Demonstrating Opengear’s Smart OOB Capabilities on the First Day and Every Day

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: Opengear Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Opengear

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Personnel: Andrew Pearce, Matthew Witmer

In their Tech Field Day Demo, Andy Pearce, Solutions Architect and Matt Witmer, Senior Principal Engineer, showed the capabilities of the Network Resilience Platform. Learn how engineers have the ability to access their connected resources at all times with Smart Out of Band, Failover to Cellular and automation capabilities.

The demonstration showcases three key components: Day Zero automatic enrollment of OpenGear console servers into Lighthouse and deployment of configuration, the use of Routing Information Management Fabric (RIMF) with OSPF, and the integration of external machine-based configuration systems like Ansible with Lighthouse, RIMP, and OSPF. Lighthouse serves as the central management software system, accessible through a service portal where customers claim console servers using device serial numbers. During enrollment, Lighthouse pushes configuration and establishes a VPN tunnel connection with the node. For routed management fabric, OSPF is configured on the node to enable route advertisement to Lighthouse and other enrolled nodes. The demo also highlights the internal network and options within Lighthouse to connect to external routers. The resource catalog provides web and SSH proxies, allowing customers to connect to devices in their infrastructure without deploying a VPN client on their laptops. The use of RMF enables secure and clientless communication between devices across different locations, facilitating remote configuration changes without relying on a client VPN.


Deploy, Manage and Remediate with Smart OOB by Opengear

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: Opengear Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Opengear

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Personnel: Daniel Cecalacean

In his Tech Field Day session, Daniel Cecalacean, Senior Product Manager, discussed the Lighthouse Software Solution. Providing one source of truth, centralized provisioning and scalable out of band, his session covered the capabilities of Lighthouse.

He also highlighted the latest technical enhancement of Lighthouse – a robust, standards-based management fabric for IP-based connectivity. The RMF (Routed Management Fabric) allows engineers to leverage Opengear’s Network Resilience Platform to deliver the best experience on the First Day. Leading to the formation of a network source of truth, is creates the foundation for automation and troubleshooting.

Daniel Cecalacean discusses Opengear’s evolution beyond its traditional out-of-band role. Opengear has been serving customers in the out-of-band space for two decades, offering innovative solutions like True Failover to cellular and smart auto band. However, the company aims to go beyond being an insurance policy and expand its capabilities to assist in everyday scenarios. To achieve this, Opengear introduces RMF, a standard-based management fabric that enables IP-based connectivity. RMF serves as a network overlay, providing routed IP access in addition to Opengear’s existing serial functionality. This enhancement allows Opengear to step outside its core competency and offer more comprehensive solutions.


Closed Loop Vulnerability Mitigation from BackBox

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: BackBox Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: BackBox

Video Links:

Personnel: Chanoch Marmorstein, Josh Stephens

If you need to have automated OS upgrades and patch management with integrated vulnerability intelligence and risk scoring you should check out this great video from BackBox.

During Tech Field Day, Josh Stephens and Chanoch Marmorstein from BackBox present their closed loop vulnerability mitigation platform. They introduce a pre-release product called BackBox Network Vulnerability Manager, which integrates with the BackBox Network Automation Platform. This new offering leverages inventory data to identify vulnerabilities and provides recommended version upgrades to mitigate risk scores effectively. The BackBox Network Vulnerability Manager is designed for both enterprise and managed service provider markets.


BackBox Powerful Task Automation

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: BackBox Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: BackBox

Video Links:

Personnel: Chanoch Marmorstein, Josh Stephens

Learn how BackBox enables scalable, secure task automation for network and security devices with API-driven capabilities.

The video demonstrates the BackBox network automation platform, highlighting its robust task automation capabilities. The platform offers seamless customization and scalability across various devices and vendors, incorporating pre-checks, post-checks, and verification steps. Users can take advantage of the extensive pre-built library, containing hundreds of automation options, while also benefiting from a user-friendly customization interface that eliminates the need for Python or YAML expertise. By automating tasks, BackBox significantly reduces both time and resource requirements, ultimately resulting in substantial time savings for users.


Best in Class Backup and Restore with BackBox

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: BackBox Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: BackBox

Video Links:

Personnel: Chanoch Marmorstein, Josh Stephens

This video will demonstrate the power of BackBox to help save your critical network configurations thanks to API-Driven, bulletproof backups with One-Click restores.

The video showcases BackBox, a network automation platform with powerful backup and restore capabilities. Initially developed to address a major credit card company’s firewall failure caused by a lack of backup files, BackBox now offers a comprehensive solution for multi-vendor backup and restore needs. The platform enables one-click restoration, verification, security, and support for legacy devices up to 15-20 years old. BackBox collects device inventory and can tailor it to meet specific customer requirements. It provides backup and restore functionalities, including a comparison tool to identify configuration changes between backups and monitor running and startup configurations. The platform sends notifications through various channels such as email, SIM server, or Slack. Users have the flexibility to store backups locally, in the cloud, or any preferred location. Additionally, BackBox offers compliance assurance through baseline configuration and an audit function to track versions across the infrastructure from different vendors.


Automating NetOps with BackBox

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: BackBox Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: BackBox

Video Links:

Personnel: Chanoch Marmorstein, Josh Stephens

In this presentation, see how BackBox automates common network operations tasks with ease.

The BackBox network automation platform focuses on automating the process of changing networks, since most organizations struggle with a lack of network engineers. The software company automates backup and restore features for over 100,000 networks in over 70 countries, ensuring network reliability and security. The company’s Key features include audit and remediation of compliance for configurations like CIS, NIST, Stig, PCI, HIPAA, with additional automations added every week. The company also highlights its Best in Class backup and restore system, as well as prioritizing operating system updates based on vulnerability intelligence data. The company serves both MSPs and enterprise buyers like financial institutions, healthcare and energy companies.


Cisco Plus Secure Connect Approach to Unified SASE

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: Cisco Security Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Cisco

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Personnel: Akshar Patel, Mark Townsley

Discover how a unified platform approach to SASE can help organizations simplify IT and deliver better user experiences that are simple, secure, and predictable.

Cisco Plus Secure Connect aims to provide secure interconnectivity across various systems. They offer a dedicated support team and a new Service Edge architecture that promotes sustainability, efficiency, and an enhanced user experience. To address the challenge of configuring policies across multiple branch networks, Cisco proposes a unified policy management solution. This solution encompasses both the secure connect and Meraki SD-WAN branch, offering centralized management and distributed enforcement. The system automatically selects the appropriate enforcement point based on policy intent, but manual enforcement and exceptions are also possible. Additional features include a policy object page for easy management and auditing capabilities through logs and events tracking.


Cisco Switching and Wireless for Harsh Locations Industrial Networking

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: Cisco IoT Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Cisco

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Personnel: DJ Cole

Network devices aren’t limited to indoor spaces and your network equipment shouldn’t be either. This session explores some of the new Cisco innovations to extend the newest in switching and wireless technology where other network equipment fears to go.

DJ Cole from Cisco IoT group introduces the Cisco IoT team, which focuses on developing industrial networking technologies to connect devices. They are launching five new models under the Catalyst IE switches line, designed for harsh environments with extreme temperatures, humidity, and hazardous conditions. The first model is an all-fiber switch for aggregation in locations with buried fiber, offering copper uplinks as well. The second model is a copper switch with 1G and 10G uplinks, suitable for limited space or dusty areas like underground subway systems. The portfolio includes switches with high-power PoE capabilities to meet the demand for power-hungry devices in industrial settings. Additionally, the switches offer better immunity to power surges and lightning damage, support app hosting for running small workloads, and the IW9167i access point is a ruggedized outdoor device with tri-radio capability, high vibration resistance, and IP66/IP67 rating.


Cisco Common Enterprise Security Policy How to Deliver Policy Effectively

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: Cisco Secure Policy Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Cisco

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Personnel: Alex Burger, Darrin Miller

Network security has been best of breed and place in network based solutions for many years, however policy definitions vary significantly between platforms and solutions. In this session, you’ll see how Cisco is working to create a common language for policy across the enterprise leveraging Cisco’s Security Group Tagging as well as best of breed networks to simplify network automation and network security. This work is focused on hybrid adoption so that customers can choose to use on prem and cloud network security management seamlessly and without compromise.

Cisco is addressing the evolving enterprise security landscape by enabling simplified connectivity and embracing a zero trust approach. They aim to transition customers from open, flat networks to a default deny model using common policies and context sharing. Utilizing group-based policy and security group tags (SGTs), Cisco enables segmentation and centralized policy management. They emphasize the importance of executive sponsorship, business process engineering, and monitoring with Secure Network Analytics for successful zero trust implementation. Meraki focuses on granular policies and policy synchronization, while the MX appliance enables consistent policy control for teleworkers in hybrid work scenarios.


Cisco Crosswork Workflow Manager with Omar Sultan

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: Cisco Cloud and Compute Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

Personnel: Omar Sultan

This session introduces Cisco Crosswork Workflow Manager and its key elements.

In this presentation, Omar Sultan, Director of Product Management for Automation at Cisco, introduces Crosswork Workflow Manager. The goal of the product is to make automation tasks easier by providing a tool that allows users, even non-technical ones, to automate common tasks with a push-button approach. Sultan highlights the challenges of automation adoption and emphasizes the need for workflow solutions that can integrate with multiple tools and systems. He describes the design goals of the product, including reliability, extensibility, and programmability, and explains how the product leverages open-source technologies like Temporal and serverless for workflow management. The presentation also covers the roadmap for Crosswork Workflow Manager, which includes plans for additional adapters, a GUI design studio, change management features, and auto-scaling capabilities. The ultimate vision is to empower customers with autonomy by providing a customizable and user-driven workflow solution. A live demo showcases the capabilities of the product, demonstrating how it can orchestrate tasks across different platforms and provide visibility into the workflow execution. The presentation concludes by highlighting the availability of professional services from Cisco for those who prefer assistance in building and maintaining workflows.


Cisco Routed Optical Networking with Crosswork Hierarchical Controller

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: Cisco Cloud and Compute Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

Personnel: Moty Cohen

This presentation is an overview of automation solutions for Routed Optical networking, over multiple vendors utilizing Cisco’s Crossword Hierarchical Controller.

Moti serves as the Product Manager for the Hierarchical Crosswork Controller, a crucial component of the comprehensive Crosswork Suite. This suite offers orchestration, automation, and control for multi-layer IP and optical networks. The Crosswork solution streamlines network architecture by reducing layers and protocols, enabling the consolidation of services like IP, OTN, TDM, and PLE onto a single platform. With its ability to provide end-to-end connectivity provisioning and integration with both IP and optical equipment controllers, the Hierarchical Crosswork Controller offers a comprehensive view of the network from IP services down to the optical layer. It also facilitates network visualization, identifies potential points of failure, proximity rule violations, and other fiber and service-related insights to optimize maintenance and performance. The Controller manages various components such as IP gear, optical line systems, rodents, and ZRs, and ensures seamless connectivity across different layers. Troubleshooting involves analyzing information at each layer and reviewing performance history for individual components. The SHQL (Sedona Hierarchical Query language) simplifies complex data queries, allowing users to ask straightforward questions about network performance, while APIs enable customers to integrate their preferred workflow manager into the system.


Integrating Streaming Telemetry on Cisco NX-OS with Opensource Tooling

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: Cisco Cloud and Compute Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

Personnel: Gerard Sheehan, Shangxin Du

See how to integrate NX-OS with the open source TIG stack, to gain visibility into the state of the network, visualize the data on Grafana, and see how to troubleshoot your network.

Cisco is actively engaged in enhancing programmability, automation, visibility, and telemetry capabilities within the XOS system. Their primary focus revolves around integrating the XOS system with open-source tooling, emphasizing the utilization of APIs and telemetry overview to gather essential data. Two distinct approaches to telemetry are discussed: dial out and dial in, each offering different operational models to cater to customer needs. While the TIG stack, comprising Telegraph, InfluxDB, and Grafana, is commonly employed for visualizing telemetry data, alternative methods for constructing similar dashboards are also explored. The true value of telemetry data lies in its interpretation and its application for DevOps purposes. Use cases for dashboard and telemetry data in daily operations are highlighted, with two examples demonstrating how telemetry data can greatly aid in troubleshooting and issue isolation within a network. Additionally, Grafana, an open-source tool, can establish alerts based on thresholds and state changes, albeit with a steep learning curve for the query aspect.


Cisco Why You Need a CNAPP ASAP!

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: Cisco Cloud and Compute Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

Personnel: Tim Szigeti

Over 750 million new cloud native applications will be developed by 2025. This astronomical rate of application development is enabled by the widespread adoption of cloud native application architectures. However, these microservice-based architectures also massively increase the attack surface and expose applications to new vulnerabilities and threats. To meet these threats, Cisco is launching a new cloud native application protection platform (introduced in the technology keynote on June 6). This session will provide details and demonstrations of this new Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) in action.

In response to the increasing complexity and distribution of applications, traditional security measures are no longer adequate in safeguarding against potential attacks. To address this challenge, a new security approach is required, one that incorporates security measures at every phase of the application development process. Cisco Panoptica recognizes the need for such an approach and has acquired Lightspin technologies to expand its capabilities in mitigating software vulnerabilities, misconfigured infrastructure, and other vulnerabilities. By identifying specific security exposures and rating risks individually, Panoptica’s tool offers remediation steps, including CLI usage. With the ability to contextualize threats and their criticality, the tool effectively filters noise, ensuring better protection against complex attacks. Panoptica emphasizes the importance of making security-conscious development choices, hardening infrastructure, securing entitlements, and continuously monitoring runtime environments. As part of their commitment to cloud-native security adoption, Cisco is providing Panoptica as a free tool for users.


Security Analytics and Cisco XDR

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: Cisco Security Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

Personnel: Matthew Robertson

This session gives an overview of Cisco Secure Analytics and the newly introduced Cisco XDR.

The speakers provide an overview of Cisco’s Secure Analytics, focusing on their recently announced XDR product. They discuss the security operations process, emphasizing the importance of data gathering for informed security decision-making. Within Cisco’s Security Operations Center, two products are highlighted: Secure Network Analytics and XDR. Secure Network Analytics specializes in threat detection through the collection and analysis of network telemetry. Notably, the unique data processing capabilities of Secure Network Analytics enable features such as policy analytics and the TrustSec matrix for identifying potential policy violations. The product utilizes both on-the-box and cloud-based analytical engines for threat detection. XDR, on the other hand, extends network analytics by incorporating multiple data sets and integrates with other products for incident response. It is worth noting that XDR requires a separate license. Overall, the speaker emphasizes the significance of data collection and analysis in driving valuable analytical outcomes within Cisco’s security analytics offerings.


New Zero Trust Innovations Power Cisco Secure Access

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: Cisco Security Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

Personnel: Eric Eddy, Fay Lee

Introducing Cisco’s Unified SSE solution: Cisco Secure Access! Cisco Secure Access is a cloud-delivered, unified Secure Service Edge, offering a secure internet access, private app access and more! In this session you will see how Cisco is creating a new level of security convergence including market first ZTNA innovations that provide extended value and flexibility. Cisco Secure Access provides a great user and admin experience while simplifying and lowering the cost to deploy for IT teams without compromising security.

The speakers introduce Cisco Secure Access, a comprehensive solution that incorporates DNS monitoring and Zero Trust Network Access capabilities. Emphasizing the importance of a seamless user experience, the solution is designed to detect and encrypt all types of traffic using modern protocols like Mask and Quick. They delve into the client-side architecture, explaining how traffic control is achieved at the socket level without manipulating routes. Additionally, the solution offers user enrollment with just an email address. They also discuss the process for establishing a secure connection between client devices and enterprise applications using ZTNA technology, covering device enrollment, certificate generation, and secure tunnel establishment. App connector deployment and the use of mask proxies for secure access are highlighted. They further mention the inclusion of mobile ZTNA and a partnership with Apple for the enterprise relay service, with future plans for MDM configurability in the second phase of mobile ZTNA.


Assuring Every Digital Experience with Cisco ThousandEyes

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: ThousandEyes Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

Personnel: Alex Cruz Farmer

Watch to learn how the new ThousandEyes innovations deliver end-to-end visibility, accelerated insights, and streamlined workflows to help our customers thrive in a connected world—whether on premises, the Internet, or in the cloud.

Alex Cruz Farmer, a Product Manager at Cisco ThousandEyes, presented their Network Assurance product at Cisco Live. The talk introduced ThousandEyes and its core pillars of visibility, intelligence, and workflows. He highlighted the challenges of digital transformation, including limited visibility and control. ThousandEyes addresses these challenges by consolidating data into actionable insights and enabling efficient application management. The announcements included support for Meraki MX, high availability features in the Enterprise Agent, and pre-staging deployment options. ThousandEyes also integrates with WebEx RoomOS devices, offering instant tests and end-to-end visibility into meetings and core services. The platform provides network path visibility for individual users, streamlines installation with the Endpoint agent within the secure client, and introduces event detection to contextualize and understand the impact of outages. ThousandEyes aims to enhance its path visualization by incorporating data from AWS and expanding third-party data ingestion. Notably, ThousandEyes demonstrated its value during incidents like the Salesforce and Microsoft outages, offering administrators the ability to analyze and share detailed insights on the impact and affected regions.


Cloud-Delivered Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: Cisco Enterprise Networking Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

Personnel: Anupam Mishra

In this session, you’ll learn how Cloud-delivered Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers an automated solution delivery with Cisco overseeing the lifecycle management of the SD-WAN fabric, and how we provide provide rich, actionable, end-to-end insights while lowering TCO.

Anupam Mishra, the leader of product management in Cisco SD-WAN View, introduced a new deployment model called Cloud-delivered Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN. The objective of this model is to streamline the operational aspects of SD-WAN for customers by assuming the responsibility of managing the fabric to a significant extent. The Cloud-delivered option includes integrated analytics, automated software upgrades, certificate installation, and a bundled SKU for convenient ordering. While the Cloud-delivered model is not currently supported in GovCloud, Cisco plans to add support in later phases. Initially targeting enterprise customers, Cisco will expand its focus to include the MSP and federal markets. The ordering process for AWS is simplified and can be done directly, while partner involvement is necessary for ordering through Cisco Commerce Workplace. The Cloud-delivered Catalyst SD-WAN simplifies onboarding and deployment by capturing user intent during the ordering process, enabling single sign-on, and bundling the required controllers and licenses. In its initial phase, the Cloud-delivered model supports up to 1000 devices and aims to provide customers with a straightforward operational model that allows them to concentrate on their network business outcomes.


Cisco Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Data Center Networking Blueprint

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Appearance: Cisco Enterprise Networking Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2023

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

Personnel: Nemanja Kamenica

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is part of many industries and day to day life, and it will expand in the future. This session shows how Ethernet Networks use RoCEv2 transport benefits AI/ML clusters. You’ll also see a demonstration of congestion management capabilities of Nexus switches, that will improve AI workload transports.

Nemanja Kamenica, a technical marketing engineer at Cisco, presented an AI/ML data center networking blueprint. The presentation highlighted the diverse applications of AI in various sectors such as medical research, financial services, public transport optimization, manufacturing, and retail recommendations. Kamenica discussed the two types of AI clusters: distributed training clusters and product inference clusters. The network requirements for AI training networks, including non-blocking transport, lossless Ethernet, and ROC-UV2 technology with PFC and ECN for congestion management, were outlined. A demo showcased congestion occurring when multiple hosts simultaneously sent data to a storage device, leading to congestion on a specific port. To address congestion issues, the Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller allows the configuration of QoS mechanisms such as WRED, ECN, and PFC. Proper management of bursty all-to-all communication within AI clusters is crucial to prevent congestion and mitigate potential financial losses.


Empowering Enterprise Disaster Recovery with JetStream Software and Microsoft Azure NetApp Files

Event: Cloud Field Day 17

Appearance: JetStream Software Presents at Cloud Field Day 17

Company: JetStream Software, NetApp

Video Links:

Personnel: Prashant Desai

Prashant Desai, product manager at NetApp for Azure NetApp Files, discusses the partnership between NetApp and JetStream Software, highlighting the value it brings to customers. JetStream’s unique technology, including continuous data protection with near-zero recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs), aligns perfectly with the requirements of NetApp’s enterprise customers using Azure NetApp Files (ANF) for business-critical workloads. By integrating JetStream’s solution, customers can leverage ANF for disaster recovery from on-premises Azure VMware Solution (AVS) environments with stringent RTOs. Additionally, the solution can be used for standard DR scenarios where RTOs are not as critical. ANF’s performance tiers offer flexibility and cost optimization, allowing customers to choose the appropriate tier for continuous rehydration and adjust performance levels as needed during a DR event. This collaboration provides customers with a comprehensive DR solution within Azure, supporting AVS private clouds and minimizing infrastructure costs.


JetStream Enables DR of Virtual Machines to Microsoft Azure

Event: Cloud Field Day 17

Appearance: JetStream Software Presents at Cloud Field Day 17

Company: JetStream Software, Microsoft Azure

Video Links:

Personnel: Justin Jakowski

JetStream DR on AVS allows failover from on-prem VMware clusters to Microsoft’s Azure VMware Solution (AVS), a software-defined data center built on bespoke hardware in Azure data centers. It utilizes VMware’s vSAN for storage, NSXT for networking, and ESXi on physical servers, with management through vCenter. AVS is primarily used for cloud migration, data center extension, and disaster recovery, and JetStream Software is a critical component of DR to AVS. AVS provides performant all-flash storage with deduplication and compression. Networking is connected to Azure via an internal dedicated express route circuit, with global reach for on-premises replication. The solution offers high throughput for migration and replication, and can connect to Azure services like Azure NetApp Files through express route gateways.


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