The installation process was complex. Templates are there and we can pretty much put those straight into the Versa director and push them for other sites. A single template spokes other templates. This would involve a change in bandwidth or configuration. We make the changes on the template and push for those particular sites. So, when it comes to Versa director and analytics, it's pretty simple.

On one to ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy, I rate the solution's deployment process a seven out of ten. Considering our company's requirements, the deployment process took two days for us to design the deployment scenario. Since the department process was not hectic, it took less time. We have deployed the solution on the cloud and on-premises. Regarding the people involved in the deployment process, only two or three people were involved in the testing part.

Installation took about an hour.

I rate the setup an eight out of ten, and we completed it in-house.

The initial setup is easy, and I would rate it at 4.5 on a scale from one to five, with one being difficult and five being easy.

One person can handle the maintenance of Versa FlexVNF because hardly any maintenance is needed.

The initial setup is straightforward. 

Mostly, customers rely on the engineering team. They just start to run it once it is deployed. Normally, the setup is headed by the engineering team.

The deployment really depends on how fast the rollout would be needed. The deployment is easy, however, it depends on the location. We could deploy a few units a day, for example, as it all can be handled and secured on the cloud from the orchestrator. We could easily deploy 20 a week unless we are talking about moving to different locations.

The value of SD-WAN is that it can cover a wide area. Therefore, in most cases, the delay is actually about the delivery of the unit to the location.

Once the hardware arrives at the location and the network connectivity from the provider is ready, it would take just minutes to turn it up. The readiness of the place, the readiness of the connection, and any delays in the delivery due to the courier or the shipper all play a role in how long the deployment will be.

Normally we have two or three people handle deployment.

Usually, we deploy to small branches of ten to 30, depending on the office size.

With us, deployment takes 35 working days. The number of engineers and architects required depends on how many sites you have. You need one engineer per site, as well as one solution architect. Sometimes having two is useful because they can bounce ideas off of each other.

The solution is easily deployed on virtual machines, but the integration process takes time due to the service provider's requirements. The deployment is doable because the solution is developed for the service provider. It's a difficult question because the difficulty is service providers. We have to implement many systems to different platforms and if there are no integration systems, the development is simple.

I helped with the initial setup.

It was not straightforward. It was definitely complex. Especially since it was a new product for us. We had a big learning curve from the get-go. 

Other than that, though, once you understood the setup, although I wouldn't say it was straightforward, it wasn't that difficult.

Implementation was over a six month period. We had to swap out upwards of over 35 different sites. We had to schedule downtime and switch out our infrastructure to support it and then bring it back up. Each side had to be done one at a time, without losing business continuity. It was a bit tedious. 

There was a lot of strategy and preparation that went into the project before we even began the setup. You can only take a site down for a certain amount of time without interrupting people's flow. However, our goal was to keep business as usual at up to 90% so that our clients didn't really notice the changeover.

When you try to build a headend, it is a little bit complex, but after you are able to do that, it is a bit better and straightforward. In terms of duration, Versa headends in HA mode generally require four weeks. For Versa branches, you can do zero-touch provisioning.

In terms of the initial setup, I can't answer that because I am just from the sales side, I don't do the installations, my colleagues do it. What I see from the customers that have installed Versa is that the initial step on the starting configuration is very easy. A half hour or hour. My colleagues who use it here in the company manage it and they have a full version for the configuration.

The issue that is difficult for us is when a customer needs firewall features included and he already has a firewall in place that he asks us to replace and to install the features from Versa. It is very complicated for us because it means more time to install since we need to export all the other features that already have rules in the firewall and to put them in Versa. That takes time.

I have done the implementation multiple times. For me, it is quite easy. It is not so complex if you have the right people to do that initial training.

The deployment of the entire environment might take about two weeks or so if you have the right people, environment, and devices. Within a month, you'd be able to have everything set up if everything is in place.  

How many people you need to deploy the solution depends on the scale of how big you want it and how many customers you're going to have. With a server, I can just build the entire thing on my own. That said, it depends on the scale and the environment that you're going to build it on.

The initial setup was very straightforward. Deployment took a few hours. 

The solution's initial setup is complex in that it's not plug-and-play. You won't face zero-touch provisioning with this solution. Instead, there will be a staging process. It requires certain commands and you need to run it on Linux or Unix.

The solution has some issues with staging, and, if you compare it to other products, you'll see other vendors are much more straightforward. Zillow Clouds and Meraki are two good examples of a straightforward setup.

For myself, I have a technical background. These things are interesting for me, and I'm happy to do it, but on the commercial side of things, the customers don't really want to deal with difficult setups. Usually, however, it's the partner that provisions for the client, so the client never has to really deal with these issues. If you are a partner or a supplier, you'll end up doing this part yourselves. So, for those that know the product, it can be considered straightforward.

After that, users will enjoy a lot of features. 

It only takes about one hour to deploy the solution. I handled the POC myself and I've done some extensive training. I didn't feel comfortable in staging Versa devices. This was a problem. For comparison, if you would like to stage a VeloCloud device, it may take from you 10 minutes, whereas Versa could take about an hour.

If you are facing complications, you need to spend time understanding them before doing the provisioning. It will take some effort to understand the staging process, but it's worth it to take a step back. 

The initial setup was challenging for us. It was a little bit difficult because the customer interface had too much audio which made it challenging. Other than that, it was pretty straightforward.

In terms of deployment, and how long it will take, it depends on the customer requirements. Sometimes it only takes 30 minutes, sometimes it takes an hour. It depends on the configuration.

We have a team of about 16 people who help deploy the solution. You only need two people to maintain the solution once you have everything up and running. 

It has a straightforward setup.

The setup was quite easy and took around a day.