Cisco SD-WINS: Johnsonville Sausage

“We make America’s finest sausage, and people are ready to grill.”

Challenge

With over four-thousand employees, ten core locations, industrial sites, and only four overworked IT staff: Anthony Wild and team were struggling to keep the lights on.

“Anyone with a credit card can buy a SaaS application these days.” Wild said, discussing how his Global IT Operations team at Johnsonville Sausage struggled to scale the network and prioritize critical applications. “It was like wayfinding in a maze without a flashlight.”

Service interruptions often froze the business. Without global visibility, efforts to solve these individual problems often introduced problems in other areas. In their traditional WAN, Johnsonville Sausage was forced to travel on-site and hire specialists to service Cisco infrastructure. Both were slow and expensive.

“It was incredibly frustrating when management called us and said trucks aren’t moving, forklifts aren’t moving, hand-scanners aren’t working . . . “

Cisco Solution

“For zero CAPEX, we enabled Cisco SD-WAN on our existing network infrastructure.”

Johnsonville already had existing Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000) and 1000 Series Aggregated Services Routers (ASR 1000) deployed in their traditional WAN. Because of that, Wild was able to enable Cisco SD-WAN through a software upgrade for immediate results.

“We eliminated operational silos.” Wild said, describing his current workflow with SD-WAN. “And we’ve shuttered our MPLS service in favor of basic and business internet.”

Johnsonville Sausage is now able to keep everything running on a consistent basis, meeting the stringent demands of executives, workers and consumers alike. With consistent network policies, segmented traffic, remotely managed sites, and the ability to extend SD-WAN into even their harshest environments, Anthony Wild has prepared Johnsonville Sausage for the future.

“There’s no corner of the world where we can’t connect our customers, employees and applications with Cisco SD-WAN.”

Products

DNA Advantage for SD-WAN

ASR-1001X, ISR 4000 Series, IR 1101 and ENCS 5412 for Datacenter, Branch Office, Small Office, and Industrial Sites.

ROI

After enabling Cisco SD-WAN on their existing infrastructure, Johnsonville Sausage saved $250,000 per year on IT costs.

Learn More

View the Keynote: Cisco SD-WAN at Johnsonville Sausage – Cutting costs and complexity