on - edited on by
Tyler Langston
Cisco SD-WAN Version 20.6.3 offers major usability benefits across all use cases. There are enhancement to SD-WAN Infrastructures, SDCI and SD-WAN Security, with innovation and Improvement around Cloud Networking, Operational Efficiency and Application Experiences.
We have put together the table below to give you a quick look at some of the key features in this release.
Feel free to ask any questions about upgrading your Cisco SD-WAN software using the "comment" section below the post.
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Infra & Services
| Feature | Description | Pre |
|
AAR and Data-policy Enhancements •Application-Level Gateway support for NAT and Firewall •Multi-Region Fabric Enhancements |
•In this release, you have the option to configure preferred Color Group list defining primary, secondary and tertiary preference. • 20.9/17.9 now supports NAT ALG for specific protocol such as Domain Name System (DNS), FTP, and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) which inter-operates with Zone-Based Firewall if it is enabled. •You have significant operational simplification by migrating SD-WAN networks to the MRF architecture, which delivers increased network resiliency since MRF reacts to dynamic network state and can adjust the routing state accordingly. |
•Previously, there was no way to prioritize the set of colors as per requirement in order to avoid hashing on all available links. •Prior to 20.9/17.9, SD-WAN didn’t support NAT Application-Level Gateway, which prevents the application traffic from getting imposed to firewall actions necessary to offer granular security control over them. •Previous deployments concept of a region is achieved indirectly using complex control policies and BGP in core network. |
Operational and Security
| Feature | Description | Pre |
| •Network Wide Path Insights (NWPI) | •NWPI phase 3 in 20.9/17.9 is further enhanced with the insight summary, which includes Path insight overview, Application Performance Insight, Event Insight and QoS Insight. Flow level Path insights provide details on path selected and what features/policies have determined that routing decision. | •The earlier version didn't have the Insight summary feature, which limits you to have a complete granular visibility on your network and applications. |
|
•Identity-based Firewall •Enhanced SIG Tunnel Monitoring, ZScaler |
•20.9/17.9 introduces the capability to match user identity and apply zone-based firewall policy based on identities. vManage and vSmart controllers in this case integrate with ISE/PXGRID, which is further integrated with Active Directory. •Now we have enhanced Monitoring and Visibility for SIG tunnels, which includes State of the SIG tunnel and Security Events. |
•Previously, SD-WAN-embedded security stack is not aware of the users’ identities and therefore cannot apply security policies based on identities. •Previously, there is no support for SIG Tunnel monitoring on vManage Security dashboard regarding the status of tunnel (“Up/Down/Degraded”) and details about the Events which has caused the tunnel failure. |
Cloud & vManage
| Feature | Description | Pre |
|
•CoR Multicloud: SDCI connectivity to Cloud Gateway •Microsoft Informed Routing |
•With 20.9/17.9 version, you can extend the SD-WAN fabric from the Interconnect gateway in SDCI into the Public Cloud Service Providers which also provides an enhanced layer of security, Multi-path and Multi-segment support. •Now you have enhanced Path Analytics dashboard integrated into M365 App 360 as part of vAnalytics, which includes telemetry metrics like CoR SaaS, Network probes, and Microsoft Telemetry probes. |
•Previously there was limited End-to-end encryption from branch to SDCI to Cloud. •Previously, there was lack of visibility on vAnalytics of selected path and associated telemetry metrics in Microsoft Informed Routing. |
| •UX2.0 Customizable Dashboard | •You can now customize the Monitoring Overview Dashboard to allow users to select and sort Dashlets of interest and this customization is retrieved every time the user logs back in to vManage, to build the dashboard. | •Previously, the Monitoring Overview Dashboard is not customizable and sort them as required for viewing. |
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