SD-WAN networks for Enterprises:
Business operations and work processes have been transformed by the cloud revolution in the best way possible. Today, cloud applications are the basis for most companies, which has led to significant improvements in business efficiency and collaboration.
Moreover, these fundamental applications should be reliable and efficient, which is why SD-WAN has made its way to becoming perhaps the best networking function in decades. The situation calls for fast and reliable business applications running on agile, secure connections.
Adapting to a for the most part remote workforce accelerated SD-WAN adoption as more companies adopted multi- and hybrid cloud processes and service models.
According to a report by IDG Research Services and Masergy, more than 90% of companies hope to eventually adopt a SD-WAN solution.
The Dell’Oro Group, Inc. anticipates that SD WAN technologies will grow by 24% a year over the course of the next five years, amounting to $4 billion in market value by 2025.
SASE & SD-WAN ecosystem
As SD-WANs and SASEs move out of the early adopter stage and toward standardization, they are entering a period of inflection. With IT leaders striving to modernize the network to accommodate the shift to hybrid work, the pandemic has been the essential catalyst for the acceleration of technology.
Individuals can get some actual practical advice on how to leverage SD-WAN and SASE professionally without putting their organizations at risk by attending the World SD-WAN Summit Asia.
Security and SD-WAN for edge infrastructure
As it is with any new technology that flashes interest in business, the SD-WAN market became oversaturated with vendors implying to provide the best solutions. It is important to remember that not all SD-WAN solutions are created equal. The best time to decide on vendors is when the messiness has been gathered and priority issues are identified. An SD-WAN solution should be able to show your company what you need in terms of your current network infrastructure.
- Do SD-WANs really result in guaranteed savings of 40%+? Is it possible for SD-WAN vendors to provide unhampered bandwidth usage without having to incur extra costs to expand in the future?
- Is SD-WAN a point product or part of a platform that incorporates IoT, LAN, WAN, and cloud?
- Regardless of whether SD-WAN solutions are grown naturally with the end goal of clients eliminating point products like routers, SD-WANs, and NGFWs, or are they resorted to after acquisition, allowing for inflexibilities?
- Specifically, does it provide support for cutting-edge network protocols, such as 5G or LTE failover, traffic routing, and application identification with a thorough SSL review for accuracy? Self-healing connections are offered by it? What are its reliability levels?
- Does the solution support remote super clients within a work space, geographically distributed branch offices, and multi-cloud and cloud on-ramp? Is the solution compatible with these use cases?
- Using SD-WANs, is operational overhead being reduced, allowing for true zero-day provisioning? How would it be able to decrease the time required for day-2 troubleshooting with granular analytics and AI integration?
- Does the SD-WAN solution provide the ability to extend to SD-Branch (LAN Edge) to provide full digital transformation at the edge rather than simply focusing on WAN?
- How can you ensure that your SD-WAN is protected above all? In the Cloud Edge, would it be able to provide the same security as the cutting-edge firewall, as well as the adaptability of the SASE?
Costs and returns of SD-WAN
Among the most important factors to consider is cost. For SD-WAN, calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO) may not be straightforward. The limitations of configuration options and the lack of support for specific use cases can overwhelm IT staff so it appears like a moderate solution. A security overlay can be expensive as well as resource intensive to build, in cases when you’re trying to build it yourself.
In order to achieve 100% ROI with a fully integrated SD-WAN solution, companies should plan for three years, and some clients may be able to achieve that in one year. SD-WAN must nonetheless deliver immediate ROI benefits, such as lowering infrastructure costs, switching from more expensive, static MPLS connections to more adaptable and affordable broadband, and combining SD-WAN, a wireless controller, routing, and built-in LTE network availability into one solution.
The following are other considerations:
In addition to all of the previously stated factors, here are a few more interesting ones to keep in mind when evaluating a SD-WAN solution:
The performance:
As the current business model is geared toward applications, clients need easy access to information and speed to execute their tasks. SD-WAN solutions should enable fast access to cloud-based applications without compromising performance for security. SD-WANs need to be deployed on a platform that is built specifically for speed.
Rapid deployment:
Connectivity, configurations, advanced routing functionality, and security will be effectively configurable and evident through an integrated solution and orchestration control center, as they are combined in one, complete and integrated system.
Simple extension of all edges:
In addition to connecting branch offices to cloud services and the core network, SD-WAN offers numerous other benefits. In addition, SD-WAN can be deployed on the WFH desktop and run locally in each major public cloud environment, with the ability to support huge data centers and scale to support them. The solution can enable quick and secure connections from anywhere to anywhere, as well as between all ends of the network: LAN to WAN (SD-Branch), operations, and data centers (SASE).
