Achieve better business application performance with SD-WAN. This WAN solution allows for the interconnection of branch offices through flexible combinations of MPLS, Internet, 4G LTE and 5G links. It also eliminates backhauling traffic created in branches to a central security point, which causes latency and impairs application performance. The result is improved application performance and reduced costs.
Enhanced Control
Unlike basic SD-WAN solutions that use pre-programmed rules, business-driven SD-WANs continuously monitor and self-learn. It allows them to react to real-time network congestion, brownouts and transport impairments. As a result, they can deliver optimal application performance and consistent quality of experience even when underlay transport services are compromised. A centralized control function allows teams to manage all their sites and devices from a single pane of glass interface. It helps simplify device management, making deploying templates and updating operating systems easier for more robust capabilities, such as traffic shaping. Centralized control also simplifies the management of edge devices by reducing or eliminating the need to configure each gateway and router on an individual basis manually. It can help reduce operational costs, improve security and ensure all policies are executed as intended.
An added benefit of an SD-WAN solution is that it can increase the reliability and availability of cloud-based applications by routing traffic over multiple paths. If one route becomes congested, the other will be available to carry the data. It can improve performance and reduce the latency of applications that rely on cloud infrastructure and storage. Some SD-WAN architecture providers offer additional support by providing a backbone connection that enables organizations to route their traffic directly to the provider’s private fiber-optic network. Applications linked to cloud service providers may benefit from a decrease in latency and an increase in performance.
WAN Optimization
As an evolution of WAN optimization, SD-WAN improves network performance within the existing architecture by leveraging existing transport media and restructuring the infrastructure. Unlike WAN optimization, which merely optimizes how data is transferred over the WAN, it is far more encompassing. It can provide cost benefits by improving bandwidth, quality of service, application prioritization, and more. One of the most significant improvements of SD-WAN is that it allows multiple last-mile connections to be used as a pool for traffic, increasing availability and redundancy. Instead of relying on just a few leased lines, many different internet connections can be used to connect your branches to the enterprise headquarters. It makes it much easier to replace a failed or underperforming connection quickly and easily.
A key element of SD-WAN is that it can automatically provision application policies that align with business intent. It allows for granular traffic control by identifying applications, users, and their associated characteristics. These are translated into operational rules downloaded to the individual gateways and routers under the SD-WAN’s control. Then, traffic is steered onto the best available path to meet application SLAs. Several techniques are used to achieve this, including dynamic path selection, where packets are steered to the best route based on traffic characteristics; quality of service, which prioritizes the transmission of certain types of data over others; and scalable data referencing, where repeated requests for the same data are sent only once and then retrieved from local caches.
Enhanced Security
Unlike traditional hub-and-spoke networks, which have routers at every site and need to send techs to each location to troubleshoot and update, an SD-WAN eliminates this requirement. It makes it much easier for IT teams to deploy, configure and monitor all components from a central location. Another essential aspect of an SD-WAN is security, which includes a comprehensive set of security features that help enterprises to protect sensitive data and ensure compliance with corporate policies. These include firewall protection, threat detection and mitigation, and identity-based access control.
Additionally, an SD-WAN can automatically detect and prioritize cloud applications for better performance. It helps enterprises save expensive MPLS circuits for less critical traffic and reduces latency and packet loss, which boosts application performance. A business-driven SD-WAN can also handle a transport outage seamlessly and provide sub-second failover. It minimizes the impact on mission-critical apps and improves productivity for users. With a cloud-enabled SD-WAN, you can connect to the best network path in real-time. It forwards internet- and cloud-bound traffic to branch offices without backhauling, which lowers latency, improves bandwidth efficiency and boosts application performance. This feature is especially important for enterprises with Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications hosted in multiple public and private clouds.
Enhanced Visibility
A key benefit of SD-WAN is enhanced visibility, allowing IT teams to monitor application performance, prioritize traffic and ensure compliance. It also enables organizations to reduce network costs by routing traffic over less expensive links. For instance, enterprises can use MPLS to carry business-critical applications and secure broadband connections to run non-business-critical services. As a result, businesses can improve performance for SaaS and cloud applications by increasing reliability and boosting security. It helps employees stay productive regardless of internet connectivity or location, including when working from home, on the road or at a coffee shop. An organization’s choice of SD-WAN deployment models determines how much control it has over the system. Self-managed SD-WAN architecture allows IT to handle the setup and management in-house. Co-managed SD-WAN architecture assigns responsibility for certain system elements, such as security policies and application-routing preferences, to a service provider. An enterprise should consider its preferred deployment model before investing in an SD-WAN solution. In addition to the deployment model, organizations must recognize their unique needs and how well an SD-WAN solution matches those. For example, some enterprises may need to deploy a physical appliance at headquarters or branch offices. Others, however, could like a virtual solution set up on universal customer premises equipment (uCPE) or in the cloud.
