Enterprises relying on MPLS can significantly reduce networking cost by implementing software defined wide are networks. In addition to cost saving, SD-WAN enables automation, intelligence and centralized management which makes enterprise networks cloud ready. Weighing all these factors into consideration, SD-WAN cost savings in enterprises can surge higher than 60%.
SD-WAN today addresses not only cost but reduces network complexities as well. SD-WAN allows enterprises use as much bandwidth as required. It provides instant visibility for security as well as performance. Moreover, transformation to cloud demands an agile, secure and flexible network architecture. This makes SD-WAN a critical element of Networking. SD-WAN can help IT create secure local or regional breakouts to cloud. Its done by enabling traffic flow to the internet from the closest available link. IT can segment and route sensitive data to cloud security providers for further inspection. Discussed below are ways how SD-WAN can help IT departments save cost.
Scalability
The Challenge- Traditional Network infrastructure like MPLS is rigid and poses scaling challenges.
How SD-WAN benefits – With SD-WAN, continuous upgradation of IT bandwidth is not necessary to ensure a reliable connection. It’s a scalable solution which allows network teams to easily add new links without having to change the underlying infrastructure.
The Cost Benefit of SD-WAN – Scaling networks doesn’t mean adding resources, devices or applications only. Scaling networks is also about how the demands of these resources are met, how traffic is processed and application interact. SD-WAN allow businesses to scale networks (to branches, remote locations, users) without worrying about networks at any given point of time. This helps IT meet business and user demands which in turn improves bottom line.
Security
The Challenge – Cloud, Internet and devices has made security a nightmare for enterprise IT teams. Before cloud, traffic was bypassed and stored in enterprise servers, which was filtered and monitored through firewalls. Later MPLS helped to route traffic across their network without compromising on speed and performance. However, with the evolving traffic pattern, security has become even more challenging, especially for enterprises that leverage cloud in a distributed network ecosystem.
How SD-WAN helps – SD-WAN has the ability to make enterprise networks more secure through end-to-end encryption, as well as device and endpoint authentication. SD-WAN is the first step towards a more secure network in the age of cloud. With SD-WAN, enterprises also have the option to integrate third party security solutions, which ultimately forms a new age security perimeter that saves enterprises from costly information security issues.
The Cost benefits of SD-WAN– Software based firewalls of today can seamlessly scale to address any traffic workload, enforce unified policy, and are managed by a cloud provider. This type of deployment enterprises need to manage only a single global firewall that can scale according to traffic volume and devices connected. This allow IT departments to manage a single or unified policy, which will applies to all devices connected. This eliminates the ordeal, as is the case with a traditional on-premises firewall deployment.
Performance
The Challenge – Traditional networks were never optimized for Cloud. Today’s applications are enabled by the cloud and include mobile applications, big data analytics and social business. These new-age applications have significantly different network requirements. As cloud era gains momentum and hybrid clouds become a new norm, enterprise networks continue to increase in value.
How SD-WAN helps: SD-WAN is designed to route network traffic through the fastest and the best available connection. With traditional MPLS, this doesn’t happen. Instead, settings are static. There may be a “failover” connection with an MPLS-based network, but that redundancy usually isn’t as fast or seamless as with SD-WAN.
The Cost Benefits of SD-WAN – The Cost of Downtime. According to ITIC’s 2017 Reliability and Hourly Cost of Downtime Trends Survey, over 98% of large enterprises with more than 1,000 employees say that, on average, a single hour of downtime per year costs their company over $100,000, while 81% say it’s more than $300,000.
Visibility
The Challenge – In the age of cloud, most networking teams face the challenge to monitor distributed network ecosystems (on-prem and cloud). Network visibility, performance issue detection, and root cause analysis are few among many challenges, network teams face in their day to day monitoring activities. The challenges for network monitoring are twofold: capturing and storing large amounts of data, and analyzing the different types of data that is being transported- this includes instant messaging, email applications, video streaming, and peer-to-peer connectivity. Heterogeneous enterprise network today creates new challenges for network administrators. In the absence of data visibility, it becomes hard for network teams to predict and monitor network issues.
How SD-WAN helps – Organizations that implement SD-WAN have improved visibility into network traffic. Network administrators can see when SD-WAN re-routes network traffic and react as needed to optimize performance.
The Cost Benefits of SD-WAN – Granular visibility helps network teams to address network issues, it helps CIOs, IT directors, and CTOs and network managers amplify overall IT operations. Reduce MTTR, Increase Operational Efficiency, ensure User/Customer Satisfaction, and zero network downtime all caters to lower the cost of IT operations.
Easy Deployment
The Challenge – Traditional network deployments are hardware centric (which involves costs), and require months to be deployed.
How SD-WAN helps – Rather than waiting days or weeks for your provider to configure and set up a new MPLS connection for a new office, SD-WAN and network bandwidth can be deployed quickly without sending IT personnel to the new office to set it up.
The Cost benefits of SD-WAN- SD-WAN deployment options allow an enterprise to consume the network just like compute or storage in the public cloud, as a service. In this model, the network subscription covers the software with SD-WAN controller running as a multi-tenant instance in the Cloud. This eliminates cost of hardware and the requirement of consoles (mangers) lessening the total cost of ownership.
Configuration
The Challenge – Configuring Traditional networks each manually, then setting policy for each can easily result in manual errors and moreover configuration process becomes cumbersome and complex.
How SD-WAN helps: SD-WAN can be comprised of any combination of 3G/4G LTE, MPLS, Internet, or Ethernet,. This allows for both fast installation and increased bandwidth options. Your business can save money by using all available resources, including inexpensive internet services. When you opt for this type of configuration, the SD-WAN dynamically selects cost-effective connection and links to route traffic.
The cost benefits of SD-WAN- SD-WAN reduces complexity in configuration enterprise networks allowing teams to apply policies automatically. It also reduces the probability of network errors which often jolts the bottom line.
Cloud has made traditional network infrastructures costly and inefficient. Traditional network architecture like MPLS was not built to support today’s cloud-first strategy. Traditional network infrastructures are rigid hence resulting in poor application performance, business agility, and productivity. SD-WAN, in addition to its other direct and indirect network benefits, provides enterprises with indirect cost savings in the form of increased productivity, flexibility, powerful analytics, and other management tools. Get in touch with us to unlock the full potential of your enterprise network. You may also download our SD-WAN solution suite brochure to know why top Indian enterprises prefer Lavelle Networks.
