The Top Five Benefits for Businesses that Adopt SD-WAN Technology

Software-Defined Wide-Area-Networks work in real time to secure and direct your data through the most efficient network.

Previously, the only way to guarantee data was sent securely was using MPLS lines that are costly to run and don’t always offer the bandwidth needed, when large amounts of traffic are all trying to be sent and received at the same time. Any business that has multiple sites, especially those in the banking and retail or any other branched model, where low-latency and reliability are vital for the operation of the business, could benefit from an SD-WAN.

This technology has been the talk of the town over the past couple of years, however some Enterprise and Corporate businesses still seem to be hesitant in making the move. Given that many may not have refreshed their network architecture in up to 30 years, the recent explosion in bandwidth usage and security concerns are prompting this conversation to be had sooner, rather than later for five main reasons.

Simplification

Zero Touch Provisioning allow SD-WANs to be managed centrally, negating the need for a trained IT expert to remain at each branch to maintain their connection. The cloud-based nature of many of Industry’s popular tools,

(Microsoft Office 365, Skype, Salesforce etc) as well as the fact that SD-WANs have been designed around Cloud applications, ensure that the service is reliable and robust, without constant on-site management.

Security

Whilst encryption is still a key focus of SD-WAN security , the amount of “The top five benefits for businesses that adopt SD-WAN technology”management required to maintain an efficient, yet secure network is vastly

reduced. This is usually achieved with 256-bit end-to-end encryption, which is near-impossible to crack, though more robust encryption keys are out there. Therefore, even if data is being transferred over public networks (4G LTE, broadband etc) the data is still secure, making it unfeasible for the information to be hijacked between sites.

Segmentation, where banks of data or specific applications can be provisioned separately, will harden networks and prevent a small breech from accessing more precious data, like credit card transactions, or loading malicious applications throughout the network.

Flexibility and customisation

An SD-WAN solution is far easier to install than a traditional WAN, due to ZTP or ‘Zero Touch Provisioning’, which enables the hardware to be configured in seconds and prevents human error from limiting systems as all of the policies and provisions are managed from a central hub.

Their cloud-based architecture also makes it much easier to alter provisions or add services through a web portal, rather than having programmers use a terminal and write lines of code to manually make the changes. This is also useful for banning traffic to unauthorised or infected devices, limiting the efficacy of a breech.

Efficiency

The bandwidth and cost savings are probably two of the most pontificated benefits of SD-WAN utilisation however, cost savings shouldn’t be the main reason for any business to use SD-WAN. As MPLS lines will still be required, businesses may be able to reduce their requirements but may not be able to remove their necessity completely. Minimising bandwidth requirements are one of the key benefits of these products, as well as the ability to provide users with a Quality of Service experience fit for cloud applications, though other efficiencies

can be made through the increase in network speeds.

Future-proofing

Their plug and play nature make them easy to install and manage in new branches, whilst an SD-WAN’s ability to find the most efficient route for information also leaves room for future growth.

Given that the increase in resolution of our displays and devices, as well as the media we consume, show no signs of slowing, bandwidth usage is only to increase. By using network resources efficiently , an SD-WAN solution will ensure that the network can scale with this increase in the coming years.

In summary, SD-WAN allows businesses more elasticity in their network provisioning. By providing a plug-and-play service that routes traffic through the most efficient channel and maintaining a high level of security, businesses can reduce their reliance on costly MPLS lines and minimise the need for expensive

IT admins. The cloud-based infrastructure further strengthens the resiliency of a network and opens up the network for future growth, whilst optimising the network to support the cutting-edge technology that is currently in

Why Wavenet?

Your business needs to be able to flexibly secure and connect users to applications via the most cost-effective connectivity available.

Wavenet’s SD-WAN solutions augment and replace MPLS networks with secure broadband Internet connectivity, dramatically reducing WAN costs and complexity.

Benefit from unprecedented levels of visibility, control and security, whilst improving application and network performance.

At Wavenet, we future-proof technology. Protecting your business for today and tomorrow. Our SD-WAN solutions do just that, making your business brilliant.