Modern professionals depend more on cloud services, so network reliability and quality are critical. Rather than relying on MPLS circuits, SD-WAN solutions offer cost reductions and scalable bandwidth.
SD-WAN solutions automatically reroute around jitter, latency and packet loss so data is always delivered. They also help optimize bandwidth usage to meet changing business requirements.
Cost-Effectiveness
A managed SD-WAN solution can eliminate the need for on-site technicians to install hardware. Instead, the network is hosted on a cloud-based platform and can be remotely accessed through an internet connection. This provides a low-cost alternative to traditional MPLS networks.
Moreover, it helps reduce recurring network costs and increases network performance, flexibility, and reliability. In addition, SD WAN solutions allow organizations to scale up or down their bandwidth capacity depending on their business needs. This makes them a cost-effective and efficient choice for businesses connecting multiple remote sites.
Another benefit of SD-WAN is its ability to overcome WAN transport problems. A basic SD-WAN solution can direct traffic on an application basis down a single path. If that path fails or is underperforming, it can automatically redirect traffic to a different link without human intervention. This ensures consistent application performance and QoE for users.
Lastly, SD-WAN solutions offer improved network security by eliminating the need for on-premises hardware at each site. Instead, customer premises equipment (CPE) is connected to a central network control system to provide centralized management and policy implementation. This simplifies network security management and enables virtual network functions (VNF) to protect and secure data transmissions. As a result, SD-WAN can significantly reduce the cost of deploying and maintaining a security infrastructure.
Scalability
Unlike the expensive hardware that older solutions require, SD-WANs use software to run on commodity routers and switches. The programmability that underpins the technology enables centralized network management to simplify and automate network functions, reduce complexity and costs and improve agility and performance.
A business-driven SD-WAN can seamlessly handle a total transport outage by providing sub-second failover that averts interruption of mission-critical applications such as voice and video communications. Additionally, it can optimize application policies for both on-premise and cloud applications. Rerouting traffic to the most appropriate WAN link can deliver significant application performance improvements, especially for critical applications, and reduce costs through increased bandwidth efficiency.
In addition to providing better network performance, a business-driven SD-WAN solution can reduce IT expenditures by enabling businesses to connect branch offices directly to the Internet instead of backhauling them over MPLS. This eliminates the expense associated with establishing an MPLS link between the branches and the headquarters, and it also enables traffic to burst over low-cost broadband or wireless WAN (4G/LTE) connections, which are typically much less costly than a traditional MPLS circuit.
In addition, most experts see SD-WANs as a stepping stone technology for integrated management of LANs and branches alongside the wide area network (WAN), and this new approach is called SD-Branch. A great example is Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, which combines an SD-WAN with an NGFW in one appliance and offers zero-touch deployment, multi-platform support, self-healing, and security.
Reliability
Using the Internet to connect branch offices and headquarters to the data center and public cloud services reduces costs by eliminating expensive MPLS links. Moreover, it improves reliability by using multiple routes, preventing the loss of a single connection and improving performance by reducing latency and packet loss.
The ability to prioritize applications with SD-WAN also improves network performance and reliability. For instance, the Lumen system from Fortinet can identify applications such as VoIP and live video conferencing sensitive to network conditions. The system then optimizes these connections by tracking packets to ensure they run steadily, eradicating jitter.
Additionally, many SD-WAN solutions can support a hybrid network environment by leveraging private and public Internet services to offload traffic and improve capacity. This enables the SD-WAN solution to provide high-performance, low-latency connectivity for business-critical applications while reserving private connections for non-critical traffic. This allows companies to make better use of their available bandwidth and improve their WAN infrastructure’s resilience.
Lastly, SD-WAN solutions are flexible and easy to manage. They eliminate the need for manual configuration at network edge devices by utilizing a centralized management system to send policies to routers, which can then be programmed remotely. This helps businesses avoid the cost and burden of keeping a team of networking experts on-site at every location.
Security
With the increasing number of employees working remotely, business IT departments are preparing their networks to give them access to company applications and resources regardless of where they are located. This means upgrading and replacing outdated or expensive WAN connection technologies with commercially-available internet connectivity solutions like MPLS, wireless, broadband, virtual private networks (VPNs), and the cloud/SaaS.
A key advantage of SD-WAN is that it provides secure connectivity over the public Internet, eliminating the need for costly MPLS lines and bandwidth while maintaining the security features required by many compliance regulations. SD-WAN can also optimize traffic through multiple connections, automatically selecting the best route based on performance and cost. In addition, SD-WAN can monitor network conditions and detect problems such as congestion, packet loss, or latency to ensure that application performance remains high.
Additionally, many SD-WAN solutions can optimize the performance of sensitive applications such as voice and video to improve user experience. This is done by prioritizing critical applications requiring low latency and reserving bandwidth for other, less sensitive applications. Lastly, SD-WAN can provide a single management point for all WAN connections. This allows organizations to centrally control firewalls and routers, upgrade firmware and software, and manage connectivity to remote offices via a unified interface.
