SD-WAN reduces costs, particularly for businesses that rely heavily on cloud applications. Companies gain transport independence and shave operating expenses when they rely on low-cost Internet connections instead of expensive MPLS links for application backhauling.
One of the benefits of SD-WAN is that IT teams can also save time because they don’t need to implement and scale configurations manually. They can do this through centralized management and zero-touch provisioning.
Scalability
If your organization has multiple locations and relies on multi- or hybrid-cloud technologies, you fit the profile of a business considering SD-WAN. The technology improves WAN scalability and performance and offers a cost-effective upgrade to MPLS connections.
SD-WAN dynamically routes traffic over network paths based on priority, real-time applications, and bandwidth availability. This allows for centralized policy management and unified orchestration and automation from one platform. Zero-touch provisioning also simplifies the device configuration process.
IT teams spend less time on everyday toil, freeing them to focus more on projects that can drive business productivity and innovation. Maintaining network uptime is critical to achieving employee satisfaction and company profitability (2020 SoNAR-State of Network Automation Report). SD-WAN reduces IT burden by simplifying WAN infrastructure, using broadband to offload noncritical business apps, automating monitoring efforts, and managing traffic through a centralized control point. Zero-touch provisioning is also available, making it easy for remote sites to connect and manage without managed without the need for IT personnel on-site on site. The result is higher application performance, enhanced security, and unified management.
When networks are down, it impacts revenue, customer confidence, brand reputation, and operational efficiency. By enabling a more diverse access approach with SD-WAN, IT teams can ensure that business-critical services receive unstoppable uptime. The technology enables them to offload traffic destined for cloud applications to internet broadband or wireless WAN (4G, 5G) connections, thus saving on expensive MPLS circuits without sacrificing quality or stability.
Security
With traditional networking, traffic created at a branch office or on a remote device travels back to headquarters through the internet and goes through a corporate firewall. This is called “backhauling,” it can compromise security and slow performance, especially if there are network problems.
SD-WAN offers more control and visibility over networks with centralized policy management and zero-touch provisioning. It can also prioritize data traffic, and move voice or video over low-latency, high-bandwidth links while using cheaper local internet for less critical business data.
SD-WAN can collect performance and traffic management data at the user, application, and device levels to help with real-time optimization, traffic shaping, and troubleshooting. This visibility can help IT teams align technology with business goals and objectives. Ideally, an SD-WAN solution will offer secure APIs to integrate with a security information and event management (SIEM) system for a tighter security ecosystem. It should also support a trusted platform module (TPM) and enable multifactor authentication to protect encryption keys and sensitive data. A good SD-WAN will also ensure that management channels are encrypted to safeguard the data further and prevent unauthorized access.
Flexibility
Whether in the office, at home, or on the go, employees need to be able to access corporate applications. SD-WAN is a powerful solution, providing secure and reliable access to business networks. It uses multiple connections to create a virtual network, ensuring that traffic will be routed over the most reliable path. This means that even if one connection goes down, traffic can be routed through other connections, keeping business operations up and running.
Using SD-WAN, organizations can prioritize mission-critical traffic and real-time data services over lower-priority traffic. This approach helps to reduce latency and enhance application performance. As a result, employee productivity increases, and customer satisfaction improves.
SD-WAN can also reduce operating costs by leveraging low-cost broadband connections, offloading non-critical business apps, and automating monitoring and management efforts. These savings can add up to significant cost reductions over time. Additionally, an SD-WAN can provide a more flexible network that can quickly adapt to changing business needs. This flexibility is critical to the success of digital transformation initiatives.
Efficiency
Traditionally, organizations used hub-and-spoke models to connect remote locations and branches to applications hosted in their data centers. These connections were backed up by dedicated MPLS circuits, often resulting in costly backhauling for business-critical traffic. Backhauling also increased latency, decreased application performance, and reduced visibility.
With SD-WAN, WAN simplification and the ability to leverage low-cost access to replace costly MPLS circuits reduce operating costs while providing bandwidth efficiency, application performance improvements (especially for cloud environments), and more reliable connectivity. This is a major benefit to the organization’s business performance, customer satisfaction, and overall profitability.
Additionally, businesses that leverage an SD-WAN solution can automatically prioritize mission-critical and real-time business network traffic, ensuring they are routed to the highest quality and most reliable connections. This helps to avoid lag times that can result in lost productivity and revenue while also helping to mitigate security risks. By implementing SD-WAN, IT teams can enjoy the benefits of centralized management and automated monitoring. This can free them up from mundane tasks such as site installations and rollouts, allowing them to focus on more important business functions that require their expertise. Ultimately, this saves valuable time and resources for the team.