These days, many enterprises are using WANs for connecting their distant branches and offices to different business applications. Because of multiple advancements and features, SD-WAN technology is widely used by companies. Businesses prefer SD-WAN for reducing cyber threats, increasing network analytics, and combating network challenges. If a company relies on its network for productivity and efficiency, then it will also have to go through the several benefits of SD-WAN. This newer WAN solution will securely connect users to different applications.
In this blog, let’s learn what this SD-WAN technology is and what it is useful for:
Understanding SD-WAN technology- An overview
Are you having a business that is spanned across different geographic locations? In such a situation, it becomes tough to transfer and receive data. There’s a need for a network to assure secure data transfer and connectivity. So, one must have come across the term SD-WAN. This is the newest WAN architecture that utilizes software for creating a reliable and transport-independent network. Being a software-based and cloud-delivered model, SD-WAN is considered one of the best solutions in this digitally transformed world.
· Right from security to network complexities, SD-WAN technology can solve many problems. It also creates an effective route for all network traffic between remote locations, different branches, and data centers. Traditional WAN is sometimes not suitable for various networking purposes as it lacks in many ways.
· In technical terms, SD-WAN is a software-enabled networking WAN architecture that works in conjunction. In a wide area network, it uses simple hardware configurations that offer cloud and network access for different locations. This is why SD-WAN is evolving and most enterprises are using it.
· The core functionality of SD-WAN is connecting the business to its remote branches by maintaining a secure network. To do so, software defined WAN uses a cloud-native private network.
· Today, many small to corporate giant companies are switching to SD-WAN for secure networking. As there is a huge need for networking, SD-WAN finds applications in different sectors such as manufacturing, retail, and so on.
What SD-WAN solution is useful for? Need of new WAN architecture
The complexity of networks and the inefficiency of traditional WAN makes enterprises switch to SD-WAN. In recent years, enterprises are embracing the modern model of digital transformation. This increases online processing and remote working. Because of this, many services are now on the Internet. Not just this, enterprises want to manage their infrastructure and also reduce their network costs. But, traditional WAN is somewhat inefficient in doing all these things.
SD-WAN is useful for an enterprise’s network in many ways. It can help in managing the traffic and improving the performance of the WAN connections. With SD-WAN, connectivity can be optimized and high speeds of data transfer can be maintained between remote locations. Not just this, SD-WAN benefits enterprises by ensuring a secure network and boosting network performance. In comparison to traditional WAN, software-defined WAN is a great technology to switch over to.
If traditional WAN is also useful for an enterprise then why use SD-WAN? Confused? Well, let’s find out here what SD-WAN is used for.
SD-WAN reduces WAN costs
There’s no doubt that SD-WAN is used in many businesses for reducing the costs of bandwidth. Many companies are still using MPLS but they also have to compromise on various factors such as affordability, security, and speed. With SD-WAN, one can use an affordable standard internet connection so this technology helps in reducing bandwidth costs.
Using MPLS is expensive for any network especially when there are different locations and offices. Provisioning of MPLS link will also be expensive as there will be involvement of more labor force and it takes weeks. Thus, SD-WAN is used in such cases where businesses have many different branches and locations.
SD-WAN ensures security
No matter what the size or nature of the company is, its main concern will be the security of data. As the world is adopting remote facilities, there are higher risks of cyber threats. One thing to keep in mind is that traditional WAN cannot assure the complete security of the data. This is why there’s deployment of SD-WAN solution in most crucial networks. The best thing about SD-WAN is that it allows you to set up various security functions. Through SD-WAN, your network will get built-in encryption features that will let only genuine users access the data.
SD-WAN solves network problems
Downtime, security, and connection quality are some issues of the network that requires a quick solution. If a network is affected due to any complexity, it ultimately affects the business and its productivity. For all these issues, SD-WAN is a great solution as its core function is to route network traffic through the best connections automatically. SD-WAN intelligently manages the underlay data transfer services as it can easily overcome the packet loss challenges.
Some pointers that summarize the usefulness of SD-WAN
· Be it routing or hardware costs, SD-WAN technology is useful for cutting down the extra expenses of businesses. With this, SD-WAN allows flexibility to access multi-cloud services.
· Today, majority of the enterprises are running on digital transformation because of which there’s a need of adding layers of the device to a network. This causes network challenges such as weak performance and pressured IT teams. Fortunately, SD-WAN solutions are useful in such situations for reducing the burden on the IT team.
· In addition to this, SD-WAN will also help in managing traffic, and simplifying the WAN infrastructure.
To sum up
With SD-WAN in place, enterprises have become more productive and efficient as they can increase WAN performance. Along with this, enterprises can also add access to cloud services, and route all types of network traffic for data delivery. SD-WAN is useful for an improved network and enhanced security in almost every sector.