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The old Burger King jingle came to mind when thinking about today’s introduction of Cato Hands-free Management for our global managed SD-WAN Service. Hold the pickles or the lettuce — it doesn’t much matter; Burger King gave you the burger the way you like it. And that’s certainly true with how we let you manage your network.
Unlike a traditional telco, Cato has always let customers run their networks or, if they, preferred to share some of their networking responsibilities with Cato or its partners. But with Cato Hands-free Management, customers can outsource all networking and security configuration responsibilities to the expert staff at Cato or its partners.
Cato Hands-free Management is that part of the Cato Managed Services portfolio that includes:
- Managed Threat Detection and Response (MDR) continuously monitors the network for compromised, malware-infected endpoints. Cato MDR uses a combination of machine learning algorithms that mine network traffic for indicators of compromise, and human verification of detected anomalies. Cato experts then guide customers on remediating compromised endpoints.
- Intelligent Last-Mile Management provides 24×7, last-mile monitoring. In case of an outage or performance degradation, Cato will work with the ISP to resolve the issue, providing all relevant information and keeping the customer informed on the progress.
- Rapid Site Deployment provides customers with remote assistance in deploying Cato Sockets, Cato’s zero-touch, SD-WAN device.
Regardless of the management approach, Cato retains responsibility for the underlying Cato Cloud infrastructure, upgrading, patching, or otherwise maintaining Cato software or hardware.
What’s the Right Way for You?
Why so many ways to network management? Because there’s no right way, there’s only your way. Companies, like people, have different needs. In some cases, running the network themselves is a requirement in other cases, though, the last thing the IT manager would like to do is take responsibility for every move and change.
Each way has its strengths. With self-service, enterprises realize unsurpassed agility by configuring and troubleshooting the networks themselves, doing in seconds what otherwise required legacy telcos hours or days. For additional assistance, co-management allows customers to rely on ongoing support from Cato or its partners without relinquishing control for overall management. And, of course, with Cato Hands-Free companies gain the ease of full management, though, they can still make changes themselves, if they want.
With Cato, you do get to manage the network your way. And this says nothing about Cato’s wide range of professional and support services.
Management Built for Digital Business
This kind of flexibility is strange for managed network services, which traditionally only offered full management. Telco-managed networks are too cumbersome, too complex to allow companies self–service management of the security and network infrastructure. It requires a network designed from the ground up for the needs of today’s digital business.
And traditionally managed services put restrictions on customers, tying the overlay (SD-WAN or MPLS) to the telco’s underlay (last-mile and backbone services). Requiring use of the telco’s underly left enterprises subject to high costs, limited geographic reach, and protracted deployment times. Such an approach is, again, incompatible with a digital business that looks to be leaner and more agile, particularly as the network must increasingly connect clouds, mobile users, and branch locations situated outside of the telco’s operating area.
Cato Cloud was uniquely designed for the needs of the digital business and not just in how we think about management. Enterprises bring their last-mile access to Cato or procure last-mile services through Cato partners. They then connect to Cato’s global backbone through any local Internet access, freeing them from the lock-in of traditional telco services. As a globally distributed cloud service, Cato seamlessly connects mobile and cloud resources, without being chained to specific geographical location or physical infrastructure.
With Cato, organizations get the tomatoes and lettuce: the peace of mind of a managed service with the speed and agility of self-service. And, yes, you Wendy’s lovers, there’s plenty of beef there as well.
Cato Hands-free Management and the rest of Cato Managed Services are currently available. For more information about Cato Managed Services visit https://www.catonetworks.com/services