Eight Lakes enhances network infrastructure with Cegeka's SD-WAN solution

Eight Lakes group, a leading international distribution, engineering and manufacturing company of industrial components, software and solutions recently collaborated with IT solutions provider Cegeka to implement a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solution. This project aimed to address persistent network challenges and improve the company's digital infrastructure. Through Cegeka, Eight Lakes obtained a tailored solution to enhance connectivity between offices and cloud environments, providing stability, improved security, and better network visibility.  

With new challenges arising, Eight Lakes needed a new partner to help them develop the network infrastructure they required. The company struggled with poor network performance, limited security measures, and a lack of visibility. The existing network services were struggling to keep pace with the business's growing needs.

Jacques Bodenstein, IT Manager Infrastructure at Eight Lakes, explains: “We had poor performance, limited insights into what was going on in our network, and weak security. It was often a challenge to get improvements implemented to develop our business and meet our IT needs.” These issues ultimately prompted the search for a networking solution that could better support their business objectives. “Our previous provider could not offer the services we needed to service our business partners”, Jacques Bodenstein continues. “But Cegeka could.”

“Our previous provider could not provide the services we needed to service our business partners. But Cegeka could.”

Jacques Bodenstein, IT Manager Infrastructure, Eight Lakes 

Cegeka collaboration 

The two companies worked together to explore Eight Lakes’ needs and identify a solution using Cisco Meraki's SD-WAN technology. This tailored solution introduced robust security features, including a firewall and URL filtering, bolstering the company's network protection. The implementation also introduced advanced dashboards, providing Eight Lakes with improved control and visibility.

Jacques Bodenstein explains: “With Cegeka's SD-WAN implementation, we now have stable and secure connectivity between our offices and cloud services, particularly our Azure environment, with new visibility and insights.”

“With Cegeka's SD-WAN implementation, we now have stable and secure connectivity.”

Jacques Bodenstein, IT Manager Infrastructure, Eight Lakes

Overcoming challenges 

As with any complex IT project, the implementation faced some challenges. A significant hurdle was integrating the new SD-WAN environment with Eight Lakes' existing private cloud and new Azure cloud infrastructure. This integration proved more complex than initially anticipated, and it became clear that the solution initially proposed was not viable. But as Jacques Bodenstein explains, “Cegeka was a great fit for us and understood the challenges we faced. The close collaboration allowed us to explore what was required and Cegeka’s ultimate solution was much better than the one we had initially intended to use.”

“Cegeka was a great fit for us and understood the challenges we faced.”

Jacques Bodenstein, IT Manager Infrastructure, Eight Lakes

Impact

The implementation of Cegeka's SD-WAN solution has led to major improvements in Eight Lakes' business performance. Cegeka’s ‘best fit’ approach to each individual company has resulted in a stable, fast connectivity solution, allowing employees to work more efficiently and boosting user satisfaction across the organization.

Eight Lakes now enjoys greater cyber-resilience with integrated firewalls and advanced URL filtering strengthening the network's protection against potential threats. The Cisco Meraki solution provides the IT team with new visibility and control over network activities, enabling proactive issue resolution and minimizing downtime and potential security risks.

Cegeka's SD-WAN solution has also simplified service management across Eight Lakes' multiple locations and cloud environments. This streamlined approach has significantly reduced complexity and eased the workload for IT teams. The result is a more agile, responsive IT infrastructure that can better support Eight Lakes' business objectives and adapt to future challenges. Jacques Bodenstein notes, "Our team can now work faster. IT has less impact on day-to-day business operations thanks to better performance. People can actually get on and do their work, so they’re happier too.”

In close cooperation 

Jacques Bodenstein attributes much of the success of the project to the close cooperation between Cegeka and Eight Lakes. ‘We were working on four other projects at the time of our cooperation, but Cegeka were accommodating and flexible when schedules and project scopes changed. They understood the pressure that the IT department were under and looked for ways to help us, even if it wasn’t part of the project.” Cegeka’s pragmatism was crucial in navigating challenges and ensuring alignment with project goals, and their real-time monitoring allowed for observability and transparency throughout the process.

Jacques Bodenstein is clear that this support was crucial to the project’s success. "To me, that’s close cooperation – Cegeka understood what we were going through. Honestly, the whole team is sad to see the project ending because we built such a close relationship."

Future plans 

The rapid deployment of the new SD-WAN solution has set a new standard. Bodenstein noted that while their previous provider took two years to implement an SD-WAN environment, Cegeka completed the same network upgrade in just four months. Building on this success, Eight Lakes is exploring further collaboration with Cegeka. As Bodenstein explains, “Cybersecurity is really top of mind for the business now, and we are hoping to work on this over the coming year with Cegeka, as well as continuing to improve on the work we’ve done.”

Conclusion 

The implementation of Cegeka's SD-WAN solution has markedly improved Eight Lakes' network performance, security, and visibility, addressing the company's longstanding connectivity challenges. This success was achieved through the close cooperation and true partnership between Cegeka and Eight Lakes. Eight Lakes now looks forward to further strengthening their network and cybersecurity infrastructure with Cegeka as their trusted technology partner.