Unlocking the Benefits of SD-WAN for Reliable and Efficient Networking

The reality is that digital operations have become the cornerstone of any business that aspires to be successful and boost its profits. Every company must work on building a solid network because it is no longer optional, but has practically become mandatory.

Whether you have remote workers or simply want to synchronize different locations, you need to take all necessary steps to ensure a stable and safe network across every platform.

And that’s exactly the moment where SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Networking) comes into play. This solution has won over the hearts of many organizations because it allows them to effectively manage their network, a capability that was previously lacking.

If you haven’t had a chance to explore the top benefits of SD-WAN before, now’s a great time to review this informative guide and discover its benefits!

What is SD-WAN and How It Works

In a nutshell, it can be defined as a networking technology that relies on software to properly route all kinds of data across different networks. Conventional WANs are usually reliant on very pricey and fixed connections, which can often be very hard to scale, plus they aren’t as adaptable, which is a huge drawback.

On the other hand, SD-WAN is completely different (in the most positive sense, of course), enabling firms to mix different sorts of connections (such as broadband, 5G, and many others) into a single network.

Apart from that, it is also capable of managing the entire network from a single dashboard, regardless of the number of locations that are connected. All of this inevitably results in a boosted performance and leveled-up security.

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SD-WAN Security Benefits

Many businesses are dealing with very intricate security demands, especially those that decide to transfer their applications to the cloud. Nowadays, there are many valuable resources with SD-WAN explained from a security-first perspective, and they’ve all come to the conclusion that by virtue of the SD-WAN, companies can fully reap the benefits of a cloud firewall. In addition, with this state-of-the-art solution, every single branch of the network is properly connected, which means that you won’t be forced to channel traffic back to your headquarters.

How come, you probably wonder? Well, that’s because cloud access has already been established. Firms that utilize SD-WAN employ the same interface that can be used for both their remote workforce and for managing security for branches.

Improving Network Performance with SD-WAN

Certainly, one of the biggest perks of SD-WAN lies in the fact that it’s intended to take your network performance to the next level, which is something that traditional WAN architecture isn’t able to do.

Namely, traditional WANs direct all traffic through a data center, which isn’t effective enough. On the flip side, SD-WAN is renowned for leveraging a more centralized strategy, putting traffic first, and, simultaneously, choosing the most effective route from source to destination.

This is generally extremely beneficial for every organization that’s heavily reliant on cloud-hosted solutions, enabling them to establish fast and reliable connections in a flash!

Centralized Visibility and Management

If you haven’t managed separate network appliances at different sites before, then you probably do not know how challenging it can be. That’s because even the tiniest error can happen at any given moment.

Not to mention the fact that managing them can be very time-consuming, too! However, when you have SD-WAN at your fingertips, then things all of a sudden become so much simpler. That’s because it is designed to provide a single cloud-based dashboard for every site, and it also offers real-time analytics on performance and usage.

Better Connectivity

This solution enables you to boost network connectivity by allowing various devices on a single network to share all kinds of data and files. Furthermore, by virtue of it, your employees are going to be a lot more productive because it’s going to eliminate the need for conventional links between locations.

The bottom line is that with SD-WAN, you won’t need to worry about dealing with network congestion, which means that your overall network performance is going to be drastically enhanced.

How SD-WAN Reduces Networking Costs

There’s no need to remind you how pricey MPLS bandwidth can be, especially if you compare it with the public Internet bandwidth. One of the main reasons why MPLS is so expensive is that it demands provisioning of dedicated, physical links, which represents a process that can be pretty time-consuming (it can last for up to several months, at times).

In contrast, with SD-WAN, these sorts of problems are practically non-existent, and that’s because it operates on top of already established infrastructure, like the public internet, which means that a comparable deployment can be executed much faster (in a matter of days!).

Since time is of the essence in the business world, it’s safe to say that this is a massive advantage, for sure! Now, you are probably wondering how much money you’ll be able to save if you choose SD-WAN over an MPLS network.

The truth is that there are many factors that need to be considered to get a precise answer to this question, and the ones that can make or break things when it comes to this are the bandwidth and location requirements. In general, most companies can save around 25% or even more.

Why SD-WAN is Perfect for Remote Teams

Over the past several years, remote work has increased in popularity, and even in these circumstances, your workforce can greatly benefit from SD-WAN. That’s because it can offer stable and safe access to corporate resources from practically any location.

Aside from that, it also allows centralized policy enforcement for each user, regardless of their location.

Based on everything that’s been written here today, it is easy to see why so many companies today resort to SD-WAN. They simply want a tool that will allow them to have an effective, yet secure, networking, and that’s exactly what they’ll get with it!