As enterprises are becoming more and more cloud dependent, it is also becoming obvious, that the legacy solutions like MPLS are no longer sufficient for today’s enterprise requirements. Practically, even though the advantages for SD-WAN are evident, enterprises would not want to uproot their existent network backbone and switch to more modern WAN solutions like SD-WAN at once, especially considering the significant investment that would have already gone into the network . So, what is the solution?
Enter Hybrid WAN…
What is hybrid WAN?
In simple terms, it is best of the both worlds. Hybrid WAN stitches the MPLS to broadband to access The Cloud. Hybrid WAN functions are based on dynamic path selection. The process restricts business-critical traffic to MPLS while automating less critical traffic to internet VPN.
Importance of Hybrid WAN
With the stupendous rise of costs associated with MPLS bandwidth upgrades, more businesses have the option of selecting economical broadband services to connect to cloud applications. This approach is of particular relevance to enterprises with multiple branches that are separated geographically. Although not a mandatory feature, many hybrid WANs may include a SDN component.
- Hybrid WAN solves the underlying issues that were a part and parcel of legacy WANs
- Hybrid WAN has many advantages with regards to the Security. Eg: Supports IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) and Secure Socket layer termination.
- Supports network firewalls to restrict traffic types or certain users depending upon the urgency of the situation.
- One of the biggest advantages is the reduction in costs associated with increased bandwidth
- MPLS was not built for the cloud. Hybrid WAN solves this problem for your enterprise making cloud access and in turn digital transformation a realizable goal with a more gradual transition away from MPLS, which is becoming a bottleneck for enterprise WAN.
Check out our video for a better outlook.
Hybrid WAN vs Traditional WAN
Is MPLS really more secure? Or is it just a myth?
Even though traditional WAN is regarded to be much safer than its modern counterpart, one can argue it to be a myth. Agreeably, a legacy WAN is safe because it is simply not connected to the internet and hence no outside attack is possible. But what about any internal attacks (intended or unintended)? In such a situation, the entire system is broken until fixed, resulting in a lot of downtime. Thanks to multiple levels authentication of Hybrid WANs and fool-proof security measures, such attacks can be perceived and measures can be taken pro-actively, leaving the system much less vulnerable(from both internal and external attacks). Most importantly, unlike its traditional counterpart, hybrid WAN allows dynamic path selection for the flow based on how critical the traffic is.
Deployment and Management with Hybrid WAN is more faster and more economical
If we compare the deployment expense, hybrid WAN is at least 3 times more cost effective and takes approximately half the time or less, for the actual deployment of their WANs. One of the major advantages of the hybrid WAN is the simplification of the deployment, management and the orchestration of WAN.
Hybrid WAN is a boon for networks that scale
If you have been reading our blogs, you’d know that we keep on referring this point. Well… because it is true. Hybrid WAN has higher control and scalability, compared to the legacy WANs. Any changes that are needed in the traditional WANs must be done manually and requires months of planning. This drastically reduces efficiency and increases the “down-time”. Whereas, scale with Hybrid WAN is faster, simpler and requires less expertise.
Why is Hybrid SD-WAN the most preferred WAN of the Experts?
A hybrid WAN works in juxtaposition with Software Defined WAN and uses its superior intellect to direct the traffic as per the requirement. Any hybrid WAN can be turned into SD-WAN by introducing the necessary technology in it. Great user experience and no loss of service are few things, among many, that a hybrid SD-WAN has to offer. Andrew Lerner, a Gartner analyst is all Gung-Ho about Hybrid WAN and the value it proposes. To know more, read here.
Conclusion
If you, as an enterprise is an active member of the Digital Transformation movement, and possibly in future want to move on to SD-WAN, may want to begin with hybrid WAN as the first step for WAN transformation for your organization.
At Lavelle Networks, we believe that our customers should be able to make educated and informed decision after understanding the nuances of the solution they are opting for. Hence, we intend to be transparent in giving out appropriate information with our clients. For this purpose, solely, we have come up with a whitepaper which discusses legacy WAN in detail and gives us a picture as to why you should gradually move away from traditional WANs and take a giant leap with hybrid/SD WAN solutions for your organization.
Read the white paper here — De-Mystifying MPLS
Get in touch with our experts for an elaborate discussion regarding the digital transformation of your enterprise and see how our SD-WAN solutions are perfect for your organization.
