Today, the demand for businesses has been transitioning towards maintaining faster, secure, scalable and inherently reliable connection. The traditional WAN function that has been presented as the given architecture across businesses is no longer useful as it provides some significant lag and has been slowed down in the race of technology.
The current WAN setup is now full of struggles, especially when there is an unprecedented explosion of WAN traffic that often occurs due to the adoption of traffic into the server systems. All these resultant factors have made the efforts of traditional WAN to be a technology of the past.
Today, the demand for improved performances across different ranges of networks has been highly oriented towards increasing the performance over cloud-operations. Further, the demand is to gather network reliability with increased effectiveness and a decrease in the loss of data packets and service costs.
Are you wondering the possibilities of coming across such a product solution?
Relax, technology has made it possible in the form of SD-WAN.
SD-WAN is the solution that has initiated the technical revolution among all the leading enterprises that perform on a global scale, building a $1.3 billion market. However, this does not justify what SD-WAN truly is, let’s dive deeper and have a detailed look at this solution and the principle on which it works.
How SD-WAN makes seamless communication easy?
Software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) is one of the latest innovations of technology that has allowed businesses to tap into their true potential over an undefined network. SD-WAN makes the use of software-defined networking (SDN), allowing the seamless and planned distribution of several networks across a vast area network (WAN). This software application works on the basics around the principles of configured policies, allowing automatic rerouting of the networks in any given business to manage themselves cost-effectively, enabling minimal loss of packet data and enabling seamless application traffic between branch offices and all the possible data centre sites.
Managed by centralised controllers, SD-WAN connects all the devices under one deployment and allows businesses to share information over one unified platform. The software provides the desired boost to the information technology (IT) staff, allowing them to dive deeper into the collected data and segregating the heterogeneous data packets for them. Further, SD-WAN also helps the IT team to remotely adjust with all the program network edge devices without having to interact with them over zero-touch provisioning, eliminating the need of travelling to physical locations and minimising/eliminating the need for network engineers over a large proportion, saving the industries over costs to configure routers in branch locations.
Most of the forms that are generated under the SD-WAN technology are created over a single virtual overlay, allowing businesses to maintain singular and undisturbed public WAN connections, like the Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), broadband, modem, fiber, wireless or Long-Term Evolution (LTE). This overlay allows the SD-WAN installation to adapt to the networks and start taking over the functioning without having to work on the architectural build of the networking platform.
Today, the prospects of SD-WAN solutions have been higher than ever; the global technology is expected to increase to USD 8.4 billion by 2025.
The need for SD wan Solutions
Now that you understand the working and the principles behind SD-WAN and its effective functioning, it’s time that you know the need for software-defined WAN solutions and how they are invaluable to companies that are seeking to upgrade their network to the next level of communication
Benefits of switching to SD-WAN:
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Automation and seamless adaptation:
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One of the significant benefits/advantages of switching over to the SD-WAN software solution is the fact that it is relatively easy to switch. It has gained the spotlight of being the most reliable network solution for all the right reasons. The advantages of switching over to SD-WAN over your traditional broadband wireframe are many, out of which seamless adaption is just the beginning.
The SD-WAN network doesn’t really require you to start from scratch or invest heavily in migration; it can work with all the provided modules of a broadband architecture, without slowing down the rate of operations in the given organisation. The property of SD-WAN’s easy adaptability makes it cheap and reliable for communication.
Besides providing for a reliable source of enhanced connectivity, the SD-WAN platform also enables the much-desired automation in networking for businesses that operate in different regions across the globe, with the help of sub-second instantaneous repairs. This multi-channel approach of SD-WAN makes it one of the most trusted modes of seamless adaption for networking by modern businesses.
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Provides businesses with a rich ecosystem over a unified platform:
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Businesses that have access to a single, unified, and diverse ecosystem are sure to succeed and flourish in the race of technology and customer automation. With customer experience being the objective of all the major businesses, loss of data packets or communication in any form can be a significant drawback. SD-WAN provides businesses with a reliable solution where there is no complexity in the process of data transfer, and businesses tap into their true potential with an undefined scope of reachability.
The vast network accessibility of SD-WAN allows businesses to make easy availability of a channel of communication without having to deal with any SLA tradeoff, enabling seamless communication and developing a channel that shows minimal or no loss to loss of data packets.
Further, having cloud-based disposal, SD-WAN allows scalability that is not fixed to any physical geography. This way, businesses can easily rely on a singular platform for all the available information and effective functioning, without having to worry much about security, allowing their CMS to easily integrated with varied software options.
Considering the stats that say cloud data centres will process around 94% of workloads, SD-WAN is the future of cloud communications.
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Real-time switch to any given WAN transport:
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When you migrate to SD-WAN, your business unlocks the potential to tap into multiple WAN transport facilities. This way, the network adapts itself to switch to various modes of operations, allowing businesses to minimise the loss of data in transition. This way, SD-WAN provides industries with a real-time switch from any given WAN transport.
Another major USP of the switch to SD-WAN is that it does not hinder the rate of operations over broadband networks.
Listed above were some of the most surreal benefits of switching over to SD-WAN. However, there’s one question that remains in the mind of every user, ‘which SD-WAN solution is best for my enterprise?
The answer to the same lies in the fact that the market is filled with several vendors, providing their users with a wide variety of options to go with but, selecting the right SD-WAN solution is only a matter of understanding and rate of operations that need to be executed over the network.
Listed below are some of the few checklists that will help you out to come up with the desired list of your enterprise.
Guide to help you choose the right SD-WAN solution:
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Reduction in costs is a must:
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Your choice of deployment model (DIY, Hybrid or Fully Managed) hardly matters; your ideal SD-WAN solution should prove to be a cost-effective measure. Costs are one of the significant factors that make a substantial impact on the profitability of any given business. When you decide to go to an SD-WAN vendor, you need to be clear about the savings that they can provide you with; it is necessary to enquire in detail about all the different solutions and how every single one of them will help you with the desired cost reduction.
Further, when we talk about savings over costs in your required SD-WAN solution, it is also necessary for you to figure out about the legacy hardware pieces that will be replaced by the new software and even come across all the media that need to be integrated across the same.
The primary functionality of SD-WAN revolves around its process that helps in replacing the MPLS that was majorly expensive with a reliable network source, something that is not possible for many of the leading enterprises who perform over live video or voice. However, when dealing with such abnormalities over switching to SD-WAN, you can achieve downgrade of your connection and reduce the costs.
Further, another significant chunk of your savings should be focused on reducing the allocation of all the desired labor hours that will go behind the configuration, installation and management of all the supported branch applications.
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Ease in Deployment and Service Provisioning
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Another great function that you should be looking over for your SD-WAN is the zero-touch provisioning that should be provided by your dedicated solution or its provider. When you adapt to the right SD-WAN solution, your business should be eliminating the need for relying on extensive technical skills. Your business should be modified accordingly to receive the desired edge over remote connectivity.
Therefore, it is always advisable to select a vendor that helps you come over services in real-time and help you easily integrate into the network services of SD-WAN applications. The shared networks ecosystems that are created over the SD-WAN architectural framework allow acceleration, path optimisation and security that should again be adding to the cost-effectiveness and real-time information sharing across network services from the same vendor.
Remember, the zero-touch provisioning that is provided over your SD-WAN solution should allow you to save costs besides checking out with all the possible and updated features that are offered over SD-WAN solutions.
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Centralised Visibility and Management
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Your ideal SD-WAN solution should be able to provide your organisation with a single and unified platform, allowing the seamless transition of information across the distribution channel. This way, organisations are provided with leveraged control and improved SD-WAN connectivity status besides additional resource allocation. The centralised visibility and management functionality should help you explore connectivity with the core network over a cloud infrastructure besides sharing a similar network with the local branch, allowing a clear insight into the local metrics as well.
To help you further understand the different aspects, listed below are some of the matrices that you should be looking into:
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- What is its performance of each link?
- What is the data egress from the X branch?
- How is the QoS priority application performance?
- Which applications are consuming most internet data?
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This way, you can easily manage and improvise with all your existing data policies to allow you develop an SD-WAN solution that best suits your business and helps necessary network services, as and when needed on time.
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Guaranteed Quality of Service
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SD-WAN solutions offer businesses with multiple WAN links, allowing them with a dynamic approach to path selection and enhance the transport quality of the data packets that revolve around the ecosystem. Further, if you are deciding to bundle a given MPLS, LTE connection or work on the Broadband Internet and integrate it into your SD-WAN, it would be better if you set up QoS rules and come over with the priority of application data.
Further, if you are deciding to implement a Mobile SD-WAN or go with a Vehicle SD-WAN solution, you need to understand the significance of the First Responders fleet. The LTE and multiple LTE that are present over the hot failover feature, allow businesses to access Band-14, ensuring continuous QoS. Further, if you want to provide a premium quality access to your hardware, it should be able to withstand constant movement and vibration, allowing your business to move through enhanced stability and over the SD-WAN enabled cloud services.
Conclusion
Now that you have understood the crucial elements that will help you uncover the critical aspects of switching over to the right SD-WAN solution, it is essential to understand all the terms that come along. When you make the right switch to SD-WAN, you unlock the true potential of your business in terms of networks and communication, allowing the seamless exchange of packet data without much hindrance. Also, SD-WAN has high prospects, growing at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 34.5% per year.
The leading business around the world has found the right way to integrate their existing information technology infrastructures to a new and improved way that helps them reduce costs and enhance the efficiency of their systems. Achieving network agility with SD-WAN is the future of every business.
Suppose you haven’t found out your SD-WAN solution provider already. In that case, we suggest you try out Lavell Network’s SD-WAN solution for a safer, secure and reliable future of communications in your company.
Opt for a centrally orchestrated SD-WAN solution to improve user experience and to simplify operations today with Lavelle Networks ScaleAOn SD-WAN Solutions.
Learn all about ScaleAOn SD-WAN
