Kinross gains reliable connectivity to keep global offices and remote mining sites operating 24/7/365 with Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN

With global mining operations running 24/7/365, Kinross must assure reliable access to business-critical applications and data in the company’s Toronto data centers. However, some sites are so remote that satellite is the only way to connect.

Amir Rahimi, senior network engineer for Kinross, is focused on keeping all of the company’s locations connected and operating without disruption. “Before EdgeConnect, we had to link many different technologies and deal with multiple vendors around the world. Our WAN became extremely complex and it was very time-consuming to manage and troubleshoot issues.”

Gaining Control Over Network Complexity

When Rahimi stepped into his current role at Kinross, the company’s WAN had become a mix of different tunnel protocols across MPLS, VPLS, VPN and satellite technologies, with manually configured redundancy and a variety of QoS policies. “Network complexity became difficult to manage,” Rahimi says. “We needed a simpler network solution that we could operate more efficiently.”

Rahimi summarizes the top challenges as 1) operational difficulties in troubleshooting, failover, optimization and prioritization; 2) integration of multiple vendors and underlay technologies; and 3) higher operating expenses due to excessive engineering time spent tracing and resolving connectivity issues.

“We recognized SD-WAN as a way to make managing and optimizing our network much easier,” Rahimi notes. After evaluating several vendor solutions, the Kinross engineering team ultimately selected the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform with optional Aruba Boost WAN optimization.

Streamlines Connectivity for Global Mining Sites

Today, EdgeConnect is deployed in dual redundant configurations for high availability at all 23-plus Kinross locations across the Americas, West Africa and Russia. As a result, the company has been able to retire legacy routers and decommission MPLS and VPLS circuits in favor of dual redundant broadband or dedicated internet access (DIA), reducing costs substantially.

Now, taking advantage of the routing unified on the EdgeConnect platform, along with business intent overlays to prioritize application traffic based on business need, most locations seamlessly break out locally to the internet or connect back to the Kinross data centers in Toronto to access applications. The Russia sites link back to a regional office via satellite and connect to the SD-WAN from there.

Alex Kulinchenko, manager of global IT infrastructure for Kinross Gold Corporation, remarks, “By adopting EdgeConnect with Boost, we were able to greatly simplify our edge connectivity, replacing multiple technologies with a single appliance that unifies routing and WAN optimization. Even at our mine site in a remote part of Russia with a satellite link as the only form of communication, Aruba delivered a successful solution for us.”

WAN acceleration optimizes applications

Using the Aruba Orchestrator centralized management console, Rahimi created several business intent overlays. For example, the “real time” overlay includes applications such as VoIP and Microsoft Teams. The “cloud” overlay incorporates on-premises applications, such as the company’s ERP system, as well as SaaS applications like Microsoft Office 365.

Rahimi also created a “critical” overlay for Citrix traffic used at all Kinross global locations as well as specialized applications used for file transfer. Boost WAN optimization is applied to all applications in the critical overlay, which Rahimi says accelerates application performance dramatically. “Boost is like a magic pill.”

Rahimi explains that the most common complaint from staff was slow file uploads. In some cases, very large files took days to upload. “As soon as we move an application into the critical overlay where it gets the advantage of Boost, all complaints stop. Everything starts working smoothly and our internal client is happy.”

Supports 24/7/365 business with close to 100% WAN uptime

Network reliability and uptime have also improved for Kinross, thanks to sub-millisecond failover between underlay circuits enabled by EdgeConnect. This greatly improves resiliency—if one connection goes down, application traffic continues to flow uninterrupted on another available circuit.

“We now have been able to dramatically reduce downtime due to WAN-related issues,” Rahimi reports. “The ability to failover from one circuit to another on the fly is fantastic. It helps us support the 24/7/365 needs of our business.”

Makes Network Engineering Life Much Easier

A major win for Rahimi and his team is simplifying network management with greater visibility and control through the Aruba Orchestrator centralized management console.

Kulinchenko notes, “We have only one person, Amir, who manages our entire global network. This is possible because we have such confidence in the reliability of our Aruba SD-WAN combined with the ease of administration through the centralized Orchestrator management console.”

Improved network visibility worldwide

Rahimi especially appreciates how the Orchestrator dashboard provides both a high-level view of application traffic and the ability to drill down into the details of individual application flows.

“The first time I viewed flows I loved it,” Rahimi says. “Here was this beautiful GUI showing me where traffic is coming from, what route map is applied, the QoS policy, and where it’s going. This is a great help for troubleshooting application issues. It’s easy to filter traffic and pinpoint the source of issues. Instead of taking days or weeks as in the past, it’s just a couple of seconds through Orchestrator.”

Kinross also provides remote mining sites with “view-only” access to the Orchestrator console affording them extra visibility into how traffic is flowing without requiring additional reporting from Rahimi.

Simplified day-to-day WAN operations

Day-to-day management and updates are easier, too. In the past, the engineering team had to push out policies to individual devices. Rahimi says, “It was not always reliable. Now with Orchestrator, I can create one policy and send it to 54 EdgeConnect appliances across the world and five minutes later, once everything synchs up, I know it’s working.”

Rahimi concludes, “I can’t think of anything negative about the Aruba SD-WAN solution. It is very well thought-out and just works. It’s not only a great solution, it’s backed by a support team that understands our challenges and helps us meet our goals.”