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Elfiq Link Load Balancers

Optimized and Available Networks. Elfiq Link Load Balancers. May 2007 Version 2.3. Table of Contents. Telecommunication Trends Elfiq Link Load Balancer Overview Technical Features Return on Investment (ROI) Conclusion. Telecommunication Trends. A Few Facts.

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Elfiq Link Load Balancers

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  1. Optimized and Available Networks Elfiq Link Load Balancers May 2007 Version 2.3

  2. Table of Contents • Telecommunication Trends • Elfiq Link Load Balancer Overview • Technical Features • Return on Investment (ROI) • Conclusion

  3. Telecommunication Trends

  4. A Few Facts • High volume of electronic exchanges changing our way of doing business • IP telecommunication links everywhere: EDI, e-commerce, e-mails, VPN, web services, etc. • Telecommunications: vital part of any organization nervous system for employees, customers & suppliers • Revenue increases due to electronic services • Network failures have immediate negative impact on organizations • Organizations are pre-occupied by their security and business continuity

  5. Question to Ask : • Do important activities of your business rely on data telecommunication links ? • Have you experienced link or bandwidth failures ? • Do you have redundancy in your telecommunication links ? • Are you planning to upgrade or change your links ? • Are your telecommunication contracts up for renewal ? • Can your organization operate a complete day with a link failure ? • What are the true annual direct and indirect costs of link congestion or failures for your organization?

  6. Telecommunication Trends • Businesses often have one Internet connection for each type of business need. Typically Web sites/extranet – E-mail and web browsing - VPN & remote users • When consolidating connections, network managers must ensure that redundancy is preserved • Physical failures: fiber cuts, faulty cards on a router, etc. • Logical failures: ISP routing issues, provisioning & configuration • Both types of failures causes connectivity to fail entirely or severely degrade performance Source: Multiple internet connections increase performance, create complexity, October 2004

  7. Network Redundancy, Multihoming Scenarios • Highly available Internet connectivity in 3 ways: • Multiple connections, same ISP point of presence (POP), some protection from physical failures, recommended only for non mission-critical locations • Multiple connections, same ISP point but to different POPs, greater protection against physical failures, some protection from logical failures. • Connections from multiple ISPs, “mission critical” sites, greatest protection against both physical and logical failures. Source: Multiple internet connections increase performance, create complexity, October 2004

  8. Gartner Group Studies • Businesses that want to avoid the complexity of a BGP implementation, or are doing more than simple failover or load-sharing should investigate a WAN link load balancer • Most enterprises have grown accustomed to adding bandwidth in response to growing application demands, building a smarter WAN infrastructure is often a better investment Source: Enterprises will waste money on bandwith in 2004, 2 décembre 2003

  9. Gartner Group Studies (suite) • Strategic planning assumptions: • By 2008, investing in bandwidth efficiency solutions will be the primary WAN upgrade strategy for 75% of enterprises in those four technologies: • Compression/bandwidth management (NetCelera, Packeteer) • Protocol manipulation – HTTP traffic optimization with proprietary and Gzip compression (Boostworks, Pivia) • Content Delivery Networks – distributed caches to store content (Cisco, Kontiki) • Route control (Elfiq Link LB, F5, Internap, Radware) Note: Some technologies can be combined to improve performance Source: Enterprises will waste money on bandwith in 2004, December 2003

  10. Elfiq Link Load Balancer Technology Overview May 2007, Version 2.3

  11. What is an Elfiq Link LB? • Global Load Balancer or WAN Load Balancer • Allows simultaneous use of many routed links (Internet or private) from multiple telcos or ISPs • Load balancing of both incoming and outgoing traffic • Secured transparent device (inline), no IP address • Allows maintenance operations during business hours by redirecting traffic • Maintains IP services availability to your enterprise for business continuity • Reduces unproductive hours for your organization

  12. Increase bandwidth and availability with different providers/technologies Business continuity/network resilience solution for Disaster Recovery and/or Backup links What are the typical functions of an Elfiq Link LB?

  13. Where does it fit in your infrastructure?

  14. Concept of GMAC, VFI and Primary Link No reconfiguration of existing firewall or servers! Elfiq Link LB manages all links transparently according to advanced algorithms GMAC: Gateway mac address of a router, one gmac per link VFI: Virtual Forwarder Interface is comprised of one inside port and a set of GMACs. • Elfiq Link LB’s strength is its easy network integration because it keeps the primary link configuration. No IP address migration is required for existing firewall and servers. OSI Level 2 integration: The primary link is the only known link for the firewall and servers.

  15. Algorithms for load balancing all incoming and outgoing traffic or specific to protocol, source IP/port and destination IP Advanced Algorithms • Round Robin (RR) • Weight First Algorithm (WFA) • Least Traffic First Algorithm (LTFA) • Equalized Traffic First Algorithm (ETFA) • Weighted Equalized Traffic First Algorithm (WFA-ETFA) • Ordered Preferred First Algorithm (OPFA) • Round Robin No-Gmac (RR-nogmac) • Best SitePath First Algorithm (BSFA)

  16. DNS resolution DNS request HTTP Requests HTTP replies • Elfiq Link LB level 2 VFI optimizes network bandwidth • and redundancy according to advanced algorithms. Outgoing Load Balancing

  17. Incoming Load Balancing The IDNS module

  18. Link LB IDNS module interception and link selection DNS request DNS resolution Link B selected Intranet access Incoming Load Balancing

  19. Link LB IDNS module interception and link selection DNS request DNS request Link B selected DNS resolution Intranet access Incoming Load Balancing

  20. Elfiq Link Load Balancer SitePathMTPX Technology September 2006, Version 2.3

  21. Traditional Site to Site VPN implementation

  22. Primary Path = NO firewall/VPN reconfiguration SitePathMTPX Technology (BSFA Algorithm)

  23. Elfiq Link Load Balancer GeoLink Technology September 2006, Version 2.3

  24. GEOLINK between sites exchanging link status, statistics, algorithm metrics and IDNS resources • WAN links could also be in redundancy (second VFI) Geographic Balancing Option

  25. Link B selected Outgoing Geographic Balancing • Encapsulation from public to private addressing in the GEOLINK. • Optional encryption

  26. DNS request DNS request Link LB IDNS module interception and link selection • Link A unavailable • Link B saturated • Geo policies allow access via alternate site for this service • Link C at 20% DNS Resolution DNS request GEO policies intercept remote site request GEO policies re-addressing for intranet server Incoming Geographic Balancing • Encapsulation from public to private addressing in the GEOLINK. • Optional encryption Intranet access

  27. Elfiq Link Load BalancerTechnical Features

  28. Multimode • Maximize port usage • Required for failover mode Monomode vs Multimode Installation Monomode

  29. Elfiq Link LB-500 SMB / LB-1000 - Branch • Tabletop unit, same physical platform (firmware upgrade) • 4 x 10/100 Mbits ports • Maximum of 2 / 4 links • Entry level unit • 20 / 45 Mbps throughput • LB1000 includes all enterprise class features and resiliency: • Tag Load Balancing • Internet Service Verificators (ISV) • SitePathMTPX • VLANS, QoS Diffserv marking

  30. Elfiq Link LB-2000 - Advanced • Standard 1U rackmount unit (1.75") x 16.8" x 9"   • 4 x 10/100 Mbits ports • Maximum of 8 links in multimode • Up to 90 Mbps throughput • Failover mode (2 units) • Geographic load balancing option

  31. Elfiq Link LB-3000 - Enterprise • Standard 1U rackmount (1.75") x 16.8" x 15"   • 4 x 10/100/1000 Mbits and 8 x 10/100 Mbits ports • Up to 400 Mbps throughput per VFI • Failover mode (2 units) • Geographic load balancing option • Up to 5 virtual load balancers (VFIs) with 32 links each in the same physical appliance

  32. Monitoring mode (tap) with IDS and shunning

  33. Technical Features • Telco grade carrier class solution, secure no hard disk • Elfiq Operating System (EOS) and configuration in FLASH memory, easy updates • Incoming and outgoing load balancing • Support links at wire speed, no degradation • Support all WAN routed links: xDSL, Cable, Satellite, WI-FI, E1/T1/E3/T3, Fiber, lan-ex • No ISP router special configuration required • Optimizes link performance and detects link saturation and failures in real time to redirect traffic

  34. Technical Features (suite) • Operating at the data link layer 2 • No IP address migration required or reconfiguration of Firewall & Servers • Transparent secure device, invisible on the Internet • Links can be grouped into multiple virtual link balancers (VFI) for different types of routed links • Powerful balancing as each Protocol/Port can be load balanced with a different algorithm • IP filtering, NAT/PAT, Shunning • Support persistency for protocols like FTP or HTTPS

  35. Technical Features (suite) • Real time failover mode between 2 units • Dedicated management port • Console (CLI) accessed or SSH2 • Windows GUI • Syslog and SNMP • XML external API

  36. GUI Interface

  37. Return on Investment (ROI)

  38. Return On Investment (ROI) • Direct savings ($): • Optimizes/increases your multihomed network throughput • Using less expensive links and/or limiting on-demand bandwidth will reduce WAN costs • Indirect savings ($$$): • Minimizes the productivity losses due to link failures or application performance degradation • Keeps the best availability and application response time to your users, customers and partners • Protects your enterprise revenue & investments • Integrates into your business continuity and disaster recovery plans

  39. SMB ROI: E1/T1 vs Elfiq Link LB-1000 or LB-2000 coupled with 2 or 3 DSL/Cable links Payback period: 6-12 months

  40. ROI : Indirect Savings • Number of users: 1000 • Cost of 1 hour of downtime: 7 500$* • Cost of 1 hour of degraded link (performance issue): 2 500$ • Planned number of hours of downtime per year : 4 • Planned number of hours of degraded link per year : 24 • Lost productivity per year:105 000$*** • Average revenue per business hour: 20 000$ • Expected percentage of lost revenues: 50% • Lost revenue per year: 140 000$ * Based on an average salary (50 000$) and 15 minutes of loss of productivity per hour ** Could be security attack, ISP logical error or saturated link *** 7 500$ x 4 + 2 500$ x 24

  41. Conclusion

  42. Elfiq Link Load Balancers’ Advantages • Operating at data link level 2 • Link load balancing at wire speed • Invisible on the network, very secure device • No IP address migration to your infrastructure • Easy installation with the primary link concept, reducing integration costs and time • SitePath technology • Geographic option www.elfiq.com 1-888-GO-ELFIQ (America) +44 (0) 207 193 5053 (Europe)

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