Martello BLOG

Trick or Treat? Why Managing the Edge Doesn’t Have to Be Scary

Watching a scary Halloween horror movie is not for the faint of heart. These movies often start off slow but as they progress the foolish choices of the characters have you on high alert for the jump-scare that you know is coming!

Network administration can sometimes be the same nail-biting, edge of your seat – ‘oh, what is going to go wrong next?’- experience. So, how can you take the scary aspects out of network administration? First off, when assessing your network, it is always a good idea to identify the ‘weakest link’. WAN links continue to be some of the most critical parts of any IT infrastructure, and in some cases, they are indeed a network’s weakest link. It’s no secret that the growing adoption of cloud services and SaaS-based applications is making them even more critical. As companies move applications to the cloud, bandwidth consumption is being shifted from the enterprise to the Internet, straining the infrastructure at the network edge and impacting the user experience.

Like those scary Halloween movies, you often don’t see the villain coming until its too late. For Administrators, typically the first indication that there is a problem is when users start complaining that their applications are slow or crashing. Just imagine that you are streaming that spooky Halloween movie and in that critical moment, your network drops.

There are many reasons why this might happen:

• Too much traffic. If too many employees try to access cloud-based applications at the same time, the WAN link can perform more slowly than expected, especially during a “rush hour” when users first log in at the start of a workday.
• Equipment failures. When a router or modem fails to operate normally, it causes the Internet link to halt operation. This could be a blip or a longer outage, which could impact operations.
• ISP issues. Problems with the ISP infrastructure, whether a server failure or a cut fiber link, can strain or interrupt service to your business.

Managing the network at the Edge does not have to frighten you – in today’s cloud-driven environment, eliminating potential points of failure is critical to providing services to both employees and customers. The movement to the cloud isn’t going to stop – it’s only growing. Businesses need to meet this trend head-on by deploying flexible bandwidth management solutions that optimize and adjust their bandwidth supply in a cost-efficient way. Balancing Internet traffic across many links allows enterprises to provide better user experience and prevent outages, and at the same time supply the network availability and redundancy that their mission-critical applications require.

This Halloween, pop some popcorn and get ready to enjoy those scary movies!  Be prepared to be scared, knowing that with the right infrastructure in place, your network doesn’t need to frighten you.

Five Stars for Internet Performance

Why some of the top hotels in the world turn to Martello to deliver exceptional High-Speed Internet to their guests.

We have all been there, a business trip or vacation comes up and you start doing online research to book a hotel for your stay. If you are like us, you tend to make your bookings online and peruse reviews and comments associated with the hotel that you are looking to book. As you are looking online, what do you care about? The thread count of the sheets on the bed? Maybe… Typically, after the location and onsite amenities, Internet performance is one of the top considerations that guests have when booking a hotel.

Hoteliers know that spotty high-speed Internet access (HSIA) affects their bottom line. Poor performance can dramatically impact the overall guest experience and is a significant influencer when it comes to guests making decisions regarding hotels.

So, how can you keep up with guest demand and deliver reliable HSIA? To keep up with demand and deliver reliable service under the pressures of real-time communications, hundreds of properties rely on Martello’s SD-WAN and UC Performance Management solutions.

Case Study: Conrad Dubai

“I was paying huge amounts for Internet with one Leased Line, and wished to substitute it with multiple ADSL Lines.” – Mahmoud Karaki Conrad Dubai

Challenge

The Conrad Dubai is a 51-storey luxury hotel, located in Dubai’s commercial center. As part of one of Hilton’s luxury brands, and with 555 rooms onsite, Conrad Dubai feels the pressure to deliver 24/7 HSIA to its guests. The reality is though that leased lines (i.e.: private circuits, private lines) are particularly expensive in Dubai, and the property was planning to replace its costly line with multiple lower bandwidth ADSL links. The move would provide considerable savings on a monthly basis. Yet, despite the savings, they were afraid that it would be at the expense of performance, which was an unacceptable risk. They continued to look for an alternative.

Solution

Using Martello’s Link Balancer enables organizations like Conrad Dubai to proactively manage traffic through multiple concurrent ISP or WAN links, and leverage unused bandwidth to avoid adding new links. Deploying a LBX device from Martello allowed the hotel to save on its monthly bandwidth. Adding more circuits can be done seamlessly and easily, on demand, without having to worry about unused bandwidth, and can be put to use from the very moment it is hooked up to the Link Balancer.

Why HSIA Matters to Hospitality

To keep up with guest demand and deliver reliable HSIA, hundreds of properties have come to rely on Martello’s SD-WAN Solutions.

SD-WAN: Affordable, Efficient HSIA

SD-WAN solutions like Martello’s provide flexible, affordable and efficient management of multiple Internet links. These solutions address the network performance challenges of real-time communications, transforming the guest experience. Using Internet links from multiple sources on multiple technologies, Internet access uptime can reach 99.999%, ensuring connectivity for demanding business customers and guaranteeing future business for hotels. There is an overall cost reduction by removing some of the more expensive links, such as T1’s, and combining them with low-cost DSL or cable modems. Properties can deliver on the promise of constant and reliable Internet access while reducing monthly operating costs.

Unified Communications (UC) Performance Management: Reliable Communications Around the Clock

Using link aggregation and SD-WAN technologies, hotel operators are able to efficiently monitor and maintain a state-of-the art network while at the same time saving time on the cost of bandwidth. By pairing that solution with performance management software, hotels can truly transform the guest experience by optimizing real-time traffic such as VoIP. Martello’s Vantage suite includes UC Network Health Testing and a network site qualification tool called UCScore, ensuring that hospitality providers can prevent, detect and address network problems impacting UC performance, and have them resolved before they can impact the guest experience.

See Martello at HTNG Europe – October 22 – 24 – Lisbon, Portugal

At Martello, we are excited to attend HTNG Europe taking place on October 22 – 24 in Lisbon Portugal. At the show you can find us at table #9 at the conference. If you are planning on attending HTNG Europe, be sure to drop by and see us or book some time to meet with us onsite.

Additional Resources

• Visit the hospitality section of our website for more.
• Read our hospitality brochure to review best practices for hospitality providers.
• See why Frost & Sullivan awarded Martello’s solution with the prestigious Price/Performance Value Leadership Award.
• Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group: See how this hotel group solved their hospitality bandwidth challenges with Martello’s Elfiq Link Balancing solutions.
• Firmdale Hotels: Read how Firmdale Hotels manages a unified communications network when customer service and guaranteed uptime is critical.