What Is SD-WAN and Why Is It Beneficial?

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What Is SD-WAN and Why Is It Beneficial?

Businesses and organizations around the globe are embracing cloud-based applications that have the ability to secure their communication and collaboration needs. Applications like Teams, Zoom, Slack, and other collaboration tools are transforming the way businesses and organizations operate. While these applications and services have greatly impacted and improved workplace communication and collaboration, they are demanding network resources, especially connection types with lower bandwidth.

SD-WAN

A solution is needed to enhance bandwidth and place a prioritization of the applications over the network. As a result, more businesses and organizations are making the transition to software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) solutions to update how the network infrastructure maneuver’s through traffic so the network can support the high-bandwidth applications.

SD-WAN has been known to address these challenges — providing the management capabilities and the monitoring capabilities that are necessary to do the following:

  • Allocate bandwidth
  • Lower latency
  • Reduce network costs

SD-WAN is based on the principles of SDN (software-defined networking). SDN has been used in the traditional telecom infrastructure, enabling service providers and carriers to deliver on-demand services. By leveraging SD-WAN, businesses and organizations can give workplaces access to all relevant networks using more than one WAN connections, such as the following:

  • Wireless
  • Broadband internet
  • Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)

Benefits of SD-WAN

Many businesses and organizations are making the switch to SD-WAN. There are certainly cost benefits to think about, but there are other potential benefits, including the following:

Improved Security: Network traffic will be encrypted and the network will be segmented to improve security when confidential and sensitive files are transferred.

Improved Performance: Voice applications, video applications, and other applications can be prioritized to ensure all end-users have a better overall performance.

Lower WAN OPEX and CAPEX: With simpler routers, connections, and a more consolidated control, you can anticipate a significant amount of savings.

Greater Flexibility and Scalability: As your business or organization grows, using SD-WAN will allow you to scale its deployment when traffic begins to increase.

Cybersecurity is always on: SD-WAN can route critical traffic and will provide an ease of security.

More Efficient Internet: SD-WAN’s ability to route, block, and throttle low-priority traffic will make your network less congested, allowing your employees to work more efficiently throughout the day.

One of the key benefits of SD-WAN is the effectiveness and efficiencies in the speed of setup. Generally, many processes would require an extensive amount of hardware and great lead times. With SD-WAN, processes will be revolved, tested, deployed and ready to be used within a matter of days. The benefits of SD-WAN will extend past the time efficiencies and cost efficiencies.

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from SD-WAN, especially when you anticipate larger file sizes and more traffic from IoT (Internet of Things) devices. SD-WAN will give your business complete trust in your connections and the services you are delivering to the connection. Businesses of all sizes can benefit from increased bandwidth, improved reliability, and higher quality services without having to exceed your budget.

Why Does My Business Need SD-WAN?

Today, every business and organization needs to have a solid connection. One small network outage can lead to significant losses that will far outweigh any savings that you may anticipate. With the increasing usage of communication and collaboration tools, poor connections and dropped services will not be accepted in many work environments.

When you take the SD-WAN approach, you will be able to solve a variety of problems. From a traditional standpoint, managing the WAN has been one of the most challenging and most expensive aspects of any network. However, SD-WAN will make it easier to manage the network. One of the most visible benefits of SD-WAN is the agility of delivering application support and provisioning support.

SD-WAN has also proven to be an excellent solution that can provide connectivity to cloud infrastructures. With the increased usage of the cloud, it will become more important to have effective and efficient WAN performances, especially for time-sensitive, latency-sensitive, and mission-critical workloads. It is extremely necessary to choose an SD-WAN provider that will offer the perfect mix of performance and security.

SD-WAN Deployment

Any business or organization that has any plans to deploy cloud strategies will need to consider adopting WAN architectures, both simultaneously and in tandem with the data center infrastructure.  The flexibility of SD-WAN will enable service providers and enterprises to make their entire deployment simpler. Businesses and organizations will have the ability to deploy the same hardware across any branch regardless of the service providers.

There are several factors you will need to consider when you are deciding whether deploying SD-WAN will be the best choice. For instance, would you prefer to have SD-WAN delivered as a service, or would you prefer to manage it in-house? If you choose to have it delivered as a service, the deployment will be much faster and the provider will manage it for you.

You will also need to consider whether you will prefer an internet-based SD-WAN deployment or a Global Private Network. If your locations are local and you are operating under high-quality internet services, an internet-based SD-WAN deployment may be your preferred option, but an internet-based deployment may not work for global SD-WAN deployments.

Are You Considering an SD-WAN Solution?

We understand it can be difficult to determine if deploying an SD-WAN solution will be right for your business or organization. It will be necessary to consider all the factors that will impact your decision, such as the following:

  • The size of your business or organization
  • Your branch locations
  • How you plan to manage your network

When you review your current system, you will be on your way to determining if SD-WAN deployment will be effective. However, there is no one-size-fits-all option for SD-WAN. What works for Business A may not work for Business B, so it is important to perform a full analysis of your network and your setup. You should always analyze your options before making any permanent decisions.

Centerpoint IT’s SD-WAN transforms the network. After the implementation of SD-WAN, you will be able to use more than one transport of any type to increase reliability and bandwidth. If you are having problems with your network, now is the time to find a partner who will evaluate your current network to determine where the problems are located. With fully managed SD-WAN, you will finally be able to experience the security, flexibility, reliability, scalability, and cost savings you have been searching for.

For more information on SD-WAN or to schedule a discovery call about any technology need, contact us today at (404) 777-0147.

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