Business connectivity needs are evolving at lightning-speed as companies strive to keep pace with an ever-changing marketplace and advances in technology. How and where the business is conducted has changed, especially with today's expanding remote workforce. The availability and use of bandwidth-intensive, cloud-based applications are increasing along with a demand for network models that are less complex and easier to manage. This and more drives the need for improved wide area network (WAN) performance, enhanced security, swift and efficient scalability, and optimized cloud connectivity, all while meeting the challenges of delivering cost efficiencies. As IT and network operations departments search for solutions, a growing number choose an SD-WAN (software-defined wide area network) to meet their requirements today and with the built-in flexibility to meet future needs.
What is an SD-WAN?
An SD-WAN is a virtual, transport-agnostic WAN architecture that connects users to applications while providing network administrators centralized visibility and increased control with the ability to improve network performance and agility. With these capabilities and enhanced tools such as application-aware routing and QoS, SD-WAN benefits are far-reaching. Traffic can be dynamically routed on the most optimized private or public transport path based on predefined policies and WAN connection performance. Critical applications can be prioritized, application performance can be improved, bottlenecks eliminated, and network costs are reduced. It is no wonder a growing number of IT and network management organizations choose SD-WAN solutions.
Four SD-WAN use cases
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Traditional and Virtual Branch Office Connectivity: with more employees and contractors working remotely part of the time, many businesses offset real estate costs by migrating from dedicated branch offices and even monolithic central office locations to a virtual branch model with rotating shared office seating known as office hoteling. As this occurs, the number and size of office branches will change dramatically. In fact, this, along with locating virtual branches closer to the talent pool, multiple virtual "micro branches” may replace one larger traditional branch office.
Simultaneously, employees are flying less to events and client meetings, placing greater reliance on bandwidth-intense tools and applications such as cloud-based audio and video conferencing. Transport agnostic SD-WANs eliminated the old "hub and spoke" network model, offering a way to connect remote locations simply and affordably, providing on-demand connection and bandwidth, improving application performance, and helping eliminate potential network bottlenecks.
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Home Office Connectivity: with health safety concerns due to COVID-19 and increasing pressure to reduce corporate overhead costs, many jobs once performed in-office have been permanently offloaded to workers in home offices. These employees and contractors often rely on bandwidth-intensive cloud-based video collaboration software and other cloud-based tools, including application development platforms and CRM (customer relationship management). This presents network and IT professionals the challenge of efficiently and effectively serving an increasingly distributed workforce that requires multi-cloud connectivity using multiple ways to connect to the internet, both wired and wireless, such as broadband, 4G LTE, 5G, and DSL.
An SD-WAN solution allows enterprises to leverage any combination of transport services, including those mentioned above, as well as MPLS, which may be used at branches and central office locations, to connect users to enterprise-based and cloud-based applications and platforms securely. Moreover, with built-in network resilience tools and dynamic traffic routing capabilities, SD-WANs are designed to handle high network traffic surges. With faster, more reliable connectivity, the end-user experience and worker productivity are improved.
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Cloud Connectivity: a rapid increase in the availability and adoption of cloud-based applications in a multi-cloud environment is one of the most significant digital transformation changes. SaaS (software-as-a-service) applications include CRM, web conferencing, and work productivity and collaboration tools, which boost bandwidth requirements and the need for superior bandwidth management. So does PaaS (platform-as-a-service), which, instead of delivering applications over the internet, provides a platform for things like application development. Unlike traditional WAN technology, SD-WANs have the flexibility and intelligence to adapt to the network demands and traffic bursts of cloud-based services such as SaaS, PaaS, and others.
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VPN (Virtual Private Network): VPNs create a private network from a public internet connection to provide users online anonymity and privacy. Since traditional VPNs require configuring encrypted tunnels at each new location, the complexity can grow exponentially as more home and virtual branch offices are added. Supporting a larger number of remote workers using the internet as a primary transport method creates unprecedented challenges for VPN managers. Moreover, some of these workers may need to connect via a mobile network, surpassing a traditional VPN. Once again, an SD-WAN may provide the best solution. Not only do SD-WANs offer scalable, agile, secure WAN and multi-cloud connectivity, they also enable new VPN site provisioning in minutes instead of days as there is no need to configure tunnels between locations and devices. This ultimately reduces operations expenses and can offer pervasive worker mobility.
