Today’s enterprise networks have to cater to cloud applications, mobile workers, remote branches, collaboration, and intensive data applications without becoming complex or costly to operate. Reliable and flexible connectivity becomes even more critical as organizations grow and become more reliant on cloud services.
Traditional WANs can become more difficult to manage as network demands increase. Enterprises may need to manage connectivity, application prioritization, performance, and consistent policies across multiple locations.
- What Is SD-WAN?
- 1. Better Network Performance
- 2. Greater Network Resilience
- 3. More Efficient Use of Connectivity
- 4. Simplified Network Management
- 5. Stronger Visibility Into Network Activity
- 6. Improved Security Integration
- 7. Easier Scalability for Growing Organizations
- What Should Businesses Consider Before Adopting SD-WAN?
- The Bigger Picture
- Frequently Asked Questions
SD-WAN – software-defined wide area networking – is a solution that can help address these challenges. This technology uses centralized policies, intelligent traffic management, and multiple connectivity paths. Using SD-WAN, organizations can adjust network operations to reflect evolving business needs. For organizations evaluating SD-WAN solutions for businesses, understanding the benefits is a good starting point.
What Is SD-WAN?
Software-defined wide area networking refers to the use of software-based controls to manage traffic across geographically dispersed networks. Unlike relying on a single connectivity model or routing each traffic flow individually, the SD-WAN model can use multiple network connections and apply policies to manage traffic.
The technology takes application needs, the network environment, and business requirements into account when managing traffic.
The approach is increasingly relevant as enterprise infrastructure becomes more distributed across branch offices, remote environments, cloud platforms, and multiple networks.
SD-WAN Benefits at a Glance
| SD-WAN Benefit | How It Helps a Business |
| Improved Performance | Helps critical applications receive appropriate network resources |
| Greater Reliability | Supports connectivity continuity when a network path encounters problems |
| Better Bandwidth Utilization | Helps organizations use available connections more efficiently |
| Centralized Management | Simplifies policy management across distributed locations |
| Greater Network Visibility | Gives IT teams better insight into traffic and network performance |
| Security Integration | Helps align network traffic management with broader security policies |
| Easier Scalability | Makes it easier to adapt the network as locations and workloads grow |
1. Better Network Performance
One of the most significant advantages of SD-WAN is the intelligent management of application traffic.
Not every application has the same network needs. While a voice or video conference might require low latency and minimal packet loss, general software updates can often tolerate less favorable network conditions. Using SD-WAN, businesses can implement policies that prioritize critical application traffic and select the right network paths.
This can lead to better use of available bandwidth. For instance, critical applications such as collaboration software can receive priority over less critical traffic.
2. Greater Network Resilience
Network outages can cause disruptions to communications, cloud computing, customer service, and other operations. For businesses with many locations, even a short outage can disrupt operations.
SD-WAN can help increase resilience by allowing organizations to use different network paths. In the event of an outage or another problem with a network path, traffic can be shifted to other available paths.
This makes SD-WAN a flexible option for managing connectivity. Resilience is becoming especially important for organizations because of the growing use of cloud-hosted applications and services.
3. More Efficient Use of Connectivity
Companies usually have various connectivity options; however, traditional network architecture is not necessarily designed to make effective use of those options.
With SD-WAN, companies can take advantage of different types of links and route traffic based on the needs of the application, network, or organizational policies. This can be particularly helpful for organizations with a branch structure.
The IT department can analyze various options based on business needs. Non-sensitive data could use a lower-cost path, while mission-critical applications could be assigned a more suitable route.
4. Simplified Network Management
As a WAN grows, managing it can become difficult for administrators who need to configure individual devices across various geographical locations.
SD-WAN enables centralized management, which can help minimize repetitive configuration processes. The IT department can set policies centrally and then implement them across various network locations.
Centralized management can make it easier for administrators to change the network. They can update policies rather than manually configuring devices at every location.
According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, its guidelines include the centralization of configuration management, monitoring, visibility, and auditing for modern network protection infrastructure. Please visit the guideline on network visibility and hardening.
5. Stronger Visibility Into Network Activity
Network visibility can become more difficult as applications, users, branches, and cloud services become increasingly distributed.
Through SD-WAN, centralized visibility into network performance and traffic behavior becomes possible. Administrators can use the information obtained to troubleshoot performance problems, understand application usage, and investigate connectivity issues.
The benefits of having good visibility include a more efficient troubleshooting process, as IT teams can better understand what is happening across different network sites. Security activities may also be enhanced through investigations of traffic patterns.
Visibility is important because network problems may arise anywhere. For example, there may be issues within an application, connection, branch, or cloud service.
6. Improved Security Integration
In contemporary WANs, it is no longer possible to treat networking and security as entirely separate issues. Users may log on to applications from branches, homes, mobile devices, or cloud locations.
SD-WAN can include security policies within the network traffic management process. An organization can apply policies for managing traffic based on the application, user, destination, and other parameters.
SD-WAN should never be seen as a replacement for an enterprise’s overall security architecture. Instead, SD-WAN can become part of a broader strategy for secure networking.
A Zero Trust approach should also be considered by organizations. According to the Zero Trust Architecture Guidance, the Zero Trust approach moves away from implicit trust based on network location.
7. Easier Scalability for Growing Organizations
As organizations grow, their network needs evolve. There may be a need to connect newly opened branches, support a more distributed workforce, and move applications into the cloud.
Expanding a traditional WAN environment can be time-consuming and involve significant planning and manual configuration. An SD-WAN solution can make it possible to scale through software-based solutions that centralize policies and simplify management from a single point.
This can make it easier for organizations that plan to grow or open new branches. SD-WAN also allows organizations to evolve gradually by assessing locations, applications, connections, and security needs before implementing new services.
What Should Businesses Consider Before Adopting SD-WAN?
The benefits of SD-WAN depend on how well the architecture matches an organization’s actual requirements. Before adopting it, businesses should evaluate their current network environment and long-term objectives.
Key considerations include:
- Which applications demand maximum performance and availability?
- What connectivity solutions are available at each location?
- What is the required level of centralization for IT staff?
- What kinds of security policies should the network follow?
- What is the projected growth of the organization in the coming years?
A useful evaluation should go beyond technical specifications. Organizations should consider operational complexity, application requirements, security objectives, connectivity diversity, and scalability together.
The Bigger Picture
SD-WAN is much more than just a replacement for conventional WAN connectivity. Its greater utility lies in enabling a more software-centric approach to distributed network management.
With features such as policy management, application-level traffic management, multipath connectivity options, visibility, and security, SD-WAN can enable companies to build more dynamic networks.
In light of changing enterprise infrastructure, increased cloud usage, and remote working, there is a need for networking solutions that are flexible enough to avoid rigid architectures.
For organizations at the beginning of their evaluations, the critical question is whether a software-defined solution can deliver on all of these requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are SD-WAN Solutions used for?
SD-WAN solutions help connect branch office networks, data centers, cloud computing facilities, and other dispersed networks. These solutions can improve application performance, simplify network management, and make use of different connection types.
2. Is SD-WAN suitable for small and medium-sized businesses?
Absolutely. SD-WAN can assist small businesses with multiple branch offices or cloud requirements by making network operations easier to manage.
3. Does SD-WAN replace traditional WAN completely?
Not necessarily. SD-WAN changes how WAN connectivity is managed, and it can work with different connectivity technologies depending on business needs.
4. How does SD-WAN improve network security?
SD-WAN can be configured to incorporate traffic policies and security measures within a single framework. However, it should be used in conjunction with other security measures, such as identity management, access controls, monitoring, and segmentation.
