Whether growing your business or expanding to remote locations, you need reliable, cost-efficient WAN connectivity. Learn about SD-WAN, which can provide scalability to accommodate your growing workforce and application performance needs.
Unlike basic internet VPNs, SD-WAN technology includes advanced traffic optimization and centralized management capabilities. This improves performance and enables you to scale without sacrificing security.
Scalability
As more applications are deployed in the cloud, and employees use video conferencing, enterprise bandwidth demand continues to increase. SD-WAN can help optimize performance and reduce costs by routing traffic over multiple network connections. It can also improve application performance and reliability, especially in remote locations.
Unlike traditional WAN architectures, which rely on MPLS connections, SD-WAN can support virtualized WAN connections over the Internet or private broadband links. These connections are more cost-effective than dedicated MPLS lines and can be scalable to meet growing business demands. Additionally, SD-WAN can monitor the quality of connections and direct traffic to the best one based on business priority and performance.
This is made possible by a feature called Dynamic Multi-Path Optimization. This feature monitors the quality of each physical connection at the branch office and steers traffic to the best link based on business priorities. It can also provide redundancy by sending low-priority data over public connections while reserving MPLS circuits for high-priority traffic.
Another benefit of SD-WAN is its ability to automate and simplify network configuration. The technology uses a central control function to deploy and update policies at multiple sites, which can save time and resources. Additionally, SD-WAN can provide more flexibility by using lower-cost broadband or 4G connectivity for backhauling to the data center instead of expensive MPLS circuits.
Flexibility
Whether your business is expanding, adding new remote locations, or increasing the number of users accessing Cloud-based applications, an SD-WAN offers a cost-effective upgrade. However, knowing what you’re getting into before investing in this technology is important. A qualified system integrator (SI) will help you determine which solutions best fit your needs.
This technology makes it easy for companies to add new connections to branch offices, improve performance across existing links and reduce costs. In addition, it provides greater network agility and flexibility. This allows businesses to increase bandwidth based on real-time application usage and respond quickly to changes in business requirements. It also gives them the flexibility to move away from costly MPLS circuits and rely on Internet-based connectivity, which is a significant saving for many organizations.
SD-WANs can also improve network security. They support centralized configuration, enabling IT staff to set policies and see how they’re applied to different network devices. This ensures all sites run the same configuration and eliminates network configuration drift. Additionally, it helps companies minimize the risk of outages and lost productivity due to WAN failures.
Retail, healthcare, and financial services businesses need a high-performing WAN to serve customers. They must send sales financial data securely and provide fast access to critical information. With a robust and secure SD-WAN, these organizations can deliver this service without any performance or security issues.
Security
Modern multimedia applications such as videoconferencing, cloud services, and gaming require low latency and high-performance bandwidth. Unfortunately, traditional WAN technology is not well equipped to handle these demands.
The SD-WAN solution provides centralized control capabilities and automated monitoring to improve network performance, security, and reliability. These tools can prioritize traffic over a private connection like MPLS or use local Internet for less critical applications, which reduces costs and boosts speed and reliability. Additionally, an SD-WAN can provide a unified platform to deliver business services such as voice, data, and video over a single connection.
An SD-WAN can also provide better security by encrypting traffic to protect against malicious attacks. This protection is especially crucial when using public Wi-Fi, where hackers could intercept data. SD-WAN solutions offer multiple levels of encryption, so unauthorized parties cannot read sensitive information.
An SD-WAN can also improve WAN resilience by combining private and public connections to create a hybrid networking environment. If one circuit fails, another can pick up the load without losing traffic. This feature is important for businesses deploying IoT devices, which generate large amounts of data and can potentially be compromised by malware. To ensure that IoT devices are safe, an SD-WAN can secure them with a virtual firewall and IPSec tunneling.
Cost
SD-WAN reduces the costs of maintaining and upgrading a network by enabling it to run over the Internet instead of traditional MPLS circuits. It also eliminates the need to install on-premises devices and provides a simpler infrastructure that is easy to scale. This enables companies to save on IT infrastructure costs, which is important for small businesses and start-ups with limited capital. Additionally, the SD-WAN platform reduces daily fire-fighting on non-critical issues that IT teams spend hours resolving. This frees up time to focus on innovation and business growth.
The benefits of SD-WAN include increased productivity, improved security and data privacy, and a seamless on-ramp to the cloud. The solution also helps organizations avoid costly downtime. A single hour of downtime can cost a business over $300,000 in lost revenue and remediation costs.
With a centralized management system, it’s easier to implement policies and ensure that the right connections are made. However, it’s important to consider the capabilities of different providers and their SLAs, reach, latency, and jitter performance before selecting an SD-WAN provider.
In addition, if your organization uses a third-party managed services provider for its SD-WAN, paying for the service on a per-user basis may be more cost-effective than paying a fixed fee for each site. This way, you can keep your IT team focused on more innovative projects and reduce recurring costs associated with managing a wide area network.
