6 Benefits How SD–WAN Will Improve Your Life

Organisations across the globe are rapidly adopting new technologies to meet customer demand during increasing market competition. It is necessary for their survival to keep pace with emerging trends in the market. Fluctuating customer demands, the introduction of new trends to the market and advancements in the technological sphere always cause big changes in the market.  Traditional network architectures often become outdated in these scenarios to fulfill the market standards required for customer satisfaction. It becomes very difficult for those companies to survive who do not opt for digital transformation and upgradation of network architecture. High competition among their counterparts soon pushes them out of the market.

As a result, there is no wonder that SD–WAN is being increasingly embraced by businesses of all sizes. To keep pace with increased market competition, enterprises are rapidly adopting digital transformation from traditional WAN towards software defined WAN due to its high-end benefits. Six accepted benefits of SD–WAN are presented below to show why major enterprises are moving towards it and how it can improve your life.

Performance benefits of SD–WAN

In comparison with traditional WAN, SD–WAN delivers enhanced performance from twin circuits. In the case of traditional WAN networks, one circuit is used actively while another one is employed as a backup circuit. This passive circuit is used when the main circuit fails. But in the case of SD–WAN, it uses both circuits actively for those applications requiring more than one circuit operation, which increases overall bandwidth and enhances the performance of the network. Furthermore:

1. It uses real-time application routing to improve application performance.
2. Using path conditioning, it makes poor-quality Internet act like MPLS. It eventually improves the performance of unstable links.
3. It can also improve the performance of MPLS without any class of service.
4. By measuring the best route and allowing the breakout of the local Internet, SD–WAN enhances cloud application performance.
5. It also applies suitable security and routing for proper recognition of the applications for enhanced performance.
6. SD–WAN allows applications like Microsoft Office 365 to easily administer and be secured by using DNS instead of an IP address.
7. It also improves the performance of IaaS and SaaS using virtual devices.

Deployment benefits of SD–WAN

SD–WAN also offers multiple benefits in the deployment of WAN. For large enterprises managing their WAN on their own, these are of vital importance.

1. SD–WAN reduces the time and costs associated with the deployment of WAN by using With the adjustment of IP addresses, it easily deploys each site with templates without any physical staging of devices, or at least minimum staging.
2. SD–WAN makes networks very easy-to-manage by maintaining consistency throughout the project. It also removes all carrier anomalies across all the networks, which further adds consistency in the network.
3. Many of the SD–WAN vendors claim their solution provides zero touch deployment. This means it does not require an engineer to install the system. In fact, it is self-installed.

Management benefits of SD–WAN

SD–WAN also offers a large range of in-life management benefits to large enterprises. Some of these benefits are described below:

1. In traditional WAN architecture, many of the changes were performed manually, which is time consuming and also has risks associated with it. SD–WAN reduces all the admin overheads of changes.
2. SD–WAN also improves application troubleshooting. In traditional WAN architectures, application troubleshooting in its true sense requires an understanding of the entire application path for effective troubleshooting. SD–WAN has improved the application of troubleshooting in comparison to traditional WAN monitoring systems. It troubleshoots the router-to-router tunnels of each customer site to where the application is hosted.

Security enhancement

There are always some trade-offs companies often face while they undergo digital transformation. Where technological upgradation can increase customer satisfaction and give an extended market reach, it can also put an organisation on the verge of many security risks. According to a survey conducted by the US State of Cybercrime in 2017, almost 41% of respondents reported a rise in cybersecurity events. But the good news is that SD–WAN provides a built-in security feature in almost all its solutions. Although many of the SD–WAN solutions comprise basic VPN and firewall functions, which do not seem to be secure enough. But there exists many  SD–WAN solutions that offer a wide range of features like IPS, AV, NGFW, encryption and sandboxing, which boosts security and prevents the system from regulatory violations, downtime, legal liabilities and data loss.

Reduced complexity

Sometimes, digital transformations lead to more complexity. This results not only in the form of poor network performance, but also an overburden on IT teams to manage the additional layers of complexity to the network. Furthermore, in traditional practices, onsite personnel are required to manage the IT infrastructure for all the remote branches. SD-WAN has simplified the WAN infrastructure by easing the load on overburdened IT teams. It uses broadband to automate monitoring tasks, close non-critical business applications and management of traffic via a centralised controller. In this way, it lowers the complexity and makes life easier for IT professionals.

Direct cloud access

Organisations across the globe are increasingly embracing cloud-based services. SD–WAN has enabled direct cloud access to  remote branches, due to which, workers are capable of accessing cloud-based applications anywhere in the world, regardless of their location. It also does not over burden the central network by introducing  additional traffic. Direct cloud access eliminates backhauling traffic by routing all the traffic through a data centre coming from branch offices and the cloud. Prioritising the business-critical applications, it also enhances the performance of cloud-based applications. That is why, in the days of the pandemic, working from home has become very easy to manage for major companies by enabling branches and working from home personnel to directly communicate with the Internet.

Conclusion

It would not be wrong if SD–WAN is claimed to be the biggest technological breakthrough after the cloud. It has revolutionised the networking field by creating opportunities for businesses of all sizes to optimise and manage their expensive traditional WAN infrastructures. SD–WAN has provided benefits to business organisations, IT professionals and managerial staff of enterprises by secure and proper management of wide area networking. SD–WAN has provided the most efficient networking solution to enterprises. For unified network topology, with a few smart and simple clicks, SD–WAN has made life easier.

If you you are looking into modernizing your network and would like to take advantage of these benifits, then sign up for a free SD-WAN Proof-of-Concept to see the difference it could make to your network.