VeloCloud SD WAN & SASE Cybersecurity Solutions

VeloCloud SD WAN and SASE Solution: Comparisons, Review, Benefits, Use Cases, Pros & Cons

Author:Netify Research Team

If you have questions about VeloCloud and how their capability is aligned to your needs, email the Netify research team. UK: uk@netify.co.uk North America: northamerica@netify.com

(Please use the UK email for ROW - Rest of the World - questions or inquiries)

Netify Review

VeloCloud leverage numerous gateways worldwide, making them ideal for large global enterprises. Their platform is good for companies with remote workers, as their Workspace ONE product is fully integrated with SASE (See, What is the VeloCloud SASE Security Solution?). Further, VeloCloud’s SD WAN solution is PCI DSS 3.2 Certified, meaning that they are a good choice for companies in retail and financial market verticals. However, caution should be taken as VeloCloud offer SASE via an OEM agreement - and many of their products are separate, meaning that networks can become quite complex. This is also only offered as a fully managed solution, which could potentially raise costs.

About VeloCloud

VeloCloud is an SD WAN vendor. Founded in 2012, it was bought in 2017 by its now-parent company VMware (a subsidiary of Dell Technologies, founded in 1998). They are headquartered in Palo Alto, California, NA, and offer SD WAN and SASE solutions to small, medium and large enterprises.

What is the VeloCloud SD WAN Solution?

VeloCloud’s SD WAN solution leverages numerous VMware SD WAN gateways globally. The solution is fully cloud-based, and is comprised of three main components which are licensed to be sold as one software bundle:

• VMware SD WAN Gateway: A network of public gateways are deployed at cloud datacenters globally, which are designed to optimize data paths to all applications, branches and datacenters. This enables VeloCloud to offer their clients network services delivered from the cloud. 
• VMware SD WAN Edge: Optimizes the VeloCloud SD WAN service. Improves the efficiency and security of connectivity to private, public and hybrid applications, as well as compute and virtualised services. Application recognition, application and packet steering, performance metrics and end-to-end QoS are also included in the offering, improving speeds across the network. Further, a variety of virtual network function services are hosted.
• VMware SD WAN Orchestrator: VeloCloud’s cloud-based management platform. Data flow is orchestrated through their cloud network, alongside centralized and company-wide installation, configuration and real time monitoring. This enables one-click provisioning of virtual services, in the cloud, branch or data center. 

VeloCloud offers clients their Cloud WAN services. This includes hybrid, multicloud and SaaS functionality, whilst virtualising all network functions - including major functions such as packet steering and path selection. Offered as-a-service, it is designed to improve branch office agility and application performance. This includes a range of key features as listed below: 

Configuration-Based Key Features:

Security-Based Key Features:

• Multi-Cloud Strategy (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS): Using a combination of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS multi-cloud allows clients to access each cloud’s unique services. This is valuable because it means clients do not have to rely on a single cloud provider, which reduces the risk of localized failure and improves security. 
• SASE: See, What is the VeloCloud SASE Security Solution?

Performance-Based Key Features:

• Traffic Steering Services: Leverages VeloCloud’s cloud-based transport independent WAN architecture. The independent architecture allows the cloud-based WAN to connect to any combination of MPLS, broadband and 4G LTE. This allows the platform to automatically recognize links and measure bandwidth. Traffic steering services leverage this, as traffic is parsed and steered in the most economical way, in accordance with business and security policies. 
• Cellular: VeloCloud have the ability to offer their clients the option to prioritize applications over cellular networks. Should bandwidth speeds drop, applications will be diverted over 4G/5G avoiding instances of blackouts and brownouts.

What is the VeloCloud SASE security solution?

VeloCloud offer clients their SASE security solution via an OEM agreement with Menlo Security. The solution provides secure access to applications via their Secure Web Gateway Functionality platform and next generation firewalling for securing corporate traffic. 

The SASE Solution is designed to combine both cloud security and cloud networking, providing secure access to applications via 150+ global VMware SD WAN Gateways, with IaaS interconnect providing secure access to various cloud providers including; AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Zero trust network access (ZTNA), secure web gateways (SWG) and cloud access security broker (CASB) functions are also available. 

SASE is also available to remote users, as the platform is powered by the VMware Workspace ONE Solution, which is designed to allow those working out of office to securely access enterprise applications. Workspace ONE is now integrated with SASE, meaning that out of office workers can access SASE PoPs remotely.

How does VeloCloud access cloud vendors?

VeloCloud accesses Cloud vendors through numerous VMware SD-WAN Gateways. The VMware SD WAN gateways are deployed on premises at service providers or deployed worldwide at top tier cloud data centers. The VeloCloud offering allows for quality, secure global access to the cloud and network services via service insertion. VeloCloud’s offering is fully integrated with AWS, supports Google Cloud access and Azure is natively built into the VeloCloud solution via an Azure branch IPsec partnership and Integrated Virtual Hub NVA partner. This supports enterprise ability for dynamic scaling with the flexibility of a network-as-a-service offering.

Does VeloCloud offer WAN acceleration and optimization?

VeloCloud’s Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO) enhances the flow of data traffic between any SD WAN components dealing with forward data traffic. It also offers application acceleration services and has a number of key features:

WAN Optimization: 

Application Acceleration: 

How does VeloCloud support remote users?

VeloCloud supports remote users through its VMware Secure Access service. The VMware Secure Access solution unites its SD WAN and Workspace ONE solutions. VMware Secure Access uses a zero-trust network access service model and users are mapped to individual application policies. VeloCloud’s solution is cloud-hosted and is accessed through worldwide service nodes, this allows for significant reductions in latency and hair-pinning. VeloCloud provides a high level of support for remote users as remote usage is encapsulated within the SD-WAN fabric for consistency and a high degree of performance. The Workspace ONE solution uses unified access gateway as a service to reduce overheads in comparison to legacy VPNs and improve scalability. The cloud hosted service provides congruous policy enforcement across all users.

What is the VeloCloud managed, co-managed and DIY services solution?

VeloCloud provides a strong managed services solution. VeloCloud’s offering provides dynamic multipath optimization, dynamic virtual paths, centralized management and offers visibility of application performance on one managed device. VeloCloud’s managed services solution for enterprise customers consists of hardware, software and services. This requires SD WAN Appliances to be deployed in each branch office, with a data core placed in the datacenter. The SD WAN Orchestrator is deployed within the data center and allows users to configure and manage supported devices.

Service providers that deploy Velocloud can use multiple links to configure traffic steering to provide consistent application access and higher bandwidth levels. Some service providers may deploy the managed service solution using three-tier service levels to ensure smooth roll out and operation.

Employing a fully managed solution improves application availability and WAN consistency for a monthly fee with no need to self-manage or deploy. Some services that are offered by service providers can include: performance reporting, design, installation and 24 hour management and monitoring. This allows IT management to outsource standard operations, ensuring the ability to focus on core business needs.

VeloCloud does not offer DIY or Co-managed SD WAN and instead this offering is provided as a fully managed solution by VeloCloud partner service providers. This reduces risk as it capitalizes on service provider facilities, expertise and economies of scale. A fully managed service provides resiliency due to 24 hour monitoring by service providers that improves performance and reliability in application delivery, which as a result of minimal application outage will improve employee productivity.

What Reporting and Management is available via the VeloCloud Portal?

The VeloCloud portal is encompassed by the VMware SD WAN Orchestrator (See, What is the VeloCloud SD WAN Solution?). The VMware SD WAN Orchestrator provides access to a self-service web portal for configuration of policies and  monitoring. The VMware SD WAN orchestrator is built on API-driven architecture for ease of  integration and the enterprise and service provider portals provided both use granular, role-based access. The VeloCloud portal uses a scalable control pane and provides: Network, Application, Host metrics, Quality of Experience score and Diagnostic Application reports. The management and reporting available via the VeloCloud portal allows for more efficient troubleshooting and the ability to resolve network issues faster through the analysis of network and application performance.

What is the VeloCloud SLA?

Below is a table displaying the main focus points of the VeloCloud Service Level Agreement (SLA).

VMware Secure Access Unavailability and SLA Events (Determined by VMware Monitoring Tools):

VMware Cloud Web Security Unavailability and SLA events (Determined by VMware Monitoring Tools):