As more business data moves to the cloud, the more important it becomes to consider having a backup Internet connection.  Traditionally this was done through a firewall capable of having multiple WAN links.  However, failing over to a secondary WAN link would cause your IP address to change, meaning loss of connectivity for VPN users and internally hosted servers. 

This is where the magic of VeloCloud comes in – it can retain your IP address when failing over to a backup line. 

• VeloCloud isn’t something you buy on your own.  Your ISP needs to adopt it as their primary solution.
• VeloCloud isn’t the only technology that can retain your IP address during a failover. ISPs using Cisco equipment can use BGP failover.  But in cases where I’ve seen this offered, your ISP needs to have a written agreement with your backup ISP to hand off the IP addresses during failover.
• VeloCloud can program in whatever connection you have available, including 4G.  You can continue to use your IP address as long as something is connected.

How they pull this off is beyond me. I tried watching them explain it, but network nerds are at a whole another level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYMnccTUp78

The biggest vendor we have locally in So Cal using VeloCloud is TPX. TPX customer service is terrible, but let’s face it, all ISPs are terrible. Although, I recently learned about NHC (https://nhcgrp.com) through our broker Ethan Larson at Sandler Partners, and he speaks highly of them so we’ll have to check them out.

The main point is that I didn’t know such thing was possible. Most carriers use Cisco, but they should at least have BGP failover available. If they don’t, that could be an indication that they’re not keeping up with the latest offerings.

What I do know, is that I’m going to be asking for VeloCloud by name from now on.

By the way, have you read my post about patch management?