Barko Fortifies 210+ Branches and 700 WAN Links

The Challenge: Managing Security and Uptime at a National Scale

For a leading financial institution like Barko, with over 210 branches serving communities across South Africa, network performance is business performance. Any downtime at a branch means transactions halt, customer service suffers, and productivity grinds to a stop.

Barko faced a triple challenge common to distributed enterprises:

Ensuring Unbreakable Connectivity: How to guarantee every branch stays online, even with unreliable local internet, to process loans and serve customers without interruption.

Maintaining Ironclad Security: How to protect sensitive financial data as it travels between sites and enforce consistent security policies across every single location.

Controlling Operational Costs: How to manage a complex network of hundreds of devices without spiraling operational overhead and dependency on expensive, rigid MPLS links.

They needed a partner who could provide a solution that was not just stable and secure, but also efficient and scalable enough to support their continued growth.

The Solution: A Centralized, Intelligent SD-WAN Fabric

Barko chose Altostrat to centralize and modernize its entire wide-area network. Across its 210+ branches, Altostrat now centrally manages nearly 700 individual WAN links, transforming a complex collection of sites into a unified, intelligent, and secure network fabric.

Altostrat’s platform delivered a multi-faceted solution to address Barko's key challenges:

Intelligent WAN Failover Management: Altostrat continuously monitors the health of every one of the ~700 WAN links in real-time. The platform's intelligent failover mechanism automatically reroutes traffic to a backup line the instant a primary connection fails or degrades, ensuring seamless business continuity.

Secure Inter-Branch VPN Fabric: Altostrat deployed a secure VPN fabric connecting all 210+ branches. This secures all data in transit between locations with end-to-end encryption, eliminating the need for complex, manually configured tunnels and providing a secure foundation for internal communications.

Centralized DNS Content Filtering: To protect against web-based threats and enforce acceptable use policies, Altostrat’s content filtering was deployed across the network. This allows Barko’s IT team to block malicious or inappropriate websites from a single policy, which is then instantly enforced at every branch.

Unified Orchestration Portal: All these capabilities—failover, VPN, and security policies—are managed from Altostrat’s single pane of glass, giving Barko’s IT team unprecedented visibility and control.

The Results: Uptime, Efficiency, and a Foundation for Compliance

Since implementing Altostrat, Barko has experienced a significant, measurable transformation in its network operations and security posture.

1. Measurable Reduction in Downtime

Thanks to the automated WAN failover across nearly 700 links, service disruptions have been minimized. The platform's resilience ensures continuous uptime for critical branch operations, translating directly into improved employee productivity and better service delivery for Barko’s customers.

2. Drastic Improvement in Operational Efficiency

The centralized portal has been a game-changer. The ability to manage the entire network's connectivity, VPN status, and security policies from a single point of control has saved valuable time, reduced manual effort, and significantly lowered operational overhead.

3. Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Altostrat’s solution enabled Barko to optimize bandwidth usage and reduce its dependency on expensive, legacy MPLS links without sacrificing performance. These efficiencies have contributed meaningfully to a lower TCO for their network infrastructure.

4. Enhanced Security and Compliance Readiness

This has been one of the most critical outcomes. With end-to-end encrypted VPNs and consistent content filtering policies deployed instantly to all sites, Barko established a uniform and auditable security posture.

As Magnus van der Merwe, IT Manager at Barko, states:

Why Altostrat? A Partnership Built on Trust and Performance

For Barko, the decision came down to more than just technology. They found a strategic partner deeply committed to their success. Altostrat consistently exceeded expectations with outstanding responsiveness, proactive support, and a clear understanding of the unique demands of the financial services industry.

By providing a secure, resilient, and cost-effective SD-WAN solution, Altostrat has empowered Barko to focus on its core business, confident that its network infrastructure is robust, secure, and ready for the future.