In the modern digital age, connectivity is the lifeblood of nearly every organization, whether it’s a small local business or a global enterprise. Behind the scenes, the professionals who ensure that computers, servers, phones, and other devices can communicate smoothly are network engineers. But what exactly does a network engineer do? What skills do they need? And why are they so crucial to businesses today? This article dives deep into understanding the role of a network engineer and why their expertise matters more than ever. The Role of a Network…

Modern enterprise networks demand robust, flexible, and secure connectivity solutions that can handle diverse traffic types efficiently. As businesses increasingly adopt software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) architectures, edge devices like vEdge routers play a critical role in ensuring traffic segmentation and secure communication through service VPNs. Managing multiple VPN configurations manually on these devices can be complex and error-prone. This is where service VPN templates come into play, offering a scalable and consistent way to deploy VPN settings across your network. This article provides a comprehensive introduction to service VPN templates, focusing…

As enterprise networks evolve toward software-defined architectures, the need for robust, flexible, and scalable routing mechanisms becomes increasingly critical. SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Networking) offers centralized control, security, and simplified management of network resources. At the heart of this architecture lies the vEdge router — a virtualized edge device that plays a vital role in traffic routing, policy enforcement, and connectivity between branches and data centers. One of the central features of the vEdge configuration is the use of service VPNs, particularly VPN 1, for internal communication. VPN 1 typically…

In modern network infrastructures, Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) has emerged as a transformative technology that simplifies the management of wide-area networks. One of the critical components in SD-WAN deployments is the use of vEdge routers—virtual devices that serve as key nodes in the network, ensuring connectivity between branch offices, data centers, and cloud services. Managing dozens or even hundreds of vEdges can quickly become an overwhelming task if each device has to be configured manually. To solve this challenge, SD-WAN platforms introduce device templates—a powerful feature that enables administrators…

In today’s interconnected world, managing computer networks efficiently and securely is crucial. Networks can quickly become complex and difficult to manage without proper organization. Network segmentation—the practice of dividing a larger network into smaller, manageable parts—is a fundamental strategy to tackle this complexity. Two primary tools used for segmentation are VLANs (Virtual Local Area Networks) and subnets. Although they are sometimes used interchangeably by newcomers, VLANs and subnets are distinct concepts that serve different purposes and operate at different layers of network communication. Understanding the basics of VLANs and subnets…