ISP Load Balancing

Secure Your Connections with Multi-Link

Traditionally, Internet connections provided by Internet Service Providers (ISP) have been a single point of failure for corporate communications. In order to eliminate this risk, organizations have had to resort to very complicated and costly solutions such as redundant routers and switches, routing protocols and peering arrangements between ISPs.

ILLUS_isp-load-balancing StoneGate enables you to overcome the Internet availability problems in a simple, straightforward and cost-effective manner. StoneGate provides you the possibility to easily utilize multiple parallel Internet connections. In case of link failure, traffic is automatically routed over to the remaining links.

Benefits

Eliminate easily your ISP(s) as a single point of failure
Ensure that your services are always available
Increase the bandwidth by aggregating multiple lines together
Provide better service for users by selecting always the fastest link
No additional costs or configuration of specialized hardware or software

StoneGate Multi-Link functionality can be deployed when connecting directly to Internet and in secured office-to-office VPN connections. It supports all sorts of Internet links, such as ISDN, xDSL, leased lines, modem and even satellite connection.

Multi-Link guarantees that you always have Internet connectivity.

Assessing the Alternatives

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)

MPLS has been historically the most popular choice due to lack of awareness of different approaches. It provides point-to-point connections, but not multiple parallel end-to-end links. Since the service level agreements offered by MPLS providers often limit the liability in case of link downtime, organizations that require 100 percent uptime need additional independent links for redundancy to mitigate the business risks of downtime. MPLS may not be available at every location and doesn’t offer scalability. Plus the cost of MPLS links is typically much higher than regular Internet Service Provider (ISP) connections.

Frame Relay

Frame Relay provides dedicated point-to-point connections, but does not utilize multiple parallel end-to-end links. Frame Relay connections are typically expensive and the throughput is often a fraction of typical ISP connections.

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

BGP, the often-used method for ISP multi-homing, requires additional monetary investment, specialized hardware, as well as complex implementation and management, including the negotiation of cooperative agreements between competing ISPs to ensure performance. StoneGate's Multi-Link Technology, in contrast, works out-of-the-box, with simple drag-and-drop configuration.

External ISP Load Balancers

Appliances placed "in front" of firewalls use some methods similar to Multi-Link. This dedicated hardware however, requires additional monetary investment, is maintenance-intensive and must be configured separately. From a technical standpoint, external load balancers are not preferable as they tend to compromise throughput.