ConvergeOne Empowers Engineering Lab Routers with VyOS

“VyOS proved to be the ideal solution for ConvergeOne's engineering lab network. Its flexibility, extensive feature set, and ease of use empowered the company to replicate diverse environments efficiently and provide seamless connectivity for their testing and staging needs.”
— ConvergeOne Team

Customer Overview

ConvergeOne is the premier IP-enabled, services-led, customer experience solutions provider. With over 700 staff engineers relying on the lab, ConvergeOne required a solution that could accommodate their unique needs, replicate customer environments for testing and staging, and provide flexibility for widely varied use cases.

Challenge

ConvergeOne faced a significant challenge when it came to their engineering lab routers. They needed a robust and reliable solution to effectively manage their network infrastructure, ensuring seamless connectivity and efficient testing for their clients. They extensively explored their options:

Cisco ASA: Previously used but failed to meet their requirements.
Cumulus Linux: Found that the virtual Cumulus was not reliable and lacked proper support.
Hardware Support: The acquisition of NVIDIA/Mellanox complicated hardware support.

Why VyOS

ConvergeOne chose VyOS as their ultimate solution due to its remarkable flexibility, robust feature set, and ease of use. The team appreciated VyOS's built-in services, eliminating the need for additional software components. Key drivers included:

Micro-pods: VyOS allowed them to create "micro-pods" within the lab, effectively replicating the diverse environments required for testing and staging diverse customer scenarios.
Advanced Functionality: When necessary, they can easily drop into Linux for more advanced functionality.
Simplified Management: VyOS provided a simplified overlay on top of their physical switching equipment, reducing complexity and improving overall management.

Implementation

By adopting VyOS as the routing platform for their engineering lab, ConvergeOne gained numerous benefits.

Firewall & NAT: They leverage VyOS as a simple firewall with NAT capabilities, enabling geo-IP blocking and blacklisting of IPs.
Core Services: VyOS serves as their NTP and DNS servers, ensuring accurate time synchronization and efficient domain name resolution.
Monitoring: They seamlessly integrated VyOS with Zabbix, a performance monitoring tool, to track router performance and identify potential failures.
Backbone Infrastructure: With the recent addition of EVPN support in VyOS, ConvergeOne leverages this technology for efficient and scalable communication between their various lab environments (pods).

Results

With VyOS as their routing platform, ConvergeOne experiences enhanced network management, improved performance monitoring, and greater overall efficiency. Key outcomes included:

Flexibility: The flexibility of VyOS allowed them to meet the unique requirements of their lab pod use cases efficiently.
Stability: They were impressed by the stability and longevity of VyOS, with routers running continuously for "years and years" without any issues.
Scalability: EVPN allows for efficient and scalable communication between their various lab environments, further enhancing their testing and staging capabilities.

Looking Ahead

ConvergeOne plans to expand their usage of VyOS by employing it as a VPN concentrator, now that OpenConnect is supported. This will provide secure and reliable connectivity for their lab users, ensuring seamless access to resources.