SD-WAN uses software to safely and effectively manage services between cloud resources, data centers and offices. It also separates control functions from forwarding functions, centralizes management and uses application-driven traffic routing policies to optimize networking.
Unlike traditional tunnel-based solutions, business-driven SD-WAN can monitor all underlay transport services. This means it can detect and correct network latency, packet loss and jitter that impact user experience.
Cost-Effectiveness
Compared to traditional WAN connectivity technologies like MPLS, SD-WAN can offer greater cost-effectiveness. Unlike MPLS, which requires expensive, dedicated circuits, SD-WAN allows organizations to choose which inexpensive Internet service providers (ISPs) they want to use at each location. In addition, SD-WAN can mix and match various connection technologies intelligently, boosting performance at each site.
Another way that SD-WAN can reduce costs is by enabling organizations to right-size their WAN infrastructures. Instead of using one or two expensive MPLS circuits, SD-WAN can use a combination of cheaper Internet circuits and more robust ones that provide redundancy in the event of a failure.
The benefit of this networking approach can be measured in terms of increased employee productivity and reduced staff time required to troubleshoot connectivity problems. Depending on the business, this can be a significant value-add.
Moreover, many advanced SD-WAN solutions can dynamically shape bandwidth allocations based on applications flowing through the network. This allows organizations to control their bandwidth better and optimize it for quality of service requirements. It also eliminates the need to define bandwidth allocations, reducing costs manually.
Security
In today’s digital world, network performance is critical to delivering the applications and experiences that keep organizations agile and productive. As a result, many organizations are deploying software-defined vast area network (SD-WAN) solutions to improve their network capabilities.
SD-WAN allows organizations to simplify their WAN architecture by replacing costly MPLS circuits and local Internet offloading while getting user traffic closer to cloud services. It also enables real-time traffic monitoring, which helps to improve network performance.
Despite the countless benefits, however, organizations should consider the security of SD WAN connectivity before investing in it. Encryption alone isn’t enough; enterprises need a comprehensive security strategy to protect data from hackers.
A critical security element is the network perimeter, a challenge exacerbated by network infrastructure evolution. Traditional WANs have required traffic to be backhauled to a central data center where it would be inspected for security purposes, which can introduce delays and negatively impact application performance.
SD-WAN technology uses an overlay network to separate networking hardware from the control pane to solve this issue. It relies on a centralized controller to set policies the overlay network can act upon to optimize signals for various performance needs.
The software-defined overlay network also enables managers to prioritize applications and traffic flows based on their performance requirements and route traffic through the best transport available for each application’s specific needs. This reduces congestion on the network and increases bandwidth efficiency and application performance, boosting end-user satisfaction.
Scalability
Increasingly, businesses are expanding their networks to branch offices and remote sites and supporting cloud infrastructure and applications. These expansions require a high-performance, secure network connection to ensure employees can access corporate resources anywhere.
Traditionally, WANs relied on multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) circuits to provide this type of connectivity. However, MPLS links are expensive and have limited scalability.
With SD-WAN, users can directly access the Internet through the data center to improve performance and reduce the burden on the backbone WAN. It enables secure, low-cost local Internet breakout of cloud and branch office traffic, minimizing the cost and complexity of routing data.
This also allows businesses to prioritize traffic by setting specific Quality of Service (quality of service) policies for each application, ensuring they get the speed and bandwidth needed. This eliminates the need for packet loss and latency jitter while improving the quality of experience for applications.
This allows companies to support digital technologies like voice-over IP, telehealth and IoT without disrupting business operations. In addition, it can help companies repurpose existing network resources and connect new branches, sites or locations on-net for business applications. It can also enable centralized monitoring of all connections and allow for granular reporting across last-mile and middle-mile paths for each application.
Automation
The ability to automatically control network connectivity can improve performance by preventing various issues, including slowdowns or drops. This is especially helpful for remote employees who need to access applications and resources away from their offices.
In addition, centralized management control can also streamline maintenance logistics by cutting down on callbacks and repairs. This can reduce labor costs, reducing the need to hire on-site IT specialists.
Another way that SD-WAN can improve network performance is through dynamic traffic pathing, enabling organizations to direct traffic to specific cloud applications and servers while avoiding unnecessary backhauling or routing. This allows business-critical applications to run smoothly even during peak utilization, boosting overall scale and reliability.
Basic SD-WANs typically steer traffic using pre-defined rules, which can be programmed with templates. However, a business-driven SD-WAN continuously monitors and learns to optimize application performance under all conditions, such as congestion and when transport outages occur.
Moreover, a business-driven SD-WAN also offers end-to-end orchestration for a unified platform that unifies firewall, segmentation, routing, WAN optimization and visibility and control functions. This enables enterprises to quickly deploy new applications, security policies or quality of service changes without spending time in a manual deployment process.
Lastly, SD-WAN can provide artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps). This can help automate tasks like anomaly detection and event correlation, allowing IT specialists to respond quickly to potential problems. This can significantly lower support costs and improve productivity.
