Once upon a time, Investors Bank, a New Jersey based full-service bank, used a branch router and MPLS for their primary connection, augmented with a broadband link. While this infrastructure offered redundancy, it came with significant challenges. MPLS was costly and didn’t provide enough bandwidth for today’s cloud application traffic demands. Additionally, the Bank’s legacy branch infrastructure didn’t provide visibility into the network, nor allow for segregation of traffic between back-office applications from customer traffic. The ability to segregate traffic was important as Investors Bank sought to give their customers a consistent, omnichannel experience without any disruptions, regardless of whether they were physically at the branch or interacting with the bank online. This would give customers the ability to start a loan application online and finish it at a branch, or vice-versa. Customers would also have the option to communicate with bankers through video conferencing. In order to achieve this, they required better WAN connectivity, complete network visibility, and a transformation that would enable them to transition their branches to the cloud.
The Move to SD-WAN
What better way to ensure a successful cloud migration than by adopting SD-WAN? After all, cloud adoption has rendered traditional WAN architectures obsolete, requiring organizations to level up their network. Investors Bank began evaluating SD-WAN vendors in search of the right solution for their needs. Those needs included:
- Visibility into their network and applications
- Symmetric networks which would allow devices to send and receive data at the same rate
- A solution that would operate smoothly with their existing Palo Alto Networks Firewalls
- The best user experience for customers, consistently
- A solution that would enable the migration of their branches to the cloud
Of the four SD-WAN vendors that were considered for the job, Investors Bank felt confident that Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma SD-WAN was the right fit to support their cloud-migration and security infrastructure.
Before we dive into Investors Bank’s experience with Prisma SD-WAN, let’s take a look at why Prisma SD-WAN was the right choice. Prisma SD-WAN is the industry’s only next-generation SD-WAN that is autonomous, integrated, and secure, delivering an ROI of up to 243%. Additionally, Prisma SD-WAN seamlessly integrates with Prisma Access, which protects the hybrid workforce with the superior security of ZTNA 2.0. For customers with interest in deploying the industry’s only unified SASE product, Prisma SASE, they can do so while utilizing a single management console. Unlike Prisma SD-WAN, legacy SD-WAN products are extremely complex, leaving security gaps unattended, and requiring significant manual effort to deploy and manage. Legacy SD-WAN solutions simply don’t cut it for the cloud-ready enterprise.
Why Prisma SD-WAN
Now let’s take a look at what Prisma SD-WAN has done since Investors Bank selected the solution. Deployment took no more than 20 minutes per branch with zero-touch deployment, which resulted in zero service disruptions. By aggregating the existing MPLS and broadband connections, Investors Bank was able to leverage increased bandwidth resulting in an improved customer experience. Additionally, they can now segregate and prioritize traffic resulting in improved performance and security.
Shortly after deployment, Investors Bank eliminated MPLS entirely and instead leveraged 4G broadband as a backup connection in all branches. They now prioritize video conferencing over other applications, guaranteeing the best experience for customers who are interacting with bankers virtually. With Prisma SD-WAN, Investors Bank is experiencing better network performance and a 53% reduction in operational expenses. After all was said and done, Investors Bank viewed its decision to select Prisma SD-WAN as the right choice and would recommend the solution to any other financial services company considering a similar solution.
Vice President and Head of Enterprise Architecture at Investors Bank, Thava Kanaganathan, said “I’d put my money on a firewall company for an SD-WAN solution for a financial company’s peace of mind.”
To learn more about Investors Bank’s experience with Prisma SD-WAN, read this case study, or view this webinar on-demand. See how Prisma SD-WAN can help bring your organization to the next level with our free trial.