Boosting Critical Application Performance with Fortinet SD-WAN and PJ Networks

For increasing your critical application performance, application QoS and Fortinet SD-WAN tuning are the mechanics that take the game to another level. With PJ Networks, you can ensure that your network will not only play well with your apps, but also that it helps make your apps better. Let me show you how those SD-WAN policies can really supercharge your application experience.

1. App Identification

First things first — you can’t protect or optimize what you can’t see. This is the sweet spot for Fortinet SD-WAN. It gets down into your traffic to absolutely determine which applications are running. Yes, not just web browsing or email but business-critical apps, in fact.

Why is this important? Because you can fashion smarter policy around them.

• Fortinet can identify those apps by their signatures, behavior and even custom apps.
• It pinpoints SaaS, cloud apps and traditional software.
• Known apps can receive priority, bandwidth reservations, or even special routing.

So with this you won’t have to wonder anymore. In fact, you’re the one who has control over the flow of traffic, depending on what you care most about for your business.

2. SLA-Based Paths

After apps are discovered, how do you ensure that they work well? Introducing SLA-based path selection.

You define certain service-level agreements (SLAs) such as how long latency, jitter, and packet loss you expect. Fortinet SD-WAN checks for these ingredients if they are met with these standards.

• Sensitive applications are routed only on links that satisfy SLA.
• Low priority applications can utilize best effort or backup paths.
• And if one path deteriorates, traffic can be rerouted dynamically with no interruption.

That means your mission-critical apps stay up and running, no matter what shaky conditions you’re dealing with.

3. Real-Time Steering

And now a word about real-time steering. Put simply, it is steering app traffic on the fly, depending on the circumstances at any given time.

Fortinet SD-WAN doesn’t have rules and forget. It always monitors the link’s performance.

Here’s how it helps:

• Traffic is instantly transferred to better paths as the quality of a link declines.
• It has an intelligent load balancing that can work over several WAN links.
• You never wait for servers to become free and up again, no manual action needed.

Real-time steering enables you to provide a consistent experience in complex, multi-link scenarios.

4. Analytics

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Fortinet SD-WAN includes rich analytics to inform you of how apps are running.

Some cool things you get:

• View app usage patterns.
• Health of links and compliance of SLA.
• Performance issue alerts before the users notice them.

PJ Networks makes sense of these numbers so you can act fast in the right way.

With these assets, you spot trends, troubleshoot rapidly and keep your network closely aligned with business goals.

5. Tuning

Fifth, where the magic really happens: tuning your SD-WAN policies. Consider it an adjustment to an engine.

Here is what tuning with Fortinet and PJ Networks is like:

• Flexing priority levels for apps as business flexing priorities evolve.
• Defining SLA thresholds from the real world.
• Bandwidth allocation to maximize the use of the network.
• Optimization of steering rules in real-time for churn reduction.

Tuning isn’t a one-time deal. It’s ongoing.

You are also able to keep adjusting your application QoS policies as traffic patterns evolve and new requirements arise.

Conclusion

So, to wrap it up. Fortinet SD-WAN with PJ Networks provides you with a wide array of tools to enhance application performance. From accurate app identification, through intelligent SLA paths, real-time steering, insight & analytics and continued tuning, you can enable your network to work smarter for your business.

I’ll just echo once more though, application QoS and SD-WAN tuning is the answer in modern networking. That combination helps ensure your key apps get the performance and security they require.