For TeleGeography Explains the Internet to truly explain the internet, sometimes we have to get into where your internet comes from. Internet sourcing for those in the know.
For that, our guest today is Rutger Bevaart, CEO and Co-founder of GNX.
As you'll hear in the episode, Rutger has a deep history in the telecom industry and founded GNX in order to streamline internet sourcing, which is no doubt a pain point for many listeners. We talk about the shift away from MPLS and toward the internet and how that transition can bring many benefits to an enterprise; it comes with complexity and new challenges, especially in sourcing and managing internet links all around the world.
Full conversation below. Enjoy.
Greg Bryan: Let's start out with sort of the basics. An enterprise has adopted SD-WAN. They've maybe moved away from MPLS being the core of their network, even if it's still a part, to this internet hybrid or even internet first kind of strategy. What are the caveats of doing this? What makes this difficult? What should they consider?
Rutger Bevaart: I think there are many pitfalls if you switch to an SD-WAN in the first place. But if we specifically look at the connectivity element there, I mean, you have a big complex application landscape that you need to support.
So instead of having a single vendor that was running your MPLS, which is a very nice closed ecosystem, you're now dealing with many different technologies and suppliers all in the mix. So it's often not just figuring out what technology would work for you from a security point of view or management point of view, but it's the complete vertical integration that you're looking for when it comes to underlay services, your management layer, and the way you procure services. Many challenges there. And I think figuring those things out before you make that transition is probably the best idea you can have.
Greg: That's a really good point. So not just jumping into the sea. I know that I need to do this, but understanding sort of what problems are going to arise ahead of time so that I can get in front of those, essentially.
Rutger: Yeah, exactly. And I think, you know, with the changing—I mean, the root cause of all of these changes is, I mean, it's not just a single thing, right?
But we have all of these technology developments. We all want to have more insights in how our applications are performing because we're supporting our users and business-critical processes in global enterprises with our services. And broadly speaking, for our entire industry. But that application landscape is changing. It's moving. It means it already moved into the cloud, it moved into SaaS partners, and what you see now is that your data is no longer in your basement.
But that application landscape is changing. It's moving. It means it already moved into the cloud, it moved into SaaS partners, and what you see now is that your data is no longer in your basement.
Your data is quite spread out across the globe between all of these different entities that do something with your data and are part of your business process. And that is a really nice element. And I think one of the drivers in why people are adopting SD-WAN is because more agile provides more insight into whatever it is that your services or applications are doing.
But yeah, it does create other challenges because you're moving away from this nice closed ecosystem that you had when you had a static MPLS with possibly some central internet breakout somewhere, which is very, very much a controlled environment to do something that is more agile and gives you more insight, but there's also—I don't think you should underestimate the complexity of what goes on below the hood and how you can actually make it work.
Greg: That's a great point. So one of the things we do at TeleGeography, we benchmark enterprise networks. A long time ago, the primary argument about SD-WAN was: oh, you can cut your network spend significantly—that sort of thing. That's possible in some cases, certainly. We find that that's not the motivating sort of driver for a lot of enterprises, cutting their network costs significantly. It's having a more resilient network, having an application-focused network.
Looking at the cloud, just like you say, as being the destination of traffic rather than around their sort of private network. And then freeing up the underlay for the best of breed, right? That one-stop shop provider isn't necessarily getting you the best internet service in São Paulo and Cape Town and Kuala Lumpur, right? That sort of thing.
So when the enterprises then look at like, okay, well now I'm freed up to be able to get the underlay from the best in breed by region or, or performance or whatever the case may be. Then they would look at, say, now I'm managing dozens more providers. So where does GNX come on as an internet aggregator, right? Is this a problem that enterprises come to you having experienced?
Rutger: Yeah, definitely. So this is one of the things that you, well, let's say this is something that you lose when you move away from a siloed MPLS network, right?
The best promise of SD-WAN is just get a few internet lines, stick them in your SD-WAN and the magic will happen and everything will just work. And in practice, that is not something you want to be doing, right?
Because our customers, and I think especially if you look at international businesses, they have business critical processes. These are factories or logistic outlets or things that need to be as close as possible to 100% uptime.
There is definitely work required in what is a good internet service. Now, if you have the knowledge, you have the team, you have the expertise to do that as an enterprise—do you want to be focusing on doing that yourself? Or is there a solution to that problem?
So there is definitely some work required in what is a good internet service. Now, if you have the knowledge, you have the team, you have the expertise to do that as an enterprise—do you want to be focusing on doing that yourself? Or is there a solution to that problem? Is there a solution to the problem that you in 20, 30, 40 countries in different currencies with different rates, contracts, languages, support methods, you know, is that something that you want to get engaged with?
Or yeah, is that something that you can use an outsource partner for? And that is, I think, where GNX comes in. We're a lot of things that our industry lacks, so I think in the broadest sense, having been part of this industry for the majority of my working life, there is a severe lack of transparency.
Listen to the full episode below.
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