Digital transformation is a catch-all phrase that describes the process of using technology to modernize or even revolutionize how services are delivered to customers. Not only technology but also people and processes commonly undergo fundamental changes for the ultimate goal of significantly improving business performance.

Such transformations have become so mainstream that IDC estimated that 40% of all technology spending now goes toward digital transformation projects, with enterprises spending in excess of $2 trillion on their efforts through 2019.

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The saying goes that China is the world’s factory. For many companies around the world, their products or components of their products are produced in mainland China. At the same time, China’s population of more than a billion people makes it one of the world’s largest consumer markets. Thus, for either production or sales, many companies want to do business in China and have established facilities there.

On the networking front, this means that multinational companies need to extend their wide area network into China to support their large or rapidly growing operations—and that’s easier said than done.

Many organizations had done this using VPNs, but in early 2018, the Chinese government placed restrictions on IPsec traffic to basically block it from going in and out of the country. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said these restrictions are in accordance with the China Cross-border Data Telecommunications Industry Alliance (CDTIA), which was created to regulate cross-border data communication.

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The TCP/IP protocol is the foundation of the internet and pretty much every single network out there. The protocol was designed 45 years ago and was originally only created for connectivity. There’s nothing in the protocol for security, mobility, or trusted authentication.

The fundamental problem with TCP/IP is that the IP address within the protocol represents both the device location and the device identity on a network. This dual functionality of the address lacks the basic mechanisms for security and mobility of devices on a network.

This is one of the reasons networks are so complicated today. To connect to things on a network or over the internet, you need VPNs, firewalls, routers, cell modems, etc. and you have all the configurations that come with ACLs, VLANs, certificates, and so on. The nightmare grows exponentially when you factor in internet of things (IoT) device connectivity and security. It’s all unsustainable at scale.

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I recently had the opportunity to talk to Mark Wutzke, chief solution architect with Allied Telesis, to learn about the company’s smart networking offerings. Perhaps you, like me, don’t know much about this networking company, though it’s been in business since 1987. That might be because the global company, until recently, has focused its efforts outside the U.S. However, that focus is beginning to change, so I wanted to learn what the company brings to the table that enterprises would be interested in.

First, a little background on the company. Allied Telesis is headquartered in both Japan and the U.S. The company has global R&D centers and manufactures its own products. Among the products are intelligent switches and stackable chassis, industrial switches, wireless solutions, firewalls and routers, optics, NICs and media converters—basically end-to-end solutions from edge to core for LAN, WLAN and WAN. In addition, Allied Telesis writes its own operating system software for its equipment, as well as the network management software that provides many of the smart networking features the company is touting today.

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VeloCloud is now a Business Unit within VMware since being acquired in December 2017. The two companies have had sufficient time to integrate their operations and fit their technologies together to build a cohesive offering. In January, Neal Weinberg provided an overview of where VMware is headed with its reinvention. Now let’s look at it from the VeloCloud SD-WAN perspective.

I recently talked to Sanjay Uppal, vice president and general manager of the VeloCloud Business Unit. He shared with me where VeloCloud is heading, adding that it’s all possible because of the complementary products that VMware brings to VeloCloud’s table.

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Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) is growing in popularity and availability for those organizations that don’t want to host their own LAN or WAN, or that want to complement or replace their traditional network with something far easier to manage.

With NaaS, a service provider creates a multi-tenant wide area network comprised of geographically dispersed points of presence (PoPs) connected via high-speed Tier 1 carrier links that create the network backbone. The PoPs peer with cloud services to facilitate customer access to cloud applications such as SaaS offerings, as well as to infrastructure services from the likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft. User organizations connect to the network from whatever facilities they have — data centers, branch offices, or even individual client devices — typically via SD-WAN appliances and/or VPNs.

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