SD-WAN allows IT to use low-cost internet connections while maximizing bandwidth for mission-critical applications. It also streamlines security through micro-segmentation and application visibility.
The technology reduces IT costs with simplified deployment, cuts provisioning time, boosts branch uptime, and more. It also enables business agility with simplified management and policy configuration.
Reduced Downtime
Many businesses require a dependable network to ensure productivity and customer satisfaction. But, when a company’s network slows down, employees become frustrated, and business operations suffer. SD-WAN reduces downtime by delivering performance and security at an unprecedented scale.
To prevent network issues, the solution optimizes traffic by identifying critical applications and prioritizing them over multiple paths. This ensures that these services receive the bandwidth they need to run smoothly. Additionally, if a primary connection fails, SD-WAN reroutes traffic from another available path, reducing downtime and disruptions.
Retail companies, for example, need a reliable network that enables them to transmit personally identifiable information and credit card data between their locations. An SD-WAN system with security features like encryption and next-generation firewalls can keep data secure while protecting against cyberattacks. Lastly, the best solution provides a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for non-technical users to navigate and use. Moreover, it allows IT teams to complete basic operations in moments rather than days, reducing their time on management tasks.
Enhanced Security
Managing the massive amount of data that travels over the WAN is challenging and can lead to security issues. In addition, if the network isn’t performing well, it can take longer for critical business applications to communicate and access cloud-based services. As such, it is essential to prioritize traffic. With adequately configured SD WAN solutions, businesses can automatically route mission-critical data to the most reliable, high-performance connections. This can help address performance bottlenecks, reduce latency, and improve employee productivity.
As the workforce becomes more distributed, security is more critical than ever. Many traditional WAN solutions channel traffic back to corporate headquarters (HQ) over MPLS connections typically secured by firewalls and IPS. With an SD-WAN solution, a business can connect remote locations directly to the Internet and offload traffic from centralized networks to save costs while improving reliability and resiliency. An advanced SD-WAN solution can also improve security by providing centralized management capabilities for traffic inspection and offloading, intelligent routing and path selection, and more. This helps prevent configuration errors that can increase the risk of an attack and decrease overall application performance.
Better Application Performance
In addition to boosting application performance, SD-WAN enables business-critical apps to connect reliably and securely across networks. This allows the WAN to use various connection types, including broadband internet and LTE, for optimal network bandwidth and performance.
IT teams can configure SD-WAN to prioritize and steer business-critical traffic and real-time services like VoIP through reliable, high-performance connections. This helps reduce issues like latency and jitter, boosting employee productivity and morale. An SD-WAN solution can help businesses optimize IT costs by reducing the amount of data that travels over the WAN. It can achieve this by replacing costly old telephone service (POTS) lines or multi-label protocol switching (MPLS) architectures with low-cost broadband internet connections. By leveraging dynamic routing, optimizing data, and offloading non-critical traffic to broadband, an SD-WAN can help businesses lower IT operating expenses without sacrificing performance. A well-implemented SD-WAN solution can streamline IT processes and reduce the need for on-site personnel at remote sites. This can cut down on IT costs, freeing up resources to focus on digital transformation initiatives and helping organizations deliver on their anytime, anywhere work promise. An SD-WAN’s centralized control function and automation capabilities can make deploying new technology in remote locations easier, offload applications, reroute traffic through alternative routes, and streamline monitoring efforts.
Scalability
Another perk of SD-WAN is the ability to flexibly manage your network and connect your employees, devices, and cloud applications from multiple locations without losing control of your environment. This is possible thanks to its WAN optimization features. These solutions prioritize critical data and route it to the best-performing path, ensuring a better user experience while reducing bandwidth usage. Traditional WAN architecture added latency to cloud-based workflows and impacted performance because of rigid traffic flow predetermined by the network design, with no room for variation. With SD-WAN, you can secure direct Internet access for all your cloud applications. This allows workers to connect remotely with a single connection optimized for each application, eliminating the need to backhaul traffic across the WAN and lowering costs. Getting started with a physical or virtual SD-WAN device is easy and fast. Unlike MPLS, these solutions do not require installing and maintaining routers at each site, saving you time and money. In addition, these solutions offer features like automated zero-touch provisioning. When you add a new branch office, the appliance will “phone home” to the central management system and automatically configure itself for its location and initial IP addresses. This saves you a lot of time and eliminates the risk of configuration errors.
