis
This famous Las Vegas Hotel and Casino is one of the most prominent and famous establishments on
Las Vegas Boulevard. It is owned by a property management corporation. The corporation also owns
two other major hotel properties in Las Vegas, and one in nearby Laughlin, Nevada. At the core of its
networking infrastructure, the corporation hosts web servers for all four properties at its main location.
Room reservations – about 70 percent made online -- ticket sales to shows, Internet connectivity for
guest and conference rooms, corporate email, and its Property Management System are centrally
managed at the main location. The corporation’s Network Security Engineer saw a clear need for a
business continuity plan that included redundant Internet connections from separate Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) that would keep business flowing in the event of an ISP or line failure. In the end, the
corporation selected FatPipe technology as an easy and reliable solution.
“I remember earlier this year, fiber was cut on the (Las Vegas) strip, and the Internet was down,” said
the Network Security Engineer. “The fiber cut that happened on the street was having a direct effect
to all businesses on the strip, including us. Data transactions came to a halt, email was down, and
reservations could not be made. We had a solution – a manual failover – but this experience moti-
vated us to reconsider how we maintain our Internet connectivity for business continuity,” he said.
15
Prior to the WARP installation, the main hotel location was already equipped with two Internet connec-tions from separate ISPs: a 30 Mbps line and a 6 Mbps line. The smaller connection remained dor-mant unless the 30 Mbps line failed. The corporation learned that a manual failover was an insufficientsolution to deal with downed data line connections. It takes too much time to manually switch over IPranges from one line to the other. Meanwhile, the corporation was unable to access the serviceprovider’s network for three hours, as the ISP was down.
To automate the line switch over, its Security Engineer implemented FatPipe WARP. FatPipe WARPautomatically and dynamically reroutes traffic to the alternative line when the other fails. Now the cor-poration can switch IP ranges from failover and back again with ease. Having the ability to aggregatethe two disparate lines proved to be a cost savings for the corporation.
“We love WARP, especially for the DNS failover. It simplifies processes that would take days for a net-work engineer to do, and we don’t have to be on premise to fix the problem if failure occurs. Thatmakes WARP a very valuable product,” he concluded.
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A Regional Bank Integrates FatPipe® WARP™ to En-sure Reliability and Redundancy in WAN Connectivityfor its Online Services
Situation
This bank formerly outsourced the management of its IT systems including web servers, but decided
to bring its system in-house after experiencing multiple service failures during that time. The bank real-
ized it required a failsafe way to maintain Internet connectivity as it brought the servers in house.
Solution
The bank integrated FatPipe WARP into its network to achieve WAN redundancy, reliability and
speed. It setup a second WARP in a unit failover configuration to create the best redundancy solution
on all levels.
Benefits
WARP dynamically balances load over the disparate connections when all lines are up. WARP also
has automatic failover capabilities, which will reroute traffic from failed lines to available lines when
necessary the bank now has uninterrupted connectivity, the key to business continuity and customer
satisfaction.
Synopsis
This bank ranks as one of the largest independent bank in Texas and is a significant contributor to
business and industry development in major parts on the U.S./Mexico border and South Texas. The
Bank provides superior banking services to its worldwide clientele with an array of custom-made fi-
nancial products and solutions.
One of its premium service offering is its online banking services. The bank cannot afford to have dis-
ruptions to online services. While outsourcing its IT system, the bank experienced Internet downtime.
Frustrated by the instability of the outsource management group’s network, which caused delays in
the bank’s services and lowered productivity its levels, the bank decided to bring its web servers in-
house and integrate FatPipe WARP into its network as a solution.
The bank uses FatPipe’s WARP to achieve the highest level of fault tolerance of its mission critical In-
ternet-based applications and services, which are used by the bank’s staff and customers. FatPipe
WARP combines a T1, a 3 Mbps connection, and a DSL through the FatPipe to provide Internet relia-
bility and redundancy.
17
The ability to aggregate the different lines from separate providers to obtain the Internet redundancy it
needed was an important element to the institution. “We were looking at making sure we could have
continuous (Internet) uptime regardless of what pipes we were using,” stated the Sr. Network Security
Administrator of this prestigious bank.
Once the bank brought the servers in house, challenges it faced included multiple power outages and
at one time, a sewer pipe explosion. The Network Security Administrator and his team prepared for
the power outages by setting up a power generator, yet some lines still failed. Having the FatPipe in
place allowed for the bank’s WAN to remain up and running by automatically rerouting IP traffic to
available lines. When the sewer pipe burst, it knocked off the bank’s T1 for days, yet online services
were still running and accessible to all users, using FatPipe to provide the automatic failure. “From a
user perspective, it was all transparent,” said the Administrator
The bank’s mission-critical Internet-based applications -- including online banking, email, and other
applications -- are solely dependent on WARP to provide redundancy, reliability, and speed “I would
have a lot of upset customers if our online services were cut off from our customers. FatPipe’s
SmartDNS functionality is a key component to our business continuity,” he said.
Conclusion
FatPipe WARP is the ultimate solution for companies that want the highest level of WAN redundancy,
reliability and speed for hosting servers internally, as well as outbound redundancy and aggregate
speed of connections. No matter the location FatPipe's WARP will keep WAN infrastructures up and
running despite intermittent ISP, router, line, or backbone failures.
FatPipe Networks Patents
Please see below for the FatPipe Patents. FatPipe has been issued seven patents, with several pend-
ing. Go to http://patft.uspto.gov/ to read about each patent in detail.
• US Patent 6,775,235 - Tools and techniques for directing packets over disparate networks
• US Patent 6,493,341 - Combining routers to increase concurrency and redundancy in
external network access. Data packets are multiplexed between the routers using a
variation on the standard SYN packet synchronization protocol, and other components.
• US Patent 6,295,276 - Combining routers to increase concurrency and redundancy in
external network access. Data packets are multiplexed between the routers using a
variation on the standard address resolution protocol (ARP), and other components.
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• US Patent 6,253,247 - System and method for transmitting a user's data packets
concurrently over different telephone lines between two computer networks.
• US Patent 7,269,143 – Combining routers to increase concurrency and redundancy in
external network access and fault tolerance of Wide Area Networks.
• US Patent 7,406,048 – Tools and techniques for directing packets over multiple parallel
disparate networks based on address and other criteria.
• US Patent 7,444,506 – Methods, devices and systems for efficient secure parallel data
transmission over disparate networks.
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