Inside Valmont's Data Assurance ROI with Graphiant

One of the least-discussed elements of AI is how you protect your data. As AI consumes all parts of the data infrastructure, companies seek solutions that offer reliability, security, and simplicity across network borders.

Graphiant is a startup founded by Khalid Raza, the former co-founder and CTO of Viptela, which was a pioneering company in the SD-WAN market. Graphiant has created a new data service layer designed to protect data traversing networking infrastructure, combining the reliability of MPLS VPN networks with the agility of SD-WAN.

Securing Valmont's Data Infrastructure

In our recent discussions with some of Graphiant’s customers, including Valmont, we learned about rising needs to use cloud-based networking solutions to solve new needs for flexibility, security, and governance. In this Leadership Brief, we explain how Valmont expects to use Graphiant to solve important network operations challenges, such as providing granular policy to key business applications such as AI and ERP, as well as delivering better security and compliance.

For background on this brief, Futuriom interviewed Doug Ullman, who is senior manager of Global IT operations with Valmont Industries, a global provider of products for manufacturing and agriculture, including irrigation systems and power grid equipment. Valmont’s network serves 10,000 employees across 150 sites globally. Valmont’s global reach is extensive, reaching across six continents. Because of its scale crossing many international boundaries, security and governance are growing needs.

Ullman told us that in adopting Graphiant in a field trial, he was looking for a next-generation secure networking solution to solve problems not solved by SD-WAN. The primary use case for Graphiant is SD-WAN, but in addition to SD-WAN, it is also being used to connect to cloud onramps. Valmont is using Graphiant to connect to regional data centers running on Microsoft’s Azure. It connects to these using the Equinix network fabric at colocation facilities.

Highlighting Data Assurance Needs

The value proposition around the use case is driven by cost agility. In a world where economic uncertainties have fluctuated week to week and costs can change dramatically on imports of critical items, having an infrastructure that can scale up or down, that can be financially engineered to deliver savings to the business on-demand, is a key aspect.

Highlights of this Leadership Brief include:

Global needs for data assurance and compliance are growing. AI data demands and the rise in global regulation will only increase these needs.
Data assurance is not solved by legacy network designs requiring bolting on additional costly solutions to augment. The use cases include maintaining application policies and compliance across hybrid infrastructure (traditional and cloud).
Graphiant’s Data Assurance service empowers businesses by securing network connections across traditional and cloud infrastructure with dynamic routing capabilities.
Valmont Industries told Futuriom about the key ROI benefits of Graphiant and Data Assurance and the flexibility offered in economically challenging times.