Are you integrating new technologies like artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, or enterprise mobility into your business operations? If so, you might have noticed that your wide area networks (WAN) are under pressure trying to keep up with your increased network demand. So how do you solve this problem?
Software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) solutions are a great way to ensure your IT infrastructure is meeting the needs of an increasingly digital operation. SD-WAN provides a central management tool that gives administrators more network visibility. And when IT teams have more control over networks, it’s easier to improve the user experience, network performance, and agility.
Let’s walk through the most common SD-WAN use cases to dive a little deeper into successful applications of SD-WAN.
1. Simplified Service Availability
SD-WAN solutions don’t rely on the traditional hub-and-spoke network model which causes poor application performance. Instead, branches in SD-WAN are connected directly to the data center or cloud, significantly reducing transit time, network overhead, and bottlenecks to ensure applications run smoothly. With SD-WAN, enterprises can also accelerate connectivity by enabling branches to leverage optimal network transport for specific types of traffic.
2. Application Aware Routing
Unlike destination-based routing, application-aware routing recognizes application paths and makes it much easier to manage and control your network for an improved user experience. Instead of focusing on network destination, the emphasis is on the application experience.
Application-aware routing supports business intent by considering how an application is used and needs to be served to the end user based on business policies.
SD-WAN uses both active and passive monitoring to track path and network entities dynamically. This information is then sent to the edge/branch locations and used to selectively direct application flow along the best network route. Traffic is automatically sent to WAN links with the required network characteristics and path conditions to support these applications in real time.
3. Secure and Optimized Direct Internet Access
With digital transformation efforts in full swing, branch and WAN networks are quickly becoming exhausted. Today, most employees and customers work in branch offices, significantly increasing the number of devices accessing internet-based applications. However, performance isn’t as expected due to the adoption of legacy network architectures. Traditional WAN topology backhauls all traffic to data centers causing packet latency, drops, and jitter. This also increases both deployment and management costs. But DIA with SD-WAN topology provides an excellent solution.
Direct Internet Access (DIA) optimizes branch workloads while boosting application performance with robust security. This ensures more efficient and cost-effective network access. Enterprises can benefit from DIA in many ways, including:
- Reduced bandwidth consumption, latency, and costs on WAN links by offloading internet traffic from private WAN circuits
- Improved branch user experience thanks to Direct Internet Access (DIA) for employees at remote locations
4. Improved Network Visibility and Control
An SD-WAN solution allows you to deliver crucial network management processes faster while streamlining network operations. Here’s how it does that.
Centralized Management
Administrators have direct access to the platform with interfaces to manage networks. This allows them to get the most value out of their network resources. Network administrators can quickly and easily control traffic routes, application performance, and security—all from a single dashboard.
Transport-agnostic Capabilities
SD-WAN is transport-agnostic. This means that you can use any transport mode irrespective of the network provider or the location of network edges. You can also prioritize business data across the network, helping ensure maximum performance.
Cost Controls
Organizations have to be proactive when faced with growing network demands. Whether that involves adopting new applications to ensure your operations at remote locations run smoothly or extending your network to new regions and countries, it’s easy to see how costs can become a huge concern without a clear overview.
Fortunately, SD-WAN enables software-based management which allows you to manage processes remotely, saving time and money.
5. Software-Defined Security
Security is vital to any network. Unlike WAN, SD-WAN can provide an additional layer of security to meet the demands of advanced applications. That’s because SD-WAN is deployed end-to-end using an encrypted tunnel over any connectivity. This guarantees maximum security for sensitive business data without affecting connecting traffic from different sources.
But it doesn’t stop there. SD-WAN also boasts a full security stack including Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) and a comprehensive UTM platform, which customers can use to merge two separate entities—WAN and security—into one seamless SD-WAN platform solution.
Wondering How SD-WAN Solutions Fit into Your Enterprise?
Reach out to the experts at Telekom SD-WAN!
Our unique solutions help enterprises leverage a wide range of SD-WAN technologies for improved network visibility and control to help them make more informed business decisions. What’s more, you don’t need to invest in resource training. Enterprises of all sizes and across all industries can benefit from enhanced connectivity—whether they want to scale up or down based on their current network requirements. Our team helps you analyze what your business needs to ensure you benefit from the right managed services for you. The right time is now. So why not start by letting us know what you need?