A10 and Secunetics Power a Federal Agency’s Transition to Native IPv6
Overview
Facilitated federal IPv6 transition goals
Ensured high availability and scalability for critical resources
Met extensive security and operational standards
INTRODUCTION
An executive department of the U.S. Federal Government supports its mission with a diverse, modern infrastructure of data centers, cloud environments, edge and IoT systems, wired and wireless networks, and a broad spectrum of websites, applications, and databases.
Challenges & Approach
In any large government agency, technology modernization is both a top priority and a major challenge. The agency needs to comply with the longstanding federal government mandate to transition its infrastructure to IPv6.
While it is the goal of the federal government to migrate entirely to IPv6-only network environments, the fact remains that there will always be IPv4-only resources both inside and outside federal networks. Without a way for IPv6-only networks to communicate with IPv4-only networks, the transition cannot happen.
As a result, organizations like the federal agency will need to maintain access to legacy IPv4 components for the foreseeable future even as they roll out new IPv6 infrastructure.
Our objective is to deliver a modern infrastructure that is fully visible and fully in control at all times, intelligent and easy to operate, adaptive to the mission demand, and innately secure.
Soe Oo
Principal, Secunetics
A10 Solutions
Implementing a Simple yet Highly Capable Carrier-grade Networking Solution
For this agency, Secunetics has been a critical partner to achieve a complete redesign of its IPv6 translation architecture. Within each of the agency’s two network domains, the semi-centralized solution would include separate Thunder CGN solutions for its internal network traffic and the internet-bound traffic. The agency maintains two data centers, so the same solution would be implemented redundantly in both locations to provide high availability and seamless load-sharing, and to allow in-service updates without impacting users.
The implementation process began with a proof of concept based on common use cases. A Thunder CGN virtual appliance made it simple for Secunetics to deploy the solution, demonstrate its capabilities, and work through technical project details without the need for a physical device.
