Overview
Q. What is the Cisco Catalyst
™ SD-WAN solution?
A. Traditional Wide-Area Networks (WANs), in which the majority of branch office traffic flows within an enterprise’s intranet boundary, have been designed using Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) for connectivity. However, new cloud applications, such as Microsoft 365 and Salesforce.com, and public cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, are changing traffic patterns. Today, the majority of enterprise traffic flows to public clouds and the internet. This change creates new requirements for security, application performance, cloud connectivity, WAN management, and operations.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN connects any user to any application, with integrated capabilities for multicloud, security, predictive operations, and enhanced network visibility — all on a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)-enabled architecture. It helps ensure a predictable user experience for applications; optimizes Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) connections; and offers integrated security, either on-premises or in the cloud. Its analytics capabilities deliver the visibility and insights necessary to isolate and resolve issues promptly and deliver intelligent data analysis for planning and what-if scenarios. Above all, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is simple to operate. It offers:
Predictable application
experience: Increase user productivity by optimizing cloud and on-premises application performance with real-time analytics, visibility, and control.
Right security, right place: Protect users, devices, and applications by deploying a cloud-delivered SASE or on-premises model, depending on the business requirements and compliance needs of the enterprise.
Simplicity at enterprise scale: Centralize cloud management to make it easy to deploy SD-WAN and security while maintaining policy across thousands of sites.
Q. What problems does the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution help solve?
A. The Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution solves many critical enterprise IT problems, including:
● Establishing a transport-independent WAN for lower cost and greater diversity.
● Meeting Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) for business-critical and real-time applications on-premises and in the cloud.
● Providing complete security from branch to SaaS and internet.
● Enabling secure multicloud transformation for enterprises.
● Providing centralized management, analytics, and policy across the global WAN.
● Providing multitenancy that lets you manage a multitude of customers and thousands of devices from a single dashboard, helping you simplify your operations.
Q. Who has deployed the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution?
A. Cisco has one of the most widely deployed enterprise-grade SD-WAN solutions in the industry, with large deployments in many sectors in both enterprise and managed service provider infrastructures. Cisco boasts over 48,000 SD-WAN deployments, which is more than double the number of our closest competitor. The solution is deployed across Fortune 2000 companies and in 70% of Fortune 100 enterprises, with thousands of production sites in every major industry, including healthcare, manufacturing, retail, professional services, energy, oil and gas, insurance, finance, government, logistics, distribution, and more.
Deploy and manage
Q. How do you manage and operate Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN?
A. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is a centrally managed, orchestrated, and operated solution with a cloud-hosted Cisco GUI management console and provisioning platform, SD-WAN controller, and orchestration layer at the heart of the solution.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN controllers are the centralized brain of the solution; they implement policies and connectivity between SD-WAN branches. The centralized policy engine in Cisco controllers provides policy constructs to manipulate routing information, access control, segmentation, extranets, and service chaining.
The entire solution is managed with
Cisco
®
Catalyst SD-WAN Manager. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager lets IT managers and network operators centrally automate the configuration, management, and operation of the entire SD-WAN fabric, all in a highly visualized and intuitive user experience.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager offers an enhanced visualized experience that lets network operators quickly deploy, manage, and automate the network and devices across the entire SD-WAN fabric. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager includes:
● A highly visualized and intuitive interface for easy consumption.
● Preconfigured templates that automate and expedite the deployment of most common use cases.
● Guided step-by-step configuration designed to intelligently expedite onboarding of new devices.
● A consistent user experience across Cisco solutions (Cisco DNA).
Q. How is Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN deployed at branch offices and data center networks or regional hubs?
A. At branch office and regional data center hub sites, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN can be deployed and connected using either virtual or physical secure routers.
Enterprise customers and service providers can gain rich services such as WAN optimization and firewall or basic WAN connectivity for physical or virtual platforms across the branch, WAN, or cloud as follows:
Physical
● Branch: Cisco IOS® XE and Viptela OS-based devices.
● Branch: Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series Edge Platforms and Cisco 1000, 1100, or 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs).
● Branch, regional hub, or data center: Cisco Catalyst 8500 Series Edge Platforms and Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASRs)
Virtual
● SD-Branch: Cisco 5000 Series Enterprise Network Compute System (ENCS) and Integrated Services Virtual Router (ISRv)
● Network hub, colocation facility, or data center: Cisco Cloud Services Platform 5000, Catalyst 8000V Edge Software, and Cloud Services Router (CSR) 1000V Series
Public cloud (IaaS)
● Amazon Web Services
● Microsoft Azure
● Google Cloud
Q. How does the interconnectivity of Meraki and Catalyst SD-WAN simplify operations for customers managing multiple locations?
A. This interconnectivity unlocks seamless management of both fabrics across all site types from a single dashboard, fundamentally transforming how our customers oversee their network infrastructure. Whether dealing with similar sites that demand efficient scaling for secure networking or locations requiring precise WAN configurations, this interconnectivity gives enterprises the power to select a mix-and-match, best-fit Meraki and Catalyst SD-WAN solution for all their disparate locations, optimizing performance and streamlining operations.
This offering provides customers with simpler management across even the most complex environments, ensuring end-to-end visibility and unparalleled efficiency across the WAN.
Security
Q. What are the SD-WAN security features?
A. At the core of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN architecture lies a Distributed Security Enforcement (DSE) framework, which includes - Embedded security (Next Generation Firewall), fabric security, SD-WAN integration with cloud security, monitoring and visibility and certifications and compliance.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN provides on-premises and cloud-based security, accelerating the transition to a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture where and when it's needed, in a secure, simplified, and agile manner. The seamless integration with Cisco Umbrella provides a unified SASE solution. Additionally, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN also integrates with various widely adopted third-party Secure Service Edge (SSE) vendors, ensuring customers have flexibility and options on their SASE journey. Following are the security features of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/routers/sdwan/configuration/security/ios-xe-17/security-book-xe/malware-protection.html and Secure Malware Analytics to prevent and detect malicious files with sandboxing.
Q. How does Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN provide a zero-trust approach to security?
A. The integration between Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) provides a powerful set of security features that enables IT teams to employ zero-trust security functions for the traffic that goes through an SD-WAN fabric. Additionally, the use of SD-WAN Remote Access (SDRA) extends the application of zero-trust principles to remote users, providing enhanced security for organizations. The integration between Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and ISE allows Cisco ISE to support the configuration of security posture policies in the SD-WAN fabric. Moreover, Cisco ISE shares the Security Group Tags (SGT) and session attributes with the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN ecosystem, enabling IT teams to create identity groups and associate security policies in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager to allow access by specific user groups to applications over the SD-WAN fabric, all the way to the edge. Additionally, Cisco ISE supports a periodic reassessment of device posture, allowing for changes in authorization and security policies at the SD-WAN edge.
Q. How is Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN integrated with Cisco Umbrella cloud security?
A. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN provides complete integration with Cisco Umbrella cloud security. Using Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, automatic registration and setup of tunnels to the Cisco Umbrella cloud can be executed within a few minutes, so that the enterprise is completely protected.
Q. Does Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN support Cisco Umbrella's multi-org integration?
A. Yes, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN supports Cisco Umbrella's multi-org integration, allowing customers to easily manage multiple child orgs or regions from a single Umbrella dashboard. The ability to create customized security policies tailored to specific needs of different regions or organizational units allows customers to simplify the security management process, improve network security, and reduce the risk of security breaches.
Q. Does Catalyst SD-WAN support integration with Cisco's SSE solution, Cisco Secure Access?
A. As organizations leverage their existing SD-WAN, they may encounter advanced security needs driven by the challenges of today's diverse IT landscape. This can lead them towards a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) environment, combining their SD-WAN with consolidated, cloud-delivered security (SSE).
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN facilitates this transition by seamlessly integrating with the SSE solution - Cisco Secure Access. This game-changing integration empowers IT administrators with an automated solution, delivering not only highly resilient cloud security but also an optimal experience for end-users.
Branch offices and roaming users face heightened vulnerability to cyber threats, especially with the growing adoption of Direct Internet Access (DIA). The seamless integration of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and Cisco Secure Access within a SASE architecture effectively addresses these concerns by effortlessly extending robust cloud security measures across the entire SD-WAN fabric.
Take advantage of Catalyst SD-WAN and Cisco Secure Access integration to achieve:
● Enhanced Security with SASE: Elevate internet and SaaS traffic protection at branch offices with Cisco Secure Access (SSE). Easily steer traffic for additional security.
● Faster Deployment: Automatically connect Cisco Secure Access and Catalyst SD-WAN manager through Smart Accounts, enabling effortless deployment across your entire network. This significantly reduces branch office setup time.
● Simplified Management: Manage connectivity and provision thousands of sites to Cisco Secure Access in minutes, with just a few clicks from a single, centralized dashboard.
Q. Does Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN support third-party integration with other cloud security vendors?
A. Yes, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN supports third- party integration with widely popular cloud security providers such as Zscaler, Microsoft (Entra SSE), Skyhigh, Palo Alto, Netskope, and Cloudflare. The integration with these vendors provides flexibility in the SASE journey to enterprises by providing a choice of networking and cloud security capabilities. Additionally, these integrations can help organizations leverage their existing investments in cloud security solutions by making it easier to integrate with Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN.
Q. Does Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN support third-party integration with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) providers?
A. Yes, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers third-party integration capabilities. It seamlessly integrates with leading SIEM providers, including Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel and Live Action. These integrations provide significant benefits, enhancing the security landscape for users. By capturing crucial data points and offering a holistic view of network security events, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN empowers organizations to efficiently detect and respond to security incidents.
Q. Why does device and firmware security matter in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN?
A. Firmware attacks on infrastructure have increased in frequency, severity, and costs, not just for public entities but also for enterprises and small businesses. These attacks are quiet, pervasive, and devastating, like many of the latest and most notable hacks. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN edge platforms and routers provide an extra layer of security via an advanced Trust Anchor, so that you can remotely activate, change, and control your SD-WAN platforms while remaining secure.
Q. Does the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution support network segmentation, and what are the benefits?
A. Yes, the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution supports network microsegmentation and identity-based policy management across Cisco Software-Defined Access (SD-Access) and non-SD-Access branches. Microsegmentation provides secure logical isolation on the SD-WAN network, where each segment is defined as a separate VPN and controlled centrally by access control policies. Some of the benefits of segmentation include:
Security is increased by isolating your network from outside attackers and creating secure separation within multiple application segments.
Acquisitions can be integrated into the parent network and yet kept separate. Policies control what applications the acquired company can access.
Guest Wi-Fi can be maintained on a separate, low-priority segment and offloaded onto the internet at the closest exit point.
Business partners can each be defined in a separate segment or in a collective business-partner network segment. Polices control business partners’ access to data center applications.
A single pane of glass helps organizations to avoid complex configurations and frequent policy changes that lead to uneven user experience, thereby increasing overall network efficiency and reliability.
For more information, see Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Segmentation Configuration Guide: Segmentation (VPN) Overview.
Q. Can the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution provide insight into threats in encrypted traffic without the need for decryption?
Q. Does Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN support identity firewall capabilities?
A. Yes, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN integration with the Cisco ISE applies policies based on identity within the SD-WAN network. ISE interfaces with external Active Directory (AD) to provide user identity mapping. It helps customers to configure access rules and security policies based on user names and user group names and classification of flows and enhances SD-WAN policies with identity information on edge routers so that customer intent can be addressed by employee identity and/or role across SD-WAN. It also helps customers address the security limitations associated with IP addresses/subnets, ports, Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN), geo locations, protocols, and applications and enables more fine-grained control with security policies based on user identity and user groups.
Q. Does Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offer any insights to the SecOps team regarding security events?
A. Yes, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN provides insights on security events to the SecOps team. In addition to a NetOps persona, a new SecOps persona is available in the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager controller. When the SecOps persona logs in to the controller, they are presented with a security-focused dashboard and have access to management privileges. This allows the security administrator to quickly gain a comprehensive understanding of the security health of the network, including insights into security events. Additionally, the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager controller includes a security-focused SecOps dashboard that provides a centralized view of network security events and actionable threat data for Security Operations Center (SOC) teams.
Q. What enhancements does the SecOps dashboard now offer?
A. The latest update to the SecOps dashboard introduces key capabilities that enhance security visibility and streamline threat response. With added security visibility charts, detailed IPS signature ID information, application insights for traffic to DIA versus SIG, NGFW stack health tracking, and a direct link between the Security dashboard and the Log dashboard, SOC teams gain more context on security threats blocked by Catalyst SD-WAN and benefit from streamlined troubleshooting. This update empowers SOC teams to efficiently manage security threats and strengthen threat response capabilities.
Q. What improvements have been made to the SIG tunnel tracker?
A. The update to the SIG tunnel tracker introduces enhanced App-Route tracking for L7 health checks using SLA (Service Level Agreement) profiles. These profiles now include loss and jitter, in addition to the already supported latency parameter, for qualitative metrics measurements. The primary advantage of this enhancement lies in securing application traffic using cloud security while maintaining an optimal user experience. Customers benefit from a consistently smooth user experience, safeguarding against service interruptions and maintaining optimal productivity.
Q. What security features does
SD-Routing provide to traditional routing customers?
A. SD-Routing empowers traditional routing customers with a comprehensive suite of security functionalities, including Zone-based firewall, AMP (Advanced Malware Protection), IPS (Intrusion Prevention System), and URL filtering. These advanced security features are seamlessly accessible through SD-WAN Manager, ensuring that routing customers can effectively meet their secure connectivity requirements. This means that with SD-Routing, customers can easily access the same security features available in the SD-WAN fabric, such as ZBFW (Zone-based firewall), AMP, IPS, and URL filtering, to address their unique connectivity needs.
SD-WAN Analytics
Q. How does a lack of application visibility impact overall IT operations?
A. Applications and users are more distributed than ever, and the internet has become the new enterprise WAN. As SD-WAN has transformed to connect users across multicloud, branch, data centers, and a hybrid workforce, enterprises and other organizations are constantly challenged to deliver reliable connectivity, application performance, and security over networks and services they don’t own or directly control.
IT and network teams often carry the burden of proving the network innocent when something goes wrong. Application issues might manifest as network issues. Service disruptions can lead to endless finger-pointing. The resulting cycles spent pinpointing the source of issues can lead to prolonged service interruptions that ultimately damage the revenue and reputation of the business. To deliver transformation, IT leaders need a network analytics solution that provides visibility, predictivity, and automation to help them simplify network operations over such a dynamic environment.
Q. What is Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics?
A. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics simplifies network operations by providing granular network insights, predictivity, and automation that not only heighten network integrity but also deliver an optimal application experience. By liberating IT and network teams from complex network operations, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN empowers IT and network teams to maximize productivity and improve operational efficiency and resiliency, ultimately accelerating digital transformation and innovation.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics consists of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics, Predictive Path Recommendations, and Cisco ThousandEyes
®.
Q. What is Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics?
A. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics aggregates a large volume of telemetry data and correlates application performance with underlying networks for operational insights in a highly visualized and simplified manner. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics enhances network visibility, establishes historical benchmarks, and expedites root-cause isolation, ultimately enabling enterprises to take the necessary corrective actions and gain total control of the user experience.
Q. Can Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics provide enhanced visibility and insights for Microsoft 365 applications?
A. Yes, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics provides enhanced visibility and insights for Microsoft 365-informed network routing by providing visibility into network Quality of Experience (QoE) metrics and Microsoft telemetry metrics for each available path. Microsoft 365 path analytics provide visibility into which path is being used by Microsoft 365 traffic over a given period, enabling network operators to easily visualize the best path. This helps in monitoring the traffic and application experience and provides insights to make troubleshooting easier.
Q. Can Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics extend visibility into Webex by Cisco?
A. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics, integrated with Webex telemetry, provides enhanced visibility with insights into application and network performance metrics. With the Webex app providing feedback via telemetry, customers can visualize the app performance metrics such as loss, latency, jitter, resolution height, media-bitrate, framerate, and much more via the Webex 360 panel within the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics dashboard. Webex telemetry also provides insights into application perspective via network Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as loss, latency, etc., offering a holistic view of network and application health. This feature also empowers IT teams and network administrators of organizations to proactively identify and resolve network or application problems across their global offices, for an improved user experience.
Q. How is Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics activated?
Q. What is Predictive Path Recommendations?
A. Predictive Path Recommendations (PPR), powered by ThousandEyes WAN Insights, an integral component of Cisco Predictive Networks, delivers a predictive network solution, enabling Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN customers to proactively improve the application experience for users. Leveraging advanced algorithms and predictive models, PPR determines the performance and policy compliance of the paths carrying the site application traffic. When performance is below historical benchmarks or SLAs, PPR can make recommendations and automatically implement corrective actions – before users are impacted.
Q. How is Predictive Path Recommendations activated?
Q. What is Cisco ThousandEyes?
A. ThousandEyes enables enterprises that are increasingly dependent on internet, cloud, and SaaS to see, understand, and improve digital experiences for customers, employees, and users. Its end-to-end visibility from any user to any application over any network enables enterprises to quickly pinpoint the source of issues, get to resolution faster, and measure and manage the performance of what matters.
ThousandEyes collects multilayer telemetry data from vantage points distributed throughout the internet, as well as in enterprise data centers and cloud, branch, and campus environments, providing detailed metrics on conditions between those vantage points and applications and services distributed throughout the globe. The result is insight into the application experience and underlying dependency, whether network, service, or application related.
Q. How is Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN integrated with ThousandEyes?
A. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is the only SD-WAN solution with turnkey ThousandEyes vantage points. The solution supports eligible routers from the Cisco Catalyst 8200, 8300, and 8500 Series Edge Platforms, Cisco 4000 and 1000 Series ISRs, and ASR 1000 Series. Existing customers can expedite the deployment of ThousandEyes agents with the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager integration and enable faster time to value for their IT operators.
Q. How is ThousandEyes ordered?
A. Customers can leverage an existing ThousandEyes subscription with eligible Cisco Catalyst 8200, 8300, and 8500 Series Edge Platforms and Cisco 4000 and 1000 Series ISRs, as well as Cisco ASR 1000 Series routers.
● Existing ThousandEyes customers can use their available ThousandEyes license and units toward new tests.
● New ThousandEyes customers will need to purchase a ThousandEyes license to activate the ThousandEyes agents.
Q. What is the difference between ThousandEyes and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics?
A. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics aggregates a large volume of telemetry data and correlates application performance with underlying networks for operational insights, in a highly visualized and simplified manner. ThousandEyes enables enhanced visibility beyond the traditional SD-WAN fabric into the internet, cloud, and SaaS to deliver an optimal application experience.
Q. When do I deploy Predictive Path Recommendations? How about ThousandEyes WAN Insights?
A. PPR and ThousandEyes WAN Insights are interdependent applications. WAN Insights offers a predictive engine, whereas PPR provides critical telemetry and closed-loop automation. We recommend that existing ThousandEyes users leverage WAN Insights from their existing ThousandEyes dashboard, and that Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN users deploy PPR within their existing Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics environment.
Q. How does Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics deliver greater application visibility?
A. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics enables greater visibility for IT and network operators to drive optimal digital experience across the internet, cloud, and SaaS. With this solution, you can:
● Gain enhanced visibility into the network underlay, including detailed path and performance metrics.
● Measure and proactively monitor SD-WAN overlay performance and routing policy validation.
● Determine the reachability and performance of SaaS and internally owned applications.
● Establish network and application performance baselines across global regions before, during, and after deployment of SD-WAN to mitigate risk and establish and validate KPIs.
● Predict probabilities of traffic disruption for different applications and use these forecasts to provide recommended network paths, thereby preventing user-impacting issues from occurring, eliminating the need for reactive network changes, and subsequently reducing the impact on user experience.
● Correlate raw telemetry sources, establish historical benchmarks, and provide operational insights, thereby transforming network operations from a reactive model to a highly predictive one.
● Offer a seamless Microsoft 365 and Webex user experience via telemetry, path optimization, and policy automation.
● Deploy highly visualized graphic capabilities that simplify analytics for an improved user experience.
● Offer your CIO, CTO, and COO visual representation and analysis reports for offline review.
Q. What are the benefits of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics?
A. With Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics, IT managers can rapidly pinpoint the root cause of application and network disruptions, provide actionable insights, and accelerate resolution time.
● Optimize efficiency: Correlate raw telemetry sources, establish historical benchmarks, and provide operational insights, thereby transforming network operations from a reactive model to a highly predictive one.
● Optimize user experience: Provide the unified application experience your end users have come to expect, regardless of their location and associated network environment.
● Optimize resiliency: Monitor network and application performance proactively, while validating implemented policies with business requirements to avoid performance issues that could impact users.
● Optimize operational sustainability: Establish a perpetual optimization cycle that achieves overall CapEx and OpEx efficiency. Predictive analytics enhance resource planning and network engineering that enable organizations to forecast optimal capacity, thereby driving CapEx efficiency. OpEx efficiency is achieved by proactively preventing user-impacting issues, automating resolution, and reducing overall troubleshooting cycles.
● Optimize productivity: Create a proactive engagement model that allows network conditions that may otherwise have gone unnoticed to be addressed before they reach a noticeable level. A proactive operating model will ultimately free up resources and time that can shifted to higher-level strategic and innovation priorities.
● Optimize operations: Deliver strategic business outcomes to enterprise and service providers. Workforce challenges in the IT sector are not new, with ongoing difficulties in finding the right talent to keep up with attrition and growth. Skill gaps grow greater each year as employers chase a smaller pool of highly skilled workers with expertise in cloud-native platforms, networking engineering, and security. Enhanced visibility, automation, and prediction can fill the gaps by standardizing operations and executing routine operational activities on a proactive basis.
Multicloud
Q. Can the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution provide automated connectivity and optimization for IaaS and SaaS platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365, Google Cloud, Salesforce.com, Webex, etc.?
A. The Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN fabric connects users at the branch through the internet, through interconnect providers, or even via colocation environments to applications in the cloud in a seamless, secure, and automated fashion. Cisco delivers this comprehensive capability for IaaS and SaaS applications with Cisco SD-WAN Cloud OnRamp, which is currently available with Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN or Viptela OS platform SD-WAN solutions.
With Cloud OnRamp, the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN fabric continuously measures the performance of a designated application through all permissible paths from a branch (MPLS, internet, 4G LTE, etc.). The SD-WAN fabric automatically makes real-time decisions to choose the best-performing path between the end users at a remote branch and the cloud application. Enterprises and service providers have the flexibility to deploy this capability in multiple ways and according to business needs and security requirements.
Q. Does Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN support Software-Defined Cloud Interconnect (SDCI) or middle-mile connectivity?
A. Yes, with Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN you can have fast, secure, and private network connectivity between your branches, data center, and the world’s leading cloud providers, from anywhere. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN’s middle-mile network optimization solutions offer anywhere to everywhere connectivity within minutes. Through centralized control with a choice of middle-mile providers, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN can connect users and workloads from site to site, site to cloud, or cloud to cloud. Integrating a middle-mile provider’s private backbone with Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN allows you to strengthen your security posture and maximize protection for users with complete end-to-end encryption and segmentation. Using the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager controller, you get full network stack automation and visibility to provision and orchestrate the entire network – simplifying your day-to-day operations.
Q. Can the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution provide end-to-end encryption of traffic traversing a third-party backbone?
A. Yes, Cisco SD-WAN Cloud Interconnect offers end-to-end encryption of traffic from the branch to the cloud through the middle-mile backbones of AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Megaport, or Equinix. Cisco extends the SD-WAN fabric over the private underlay all the way into the cloud service provider by hosting virtual SD-WAN routers in transit Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) and Virtual networks (VNets).
This not only allows for end-to-end encryption for the branch-to-cloud traffic but also ensures that traffic is automatically steered to alternate paths for site-to-cloud traffic whenever the primary underlay path is unavailable.
Hybrid work
Q. Does Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN support a remote workforce?
A. The Cisco Remote Workforce Routing solution extends uniform enterprise SD-WAN to a home and remote workforce. Extensive cloud integration delivers a consistent and optimal application experience. The cloud-delivered SASE architecture provides unified security and compliance. Centralized management automates deployment, configuration, and troubleshooting in an agile and scalable manner. The Cisco Remote Workforce Routing solution consists of the following flexible hardware and software solutions:
Cisco 1131 ISR: The ability to connect users reliably and securely across
multicloud, branch, data center, and hybrid workforce has become a critical success factor to any organization. The 1131 ISR is the next iteration of ISRs, optimized for distributed small branches and a remote workforce, with built-in Wi-Fi 6 and 5G
support for enhanced SD-WAN connectivity.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Remote Access (SD-WAN RA): Integrates remote access functionality into the SD-WAN fabric, thereby delivering all the benefits of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN to the remote workforce. Remote workers can simply leverage existing remote access clients (including Cisco AnyConnect
®, Windows, Apple OS native clients, and hardware-based routers) to access the nearest Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN edge device, regardless of their location and devices.
Cisco Catalyst Wireless Gateway CG113 Series: This simple-to-deploy wireless router is designed to empower the remote workforce to collaborate like never before. Flexible Wi-Fi 6 and cellular failover deliver a consistent application experience, with enterprise Wi-Fi connectivity and security extended to the remote workforce. A centralized dashboard automates deployment and management in an agile manner. A small and silent form factor accelerates the transition to a hybrid workforce where and when it is needed.
Q. What are the key benefits and features of these routing solutions?
A. These solutions:
● Provide a consistent and optimized application experience with seamless connectivity to cloud and SaaS applications.
● Automate the deployment, configuration, and management of hybrid work routing solutions with Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager.
● Integrate a cloud-delivered SASE architecture for unified security policy and compliance across a hybrid workforce.
● Enable adoption of scalable hardware or software endpoint options that accelerate the transition to hybrid work where and when they are needed, in a simple and agile manner.
● Can leverage existing branch infrastructure, thereby lowering overall TCO while extending enterprise-grade SD-WAN in a flexible and distributed manner.
● Provide end-to-end micro- and macrosegmentation.
● Are based on a highly scalable and distributed architecture, eliminating single points of failure in the network.
Ordering and licensing
Q. How is the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution ordered?
Q. How is the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution licensed?
A. Cisco DNA Software subscription licensing offers three two feature tiers: Cisco DNA Essentials, and Cisco DNA Advantage, Both are available as a 3-year or 5-year subscription and have multiple bandwidth tier options. Cisco DNA Advantage is also available as a 7-year subscription.
Benefits:
● The latest innovations through simple subscription tiers
● Available across the portfolio
● Flexibility to choose on-premises or cloud management
● Easy license portability across on-premises and cloud
● Easy upgrade across tiers
● Software Support Service (SWSS) included
● For more information on Cisco DNA Software subscriptions, go to: https://www.cisco.com/c/m/en_us/products/software/sd-wan-routing-matrix.html?oid=otren019258.
Q. Is a Cisco DNA license mandatory?
A. Cisco DNA Software is mandatory for the Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms Family at the initial time of purchase of the hardware. An active Cisco DNA Software stack entitlement is mandatory for any SD-WAN deployment, regardless of device or platform.
Q. What are the Cisco DNA subscription offers?
A. There are two Cisco DNA SD-WAN and Routing subscription offers to choose from. A subscription can be purchased either as an individual transaction or as an enrollment in a
Cisco Enterprise Agreement. Subscription licenses can be purchased for a 3- or 5-year term. Cisco DNA Advantage is also available in a 7-year term. Software licenses are portable across the cloud and premises, are easy to upgrade across tiers, and include Software Support Service (SWSS) for the Cisco DNA Software stack.
The following table describes the components in each Cisco DNA Software for SD-WAN and Routing subscription license.
Licensing options
| Component |
Description |
| Cisco DNA Advantage for
SD-WAN and Routing |
Cisco DNA Advantage for SD-WAN and Routing delivers flexible connectivity, enhanced security for feature-rich and valued branch deployment models, and a robust application experience. This package includes all components from Cisco DNA Essentials for SD-WAN and Routing as well as the following features:
● Unlimited segmentation
● Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics
● Predictive Path Recommendations (PPR), powered by ThousandEyes WAN Insights
● Advanced Cloud OnRamp for Multicloud and SaaS (all applications and telemetry)
● AppQoE
● Automated service switching for Cisco and third-party Virtual Network Functions (VNFs)
|
| Cisco DNA Essentials for
SD-WAN and Routing |
Cisco DNA Essentials for SD-WAN and Routing provides centralized and secure SD-WAN management and security protection for the cost-conscious customer. This package enables the following SD-WAN and traditional WAN features:
● Limited segmentation (ten user VPNs, one management VPN)
● Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager for centralized management (cloud or on-premises)
● Flexible topology (hub and spoke, partial mesh, full mesh)
● Application-based policies (including application-aware routing policies)
● Essential SD-WAN security services, including Layer 3/Layer 4 application-aware firewall, Snort IPS/IDS with Talos signature updates, URL filtering, Cisco Secure Endpoint (formerly AMP for Endpoints), Cisco Umbrella cloud-app discovery, SD-WAN Application Intelligence Engine (SAIE)
● Essential cloud networking, including Multicloud: Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, SaaS: All applications
● DNS monitoring and connector for Cisco Umbrella
● Basic path optimization capabilities, including Forward Error Correction (FEC)
● Dynamic routing protocols (Open Shortest Path First [OSPF]/Border Gateway Protocol [BGP])
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Please consult the Cisco DNA for SD-WAN and Routing Feature Matrix for the most current product information.
Q. What is included in the Cisco DNA for SD-WAN and Routing software license?
A. Cisco DNA for SD-WAN and Routing subscriptions include a perpetual network stack license and a term-based Cisco DNA software stack license. After the subscription term expires, customers will retain the network stack entitlement; however, for any SD-WAN deployment, an active Cisco DNA software stack entitlement is mandatory.
Q. What are the entitlements of the perpetual network stack?
Q. What are the entitlements of the Cisco DNA subscription software stack?
A. The Cisco DNA subscription software stack provides entitlements for SD-WAN features (controller mode) including cloud-hosted Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller, and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Validator devices. For a complete listing of network stack entitlements, see the
Cisco DNA Software SD-WAN and Routing Matrices page.
Q. Are the Cisco DNA subscription licenses portable and able to be moved to another hardware platform?
A. Yes, the Cisco DNA software licenses can be moved across routing platforms, including 1000 and 4000 Series ISRs, Catalyst 8300 and 8500 Series, ASR 1000 Series, 5000 Series ENCS, and Cisco vEdge routers. With software portability you have investment protection for your licenses, regardless of which Cisco routing platform you choose now or upgrade to in the future. For more information, see the
Software License Portability Policy.
Multitenancy
Q. Does the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution support multitenancy?
A. Yes, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN multitenant controllers let you manage a multitude of customers and thousands of devices from a single pane of glass, helping you simplify your operations. You can save on CapEx by making more efficient use of your platform investment by sharing the management, control, and orchestration plane across multiple customers. This enables you to achieve potential savings of greater than 85% (when compared to a single-tenancy model) by reducing servers, rack space, and cables for deploying controllers.
With Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN multitenant controllers, control, visualization, and access to the overall configuration of each tenant are enabled using "provider" privileges. Each tenant has their own dashboard and can be assigned "tenant" privileges to build network policies specific to their organization's requirements.
Scalability
Q. Can we divide the architecture of a single Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN overlay network to increase the scalability?
A. Yes, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Multi-Region Fabric (also called Hierarchical SD-WAN) provides the ability to easily divide a single Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN overlay network into multiple regions and a central core-region network for managing interregional traffic. The SD-WAN Multi-Region Fabric architecture enables you to use different traffic transport service providers for each region, and for the central core-region network, to optimize cost and traffic performance. It also simplifies traffic configuration for some scenarios and provides a robust, adaptive topology that can help prevent routing failures in specific network scenarios. SD-WAN Multi-Region Fabric is a core enabler for WAN architectures involving a middle-mile WAN. It’s a foundational capability that underpins our journey to multicloud and SDCI. SD-WAN Multi-Region Fabric offers managed service providers and global enterprises the ability to enhance, scale up, and more importantly, simplify Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN fabric across regions.
The latest enhancements in Multi-Region Fabric configuration and monitoring with UX2.0 significantly improve the User Experience (UX) and enhance the overall solution. The Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager provides a user-friendly interface that simplifies the setup of regions, sub-regions, and secondary-regions through Network Hierarchy. Additionally, the interface now offers more intuitive workflows that guide users through the process of on-boarding sites into regions, creating configuration groups for all their sites, and deploying configurations as needed. The global monitoring dashboard has been enhanced with a new 'region' view, providing a logical, region-based perspective of the entire network infrastructure. With this view, customers can easily assess the health of their BR/ER sites within each region, monitor tunnel health, and access other relevant metrics. This means that, in the event of any issues or anomalies, users can quickly identify the precise location where action is needed, ensuring a proactive and efficient response to any challenges.
Q. Does the SD-WAN Cloud OnRamp capability of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN support the Multi-Region Fabric architecture?
A. Yes, Cloud OnRamp supports the Multi-Region Fabric architecture. The Multi-Region Fabric architecture can be used to deploy SDCI-related Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN infrastructure by using the CoR Multicloud Interconnect Gateway workflows on Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager. The capabilities within the Multi-Region Fabric architecture improve the user experience of the IT team by enabling simplified control policy configuration and automatic resolution of routing loop and blackhole scenarios, and by providing the ability to assign regions and roles to SD-WAN edges deployed within the SDCI infrastructure.
Q. Can the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Multi-Region Fabric be segmented into multiple subregions?
A. Yes, the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Multi-Region Fabric supports dividing a given access region into multiple subregions and sharing Border Routers (BRs) between these subregions, allowing for flexible BR redundancy and failover-centric network designs. The introduction of subregions enables users to create subdomains of full-mesh connectivity between branch sites within a region, such that devices in the same subregion communicate directly.
Programmability
Q. Is Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN programmable, and does it support APIs?
A. Yes, the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution is open and programmable, with open APIs. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN provides service providers and partners the opportunity to create new and unique services, including operational and business support systems. With Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN you can access the available Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs, create API calls, obtain device and interface information using code, pass parameters and write applications, and work on innovative solutions.
As part of the SD-WAN developer resources and learning content, there are two additional resources that are great value-added services for developers:
DevNet Ecosystem Exchange makes it easy to find and share an application or solution built for Cisco platforms. Business leaders and developers alike can use this online portal to discover partner solutions that span all Cisco platforms and products. Currently, this central repository for developers contains over 1300 solutions.
DevNet Code Exchange gives developers a place to access and share software to quickly build next-generation applications and workflow integrations. It offers a curated list of sample code, adapters, tools, and Software Development Kits (SDKs) available on GitHub and written by Cisco and the DevNet community. Code Exchange spans Cisco’s entire portfolio and is organized according to Cisco platform and product areas.
Industry certifications
A. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN has achieved these industry-focused certifications:
FedRAMP® ATO
System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2)
SOC 3
C5
Services and resources
Q. Are any services available to support my SD-WAN solution?
A. Regardless of where you are in your journey, Cisco Services offers a full lifecycle of services to support your transition. Our portfolio allows you to create a roadmap for success, speed deployment, and maximize network performance, security, uptime, and efficiency. Cisco experts will help you build your in-house IT expertise and effectively migrate and manage your SD-WAN solution to achieve high service levels at lower costs.
Learn more.
Q. Where can I find more information on Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN?
Q. What voice and application optimization features does Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN support?
A. Cisco has the only SD-WAN solution with fully integrated unified communications support.
● For voice optimization, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN supports Forward Error Correction (FEC) and packet duplication.
● For internet optimization, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN supports TCP optimization.
● For on-premises applications, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN support SLA-based dynamic routing based on real-time network telemetry.
● For SaaS applications, Cisco provides dynamic routing based on cloud and internet telemetry.