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Infovista-Ipanema SD-WAN gets cloud orchestrator for MSPs

Infovista has added a cloud-based orchestrator to its SD-WAN product. The latest feature in Infovista Ipanema is meant to make the software more attractive to MSPs.

Antone Gonsalves
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Published: 20 Mar 2019

Infovista, which was recently ranked 10th among SD-WAN vendors, is trying to improve its standing with new features aimed at making its product more attractive to managed service providers and channel partners selling to midsize enterprises.

The company introduced this week a cloud-based orchestrator that an Infovista partner or MSP could offer to multiple customers at once. The Multi-tenant software lets end users of Infovista's Ipanema SD-WAN configure the technology to match their needs.

Supporting MSPs could help Infovista take advantage of current trends in SD-WAN. IHS Markit expects companies to shift this year to buying SD-WAN as a managed service bundled with other network services and connectivity. Before, companies were buying on-premises SD-WAN hardware and software or buying them as a stand-alone product with network connectivity from MSPs.

Infovista focuses on letting its users set the quality of service (QoS) for specific applications, so, for example, a Skype for Business phone call would get the highest priority, while web browsing receives the lowest. The vendor's latest release includes a cloud-based database for storing the QoS rules businesses set for their SaaS applications.

Infovista Ipanema maintains QoS to an application by controlling access to WAN resources, prioritizing critical applications and applying traffic management techniques, the testing company Tolly Group, based in Boca Raton, Fla., wrote in a 2017 report commissioned by Infovista. As a result, "the Ipanema solution can mitigate WAN congestion and meet business-defined performance objectives."

Infovista Ipanema
Infovista cloud orchestrator sets quality of service from the branch office to SaaS providers

Infovista tries to strengthen U.S. operations

Despite having useful technology, Infovista, which is a French company, has had difficulty selling in the U.S. market, said Steve Garson, president of Denver-based SD-WAN Experts.

"They're a viable player, but they haven't been as good at marketing as some of the big guys," he said.

To improve its marketing operation, Infovista appointed Cheryl Ragland to chief marketing officer last July. Her duties included "strengthening the company's U.S. brand."

Before joining Infovista, Ragland was head of corporate marketing for BroadSoft, which Cisco acquired last year.

IHS Markit ranked Infovista 10th in the SD-WAN market in the fourth quarter of 2018. VMware led the pack, followed by Cisco.

The overall market grew 26% quarter over quarter in the period to $359 million, according to IHS Markit.

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