What’s all the Hype about SD-WAN Anyways?

The challenges.

Cloud adoption has dramatically impacted how organizations are accessing applications, and the rate at which we see “cloud” being consumed is only increasing.  Leveraging cloud-based applications improves the speed of deployment, providing more cost control, and simplifying management. But, before you move all your applications to the cloud, it is imperative to address the network.

Although internet access is significantly more cost-effective than private circuits (MPLS, VPLS, Point to Points), there are many reasons why it has always been a challenge. Security, reliability, and network performance have always been the limiting factors. In addition, the availability of access can also be a deterrent from using public access.

Another challenge that some companies may face is that their network was built to backhaul internet traffic through the data center to simplify security. Adding cloud-based solutions to this architecture can tax the available network bandwidth and it can be expensive to increase the bandwidth.  Leveraging this architecture also adds complexity and latency when accessing cloud applications.

The last challenge we see facing many organizations is the growth strategy. As organizations look to bring on new branch offices, lead times for deploying a private circuit can take months of planning and deployment.  With the additional complexity and the need to work closely with the providers, this can cause some serious frustrations.

So how does an SD-WAN solution solve these challenges?

SD-WAN provides a simplified approach to effectively connecting the WAN. The intelligent software decouples the data plane and control plane, making it easier than ever to deploy branch offices. With minimal to zero-touch deployments, SD-WAN  can quickly and effectively build private networks leveraging the public internet while staying secure, providing more advanced business intelligence, and reducing time to deployment.

Leveraging SD-WAN to build your network allows for more flexibility in deployment options also. It can be deployed in conjunction with an existing network or as a standalone.

Whether you decide to augment your existing MPLS circuits or aggregate multiple internet circuits (regardless of type), SD-WAN can intelligently route traffic based on specific application performance requirements.

Since most SD-WAN solutions operate at layer 7, it also provides deep packet inspection operating as a branch office firewall for additional security.

For those relying on MPLS to deliver mission-critical applications like voice, SD-WAN has features like forward error correction, path steering, and a link aggregation. This helps provide enterprise-level networking services at a fraction of the cost.

How to determine if SD-WAN is right for your business?

At MicroAge, we take pride in understanding industry shifts with the goal of remaining at the forefront of new technology trends to better assist our clients. With all the benefits that a software-defined solution offers, it will continue to be widely adopted for many organizations.

So, ask yourself the following:

• Are we looking to reduce WAN costs?
• Do we need to improve application performance traversing the WAN?
• Do we need to speed up and simplify branch office deployments?
• Do we need more bandwidth?
• Do we want more control of our WAN environment?
• Do we need to have more network visibility and business intelligence?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, you can contact us to learn more about SD-WAN and what it can do for you.

Learn about SD-WAN from VeloCloud in ‘Cloud-Delivered WAN…in 2 Minutes’.