Case Study
Reinforcing & Mesh Solutions
Background
Reinforcing & Mesh Solutions (RMS) had been utilising a traditional MPLS network for several years. While MPLS had once met their needs, growing dissatisfaction with network performance, rising costs, and limited flexibility led the company to seek alternatives.
The RMS holding company had a long-standing relationship with 5th Mountain Networks and had successfully collaborated on several projects in the past. With this in mind, RMS decided to explore 5th Mountain’s SD-WAN solution, presented as the "5th Mountain Halo Service".
Challenge
The primary challenge for RMS was to replace their well-established MPLS network with an SD-WAN solution. Although MPLS had been the backbone of their network for years, it had become increasingly unstable, unreliable, and unable to meet the agility, cost efficiency, and scalability demands of the business.
RMS had concerns about whether the SD-WAN solution could improve upon these shortcomings while delivering enhanced performance, security, and cost-effectiveness. The RMS team recognised that a transition of this magnitude could disrupt business operations if not carefully managed.
Solution
5th Mountain Networks was tasked with designing and implementing a seamless migration from MPLS to SD-WAN across all 11 RMS sites. The 5th Mountain team devised a comprehensive plan, leveraging their Halo Service to deliver an SD-WAN solution customised for RMS's needs.
The solution addressed three key areas:
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Bandwidth Redundancy: 5th Mountain implemented full bandwidth redundancy across all RMS sites by leveraging diverse services from Tier-1 providers, such as Fibre, Microwave, and LTE/A. This ensured continuous network reliability without a single point of failure.
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Centralised Firewall Policy Control: A centralised firewall policy control was deployed, allowing RMS to quickly and easily update network policies across all sites. This was further enhanced by full policy backups, ensuring RMS had a reliable security framework while streamlining network management.
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Optimised Bandwidth for Critical Applications: To ensure optimal network performance, 5th Mountain configured time-scheduled firewall rules. This allowed RMS to prioritise bandwidth for business-critical applications like Zoom, Teams, and other essential business applications, preventing unnecessary bandwidth consumption by software updates during peak usage hours.
Implementation
The migration process was executed with minimal disruption to RMS’s day-to-day operations. 5th Mountain Networks ensured a smooth transition through meticulous planning and close communication with the RMS team. The implementation followed a phased approach, enabling the IT department to test and validate each aspect of the SD-WAN setup before fully decommissioning the MPLS network.
Throughout the process, 5th Mountain provided RMS with enhanced visibility and diagnostic tools. This gave the IT team newfound control over network performance and made it easier to resolve any issues quickly.
Results
The transition from MPLS to SD-WAN was a resounding success for RMS. The company reported several key benefits:
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Improved Network Availability: The alternate and diverse infrastructure ensured constant uptime, significantly reducing network outages and disruptions.
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Cost Savings: RMS saw a reduction in network operating costs, thanks to the more efficient use of bandwidth and the flexibility of the SD-WAN solution.
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Enhanced User Experience: Through the optimisation of bandwidth allocation, RMS experienced improved throughput and better performance for critical business applications.
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Elevated Security: The introduction of centralised firewall control, coupled with automatic backups, greatly improved RMS's security posture, ensuring that policies were uniformly enforced across all sites and the network was protected from potential threats.
The positive impact was immediately felt across the organisation. Both management and employees praised the increased reliability and performance of the new network. The IT team, in particular, noted a significant reduction in stress, as they now had better control over the network and tools to resolve issues pro-actively.
Conclusion
The successful transition from MPLS to SD-WAN with 5th Mountain Networks has positioned RMS for future growth while delivering immediate performance improvements. With full bandwidth redundancy, centralised firewall control, and optimised bandwidth management, RMS now enjoys a more resilient, cost-effective, and secure network environment.
RMS is proud to recommend 5th Mountain Networks as a trusted partner in delivering innovative, future-proof technology solutions. Their work has transformed our network into a secure, flexible, and highly reliable infrastructure, and we are equally proud to support such a successful South African company.
