Traditionally, networking professionals have used routers to connect remote users to applications. However, this process is manual, time-consuming, and prone to error.
SD-WAN improves application performance by optimizing WAN and steering traffic across multiple paths dynamically. It also simplifies cloud migration and enables the hybrid workplace by providing out-of-the-box direct connectivity to SaaS providers.
Basics
Essentially, SD-WAN makes better use of existing network resources by using broadband Internet connections for the bulk of traffic. This frees up more expensive and higher-performance network connections for business-critical applications. It also enables branch offices to reach local Points of Presence for cloud services rather than having to backhaul the traffic to a data center.
In addition, software-defined wide area networking or SD-WAN has also become a platform for deploying and managing various network security functions. Gartner coined the term Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) to describe this new approach, which combines SD-WAN with necessary cloud-delivered security functions like Zero Trust and CASB into a single model businesses can manage through an intuitive control plane.
One of the most significant benefits of a business-driven SD-WAN solution is its ability to dynamically utilize multiple types of WAN connectivity for optimal performance and reliability. Essential solutions direct traffic on an application basis, but a full-featured SD-WAN can utilize MPLS alongside the Internet and even mobile networks by using tunneling technology to make them all appear as one. This enables flexibility and allows for the intelligent routing of network traffic so connections are optimized for application performance. It can also handle complete transport outages seamlessly by providing sub-second failover without interrupting applications. This can improve WAN bandwidth utilization, help businesses save on the cost of additional MPLS capacity, and make better use of broadband and mobile data connectivity.
Benefits
When it comes to the business benefits of SD-WAN, increased application performance and higher reliability are at the top of the list. These improvements are critical to increasing employee productivity, customer satisfaction and reducing operational costs.
SD-WAN provides a more flexible network connection and can connect to the cloud with less costly bandwidth, improve security, and provide greater efficiency and scalability. In addition, the technology can be augmented with virtual network functions or VNFs to add functionality like firewalls and load balancing without needing additional hardware.
Another benefit of SD-WAN is a more reliable network with less downtime. This is especially important for industries that rely on applications for day-to-day operations, such as healthcare and financial services. A single hour of downtime can cost organizations an average of thousand dollars in lost revenue and employee productivity. SD-WAN can ensure uninterrupted connectivity and higher uptime with diverse access in an active/active architecture and intelligent routing that optimizes bandwidth based on business needs.
It can also reduce expensive MPLS circuits by enabling broadband and mobile connections, resulting in significant savings. The technology can also make it easier to move to the cloud, allowing branches to direct traffic directly to the cloud instead of backhauling it to the corporate data center. This eliminates latency, increases performance, and can help improve remote work and employee mobility.
Integrations
SD-WAN encrypts data so only you can access it, even if someone intercepts the packets as they travel across the Internet. This provides secure connectivity for sensitive applications, especially those that use cloud-based services to support customer engagement.
SD-WAN also uses multiple internet connections to ensure reliable network bandwidth. When one connection experiences an issue, traffic will automatically be routed through another, avoiding costly outages and lost productivity. This is especially important for businesses that operate in remote locations, such as restaurant chains or retail stores, where there may be limited IT staff to serve customers.
In addition to routing, SD-WAN can deliver several other performance enhancements that improve the end-user experience and lower costs. These include WAN optimization, which reduces latency and packet loss by optimizing specific application types, and advanced traffic steering that detects congestion and routes traffic around it.
Finally, many SD-WAN solutions offer a single-pane-of-glass portal for monitoring and managing the entire network from a central location. This simplifies administration, reduces manual effort, and improves visibility, providing a unified experience for all users.
Security
As businesses embrace the modern era of knowledge workers and cloud-based applications, it is essential to ensure that these applications have optimal network delivery. A bottleneck at the WAN can diminish employee productivity and lead to a negative impact on customer experience.
SD-WANs offer various solutions that support WAN efficiency, performance, and reliability. These include WAN optimization, application-aware routing, intelligent load balancing, and packet loss remediation. In addition, business-driven SD-WANs allow for priority layers that prioritize data based on class and other customizable criteria. This helps to eliminate latency, jitter, and packet loss, ensuring that critical applications are always delivered with the highest quality.
Another way SD-WANs help to enhance WAN performance is through packet recovery, which uses backup information that travels with data. This information is called parity and allows data to be restored even if some packets are lost during transmission. SD-WAN can also optimize WAN by using compression and deduplication to reduce the amount of data that must be transmitted over long distances, thus reducing cost and improving performance.
Finally, business-driven SD-WANs can respond to changing business requirements in real-time. This means that resources can be automatically redeployed from less-critical apps if an application requires more bandwidth without someone manually intervening. This is possible because a next-gen SD-WAN understands individual applications’ SLA requirements and can translate them into policies the network adheres to. This all happens from a single, easy-to-use dashboard.
