The first SD-WAN application and practice seminar for the financial industry opened in Beijing

On the afternoon of December 7, 2018, the first SD-WAN Application and Practice Seminar in the Financial Industry, hosted by Algoblu (Beijing Zhaoyu Hongtai Information Technology Co., Ltd.), was held at the China World Hotel in Beijing. More than 40 representatives from the four major state-owned banks, joint-stock banks, city commercial banks and financial service institutions attended the seminar.

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At present, the digital economy has become the main line of global economic development. Compared with other industries, the financial industry is the first industry to fully realize digital transformation after the Internet industry. The reason behind the digital transformation is that users' requirements for traditional financial services are changing. More and more users want to obtain more convenient services and personalized products. The deep integration of the financial industry with the Internet and financial technology has spawned more financial services and pan-financial business models, all of which are inseparable from the support of the underlying network. How can traditional financial networks face increasing challenges? SD-WAN may be the golden key to solve the problem. As the hottest technology in enterprise-level WAN layout from 2015 to now, SD-WAN combines software programmability with commercial hardware to provide automated, low-cost, and efficient WAN services.

In this context, the conference invited practitioners in the financial industry, such as Bank of China, China Construction Bank, etc.; China's largest basic network operators, such as China Telecom; leading SD-WAN service providers, such as Algoblu; Cisco, the world's largest network solution provider, and experts from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to share their insights and discuss the in-depth topic of "How to use innovative SD-WAN technology to improve the efficiency, agility and business support capabilities of financial networks." ​

The presentations at this seminar covered all the major links in the SD-WAN industry chain. 2018 was a year of vigorous development for SD-WAN. SD-WAN has been widely used in enterprise wide area networks and has been recognized by users and the market. As a revolutionary new technology, software-defined networking has a far-reaching impact on the evolution of future networks and has great practical significance for enterprises to achieve digital transformation, improve enterprise operational efficiency, and enhance market competitiveness. The government strongly supports and encourages enterprises to innovate in the field of SD-WAN. In order to promote the healthy and rapid development of the SD-WAN industry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is formulating relevant industry policies and industry standards. Director Hu Haibo from the Institute of Industry and Planning of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology shared the current progress of SD-WAN service standards and his views on the future development trend of SD-WAN. Director Hu pointed out at the meeting that the current status of SD-WAN industry standards needs to improve the definition of SD-WAN service standards and appropriate parameters, automate, visualize, and API the operation of network elements, and recognize architecture standards and trusted service mechanisms, and improve SD-WAN service supervision through technical means. The next work plan is to complete the formulation and implementation of SD-WAN service standards within the next two years. Regarding the future development trend of SD-WAN, Director Hu pointed out that SD-WAN has great potential in cloud services and artificial intelligence applications. Through SD-WAN, artificial intelligence functions can be connected to network sources, network management and operation and maintenance, and intelligently connected to cloud computing data centers. Using artificial intelligence technology, on-demand customization, cloud-network collaborative deployment, and intelligent resource optimization can be improved.

As an important part of industrial innovation, SD-WAN innovation companies provide the market and users with the most innovative and effective solutions. Qin Hua, Chief Product Officer of Algoblu, shared Algoblu's cognition and understanding of SD-WAN, focusing on the differences between SD-WAN and popular solutions such as network acceleration, network optimization, application acceleration, DPI and IP VPN in the market. Algoblu was founded in 2012 and has completed three rounds of financing. So far, it has more than 30 SDN and SD-WAN related technology patents in the United States and China. Algoblu's SD-WAN business operation platform with independent intellectual property rights has been recognized by users and the capital market. At the meeting, Algoblu shared two innovative SD-WAN products: elastic private line EPL and elastic private network EPN. EPL is a new type of enterprise private line service that provides users with private network and Internet services on one access line, with mixed bandwidth and dynamic adjustable bandwidth. There is a lot of practical experience in multi-branch networking of financial institutions and connecting cloud platforms and ecosystems; EPN is a new type of private network service that provides backup paths and burst traffic intelligent scheduling services for enterprise or data center users through the pooling of bandwidth resources across the entire network. Under the premise of not exceeding the headquarters bandwidth, the bandwidth usage of each branch is not restricted (that is, burst traffic is allowed), and the bandwidth is dynamically adjusted according to the needs of each branch to improve the user's overall network bandwidth usage efficiency. The innovative services of elastic private line EPL and elastic private network EPN provided by Algoblu are currently unique in the market and have aroused great interest from the guests on site.

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Qin Hua, Chief Product Officer of Algoblu

Yang Haiying, a senior network architect from Cisco, a well-known equipment manufacturer, shared the best practices of SD-WAN in the financial industry. In 2017, Cisco integrated the SD-WAN product line through the acquisition of Viptela to provide integrated SD-WAN solutions for enterprise customers. For example, a long-established bank in North America encountered problems such as unsecured video conferencing, poor user experience, and difficult branch operation and maintenance. Cisco provided a managed SD-WAN solution to address user problems, connecting 3,000 branches and sub-branches of users through a hybrid networking method of Internet bandwidth and MPLS dedicated lines to improve the speed of applications such as ATMs and self-service banks, and enhance business continuity and reliability. In China, Cisco is also actively exploring new models, hoping to combine Cisco's advanced products with Algoblu's leading SD-WAN network and rich operation and maintenance experience to provide enterprises with more comprehensive one-stop services.

As a disruptive new technology, SD-WAN has an impact on traditional networks and traditional operators in terms of technology evolution and business development that cannot be ignored. Shi Fan, director of the IP and Future Network Research Center of China Telecom Group Beijing Research Institute, shared the development trend of SD-WAN technology and its impact on the financial industry. Shi Fan first made an in-depth analysis of the changes in enterprise WAN demand in the cloud era and the challenges faced by operators, pointing out that SD-WAN can achieve full-scenario simplified networking, ZTP plug-and-play, automatic service chain orchestration, and VAS service minute-level acquisition, which is an ideal solution for enterprise WAN. Shi Fan shared three technical trends of SD-WAN with vivid and interesting examples at the meeting: the decisiveness of uCPE capabilities, the layering of operator service orchestration and resource orchestration, and the cross-operator and cross-service deployment of blockchain. Shi Fan also pointed out that in the future, China Telecom will provide SD-WAN services in the form of standardized services based on uCPE or SD-WAN services that have been developed by the system integration system, integrating the capabilities of multiple SD-WAN manufacturers to provide customized SD-WAN products for financial industry customers.

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From left to right: Shi Min, General Manager of Algoblu Enterprise Division; Yang Haiying, Architect at Cisco; Qin Hua, Chief Product Officer of Algoblu; Hu Haibo, Director of Industry and Planning Research Institute, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; Shi Fan, Director of IP and Future Network Research Center, Beijing Research Institute, China Telecom Group

In the final roundtable session, four guests had in-depth discussions and exchanges with colleagues in the financial industry on extended topics such as industrial chain cooperation, industry standards and policy supervision, and the positive role of new technologies in the digital transformation of the financial industry. Everyone is optimistic about the development prospects of SD-WAN and believes that under the guidance of industry policy regulations, operators, equipment manufacturers, innovative service providers and other parties in the industrial chain will work together, learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses, and provide the financial industry with fast, flexible, intelligent operation and maintenance, safe and compliant network services to achieve win-win cooperation.