Global enterprises need a new kind of connectivity for remote workers. Specifically, they need cost-effective, value-driven, and flexible options that deliver dependable performance. Secure SD-WAN offers that. It combines WAN optimization with software intelligence to help IT prioritize application traffic and manage bandwidth. This helps improve application performance, reliability, and security.
Cost
Work-from-home (WFH) and remote workforces have increased connectivity needs that exceed traditional WAN capabilities. With SD WAN solutions, businesses can quickly scale up bandwidth to support remote working and other business applications. The business value of SD-WAN extends beyond delivering optimal performance and enhanced data security. It also saves companies money by replacing costly MPLS circuits, backhauling, and other expensive WAN infrastructure costs. SD-WAN provides a better user experience by prioritizing traffic and keeping track of network conditions to ensure high-priority applications remain available. This improves collaboration and productivity for WFH and remote employees. A good SD-WAN solution optimizes applications sensitive to latency and packet loss. This means a user’s experience will be as close to what it is in the office, even when working remotely or traveling on business.
Optimal Performance
Employees need reliable access as business operations become increasingly distributed and reliant on cloud-based applications. With SD-WAN, applications perform more reliably and with less downtime as data travels over multiple channels simultaneously using optimum bandwidth allocation. It can also prioritize critical applications for optimal performance. In addition, SD-WAN enables organizations to save on networking costs by leveraging cost-effective internet connections for underlay networks rather than more expensive MPLS links. This can significantly reduce WAN infrastructure costs and lower overall networking spending. When paired with a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), SD-WAN can support network security technologies such as Firewall as a Service (FWaaS), Secure Web Gateways (SWG), and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). This unified platform with software intelligence allows remote workers to access applications seamlessly and securely from anywhere with a connection. It can even handle a total transport outage with sub-second failover to a backup link, avoiding interruptions in business-critical applications and services. This enables organizations to achieve higher productivity and customer satisfaction while maintaining consistent and comprehensive security.
Flexibility
Traditionally, WANs have relied on the hub and spoke MPLS networks to connect branches, retail locations, and other sites to a central data center. This centralized approach requires that traffic be backhauled to the data center for processing, which is expensive and can lead to application performance issues. With SD-WAN, IT can configure a virtualized connection that sits above the physical links and manages traffic more dynamically. The software recognizes the most critical applications and prioritizes them to ensure they have sufficient bandwidth. It can also handle multiple connectivity types, such as MPLS, broadband, and LTE, for maximum flexibility. The software intelligence in an advanced SD-WAN solution can automatically recognize and classify cloud and internet-based applications for optimum WAN management. It can also handle local internet breakout to deliver a secure and fast internet experience, eliminating application interruptions that hamper user productivity. An SD-WAN solution with integrated artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) can automate manual tasks such as anomaly detection, event correlation, and root cause analysis to reduce human error and speed up problem remediation.
Scalability
As companies evolve to a fully virtualized remote working model, IT teams must manage bandwidth capacity to meet employee demand. A rock-solid SD-WAN solution enables IT to quickly scale by adding cost-effective internet broadband connections to augment or replace costly MPLS circuits. This reduces network costs while providing a fast, reliable, and secure connection to critical cloud services, applications, and data. SD-WAN’s centralized network management capabilities offer greater visibility and flexibility for optimizing the performance of overlay and underlay networks. This helps to improve application performance and stability while eliminating the need for costly hardware upgrades. In addition, SD-WAN offers a framework for security technologies such as Firewall as a Service, Secure Web Gateways, and Zero Trust Network Access.
Additionally, SD-WAN can optimize the bandwidth used by latency-sensitive applications such as videoconferencing and cloud computing. This allows employees to work without experiencing poor connectivity or the loss of application functionality. These features are critical for a remote workforce increasingly relying on cloud applications and collaboration tools to support flexible working.
Security
A key benefit of SD-WAN is improved network security. Because centralized SD-WAN appliances manage traffic based on policies defined in the cloud, enterprises can avoid managing individual routers and firewalls that could be compromised by outside attacks or by unauthorized users at remote sites. In addition, because SD-WAN enables businesses to use a mix of access connections (MPLS, broadband Internet, and LTE) and transport types for a hybrid networking model, IT can easily add capacity or switch to a new relationship to support a new business application without the cost of truck rolls or intervention from bandwidth providers. The centralized control function of SD-WAN also makes it possible to steer traffic in an application-driven manner. It improves the reliability of unified communications applications while simplifying the WAN architecture. SD-WAN also supports integrating network security technologies like Firewall as a service, Secure Web Gateways, and Zero Trust Network Access into the SD-WAN fabric to help protect data and applications. And it allows organizations to perform rapid deployments at remote sites by reducing the dependence on expensive leased lines.