Enterprises can use an SD-WAN architecture to connect users securely to applications, leveraging MPLS, LTE, and broadband internet connections.
With a Software-defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), traffic is secured and intelligently directed across the WAN, using a central control function. It leads to higher business productivity, higher agility, and lower IT costs, as it increases application performance and delivers a high-quality user experience.
A unified SD-WAN can unify network connectivity and enable orchestration of application delivery across the entire network. In contrast, an enterprise SD-WAN can modernize your web and propel your business in the digital age. Do you want to know more about what SD-WAN is, how it works, and what its features are? Let us get a deep understanding of the matter:
What are SD-WANs, And How Do They Work?
The modern enterprises that choose SD-WANs deliver an improved application quality of experience (QoS) for their users. An SD-WAN provides application-aware routing over the WAN by identifying applications and leveraging intelligence. All applications are treated according to their QoS and security requirements, following the business needs.
You can securely separate the IaaS and SaaS applications on the branch from the local Internet to keep the enterprise safe and provide the best cloud performance possible. By contrast, SD-WAN uses a router-centric model in which the control function is distributed across all devices in the network, while traffic is routed based on a TCP/IP address and ACLs. However, a rigid, inefficient cloud-native model results in a poor user experience as it is ineffective and inflexible.
Challenges In The IT Industry Today
The world has changed. IT departments find that the user experience of SaaS applications and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) applications is poor as more businesses adopt SaaS and IaaS applications in multiple clouds. Due to the unprecedented increase in WAN traffic resulting from cloud adoption. Managing this traffic leads to unpredictability in application performance and data vulnerability.
In addition to exposing the enterprise to more threats, opening it to the Internet and the cloud poses significant compliance concerns. Whenever applications are accessed by people from multiple backgrounds, including employees, partners, contractors, vendors, and guests, it becomes incredibly challenging to protect critical assets. As broadband becomes more widely available, IT faces more challenges to balance user experience, security, and complexity.
Source - Pixabay
SD-WAN: Why Do We Need It?
There are many reasons why a Soft-Ware Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) is superior to traditional WANs. For example, accessing business applications previously required users to connect to their corporate data centres, but now they access those same applications in the cloud. In addition, with changing times, enterprises are using the cloud and paying for software-as-a-service (SaaS).
As a result, traditional WANs are no longer suitable mainly because they introduce latency and drastically reduce application performance. In addition, they backhaul all traffic, including that to cloud services, from branch offices to the headquarters. With SD-WAN, you can simplify WANs, reduce costs, improve bandwidth efficiency, and integrate the cloud seamlessly, improving performance, particularly for critical applications, without compromising security or privacy.
The SD-WAN approach is a software-defined approach to WAN management. Some of the key advantages include:
- Reduces the cost by using transport independence across MPLS, 4G/5G LTE, and other connection types.
- Improves the performance of applications.
- Optimizes the user experience and efficiency for the software-as-a-service (SaaS) and public cloud applications
- By automating and using cloud-based management, you can simplify the operations.
SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) is best as it can increase network security along with encrypted network traffic, network segmentation, and the usage of a central provisioning system. They will also optimize your performance entirely.
