What Is SD-WAN - SD-WAN is a software-defined approach
to administer WAN.
The main advantages are:
- Cost savings thanks to the independence of transport between MPLS, 4G / 5G LTE, and other types of connections.
- Better application performance and greater agility.
- Optimization of user experience and software efficiency as a service (SaaS) and public cloud applications.
- Simplify operations with cloud-based automation and management.
Why
now for SD-WAN
I Have A Traditional Wan
The traditional
function of the wide-area network (WAN) was to connect branch or campus users
to applications hosted on the servers in the data center. Typically, dedicated
MPLS circuits were used to ensure security and reliable connectivity. It
doesn't work in a cloud-centric world.
Current It Challenges
The times have
changed. As organizations embrace the use of SaaS and infrastructure
applications as a service (IaaS) across multiple clouds, IT realizes that the
user's application experience is poor. Indeed, WANs built for another era are
not ready for the unprecedented explosion of WAN traffic that comes with the
adoption of the cloud. This traffic leads to management complexity,
unpredictable application performance, and data vulnerability.
The greater
openness of the company to the Internet and the cloud exposes significant
threats and compliance issues. Protecting critical business assets, is
extremely difficult when a diverse workforce, including employees, partners,
contractors, suppliers and guests, access applications. Enabling broadband over
the WAN improves security requirements, creating IT challenges, balancing user
experience, security and complexity.
What
Are The Benefits Of Sd-Wan
Traditional WAN
architecture was limited to companies, branches, and data centers. When an
organization adopts cloud-based applications in the form of SaaS and IaaS, its
WAN architecture experiences an explosion of traffic that accesses applications
distributed worldwide.
These changes
have multiple implications for IT. Performance issues can compromise employee
productivity with SaaS applications. WAN expenses can increase with the
inefficient use of dedicated and backup circuits. IT fights a complicated daily
battle to connect multiple types of users with various kinds of devices to different
cloud environments.
With SD-WAN, IT
can provide routing, threat protection, efficient download of expensive
circuits, and simplification of WAN administration. Financial benefits may
include the following:
Best
application experience
High
availability, with predictable service, for all critical business applications
Multiple
active-active hybrid links for all network scenarios
Dynamically
routed application traffic with application-specific routing for efficient
delivery and enhanced user experience
Improved OpEx,
which replaces expensive MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) services with
cheaper and more flexible broadband (including secure VPN connections)
More security
Application-oriented
strategies with end-to-end segmentation and real-time access control.
Integrated
threat protection applied in the right place
Secure
broadband internet and cloud traffic
Distribute
security on terminals and remotes with NGFW, DNS, and NGAV security
Optimized cloud
connectivity
Transparent WAN
extension for multiple public clouds
Optimized
real-time performance for Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce and other critical
SaaS applications
Streamlined
workflows for cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft
Azure
