Financial Institution

Case Study: Financial Institution Transforms WAN Connectivity with Fortinet SD-WAN

SERVICES

Network Administration, Network Security, Cybersecurity

CLIENT

DATE

-

Client Overview

A major regional financial institution approached Sunisle to modernize its wide-area network (WAN) infrastructure. The client operated several branches and data centres connected via a FLOW Metro-E WAN—a dependable but increasingly costly and bandwidth-limited solution.

As digital banking and inter-branch data demands grew, the existing Metro-E setup could no longer meet performance and cost-efficiency targets.

The Challenge

The institution faced growing operational challenges:

High monthly Metro-E circuit costs
Limited bandwidth scalability between branches and data centres
Slow provisioning for new branches or capacity upgrades
Minimal visibility into traffic and performance
Latency spikes during peak transaction hours

They needed a secure, high-performance, and cost-effective alternative that could handle modern banking workloads while maintaining strict data security standards.

Our Solution

After conducting a detailed network assessment, Sunisle recommended replacing the legacy Metro-E infrastructure with Fortinet FortiGate Next Generation Firewalls (NGFW), using Secure SD-WAN and ADVPN (Auto-Discovery VPN) technologies.

Key Features:

Intelligent SD-WAN Routing: Dynamically selects the best available link based on latency, jitter, and packet loss.
Automated ADVPN: Establishes on-demand VPN tunnels between branches for efficient and secure data exchange.
Centralized Management: FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer provide unified visibility, reporting, and policy enforcement.
Scalable Architecture: New branches can now be securely connected in hours instead of weeks.

Implementation

Our team:

Designed a hybrid WAN architecture combining multiple Internet connections with FortiGate firewalls.
Conducted pilot testing at the head office and a branch site.
Migrated all branches and data centres to the SD-WAN environment with zero service downtime.
Deployed monitoring dashboards for real-time network visibility.

Results

The transformation delivered measurable benefits:

30–40% reduction in recurring WAN costs
2× increase in available bandwidth
Enhanced uptime and automatic link failover
Reduced latency for inter-branch data transfers
Centralized visibility and simplified network management

The Outcome

By partnering with Sunisle, the financial institution successfully transitioned from an expensive, rigid Metro-E solution to a secure, adaptive, and cost-efficient Fortinet SD-WAN architecture.

This modernization improved performance, reduced operational expenses, and positioned the institution for future growth and cloud readiness.

Technologies Used

At A Glance

This modernization improved performance, reduced operational expenses, and positioned the institution for future growth and cloud readiness.

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Founded with a mission to deliver innovative, secure, and reliable technology services across the Caribbean, Sunisle Technology Solutions has built a reputation as a trusted IT partner for financial institutions, corporate enterprises, and government agencies.