Let’s Talk about SD-WAN for Critical Network Redundancy

Likewise, conventional approaches to WAN architecture can leave small and mid-sized enterprises in the lurch whenever major carriers experience problems. Technical issues SMB clients have no control over can hamstring their operations for days at a time.

This can cost companies millions of dollars. Even when the direct losses aren’t severe, there are knock-on effects. Your clients may believe that they cannot rely on you for reasons beyond your control. This threatens renewal rates and revenue.

Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WANs) can protect your business.

SD-WAN architecture delivers critical redundancy to keep your network going.

It is:

• • More cost-effective than conventional Wide Area Networks.

• • Less reliant on proprietary hardware devices to transmit data.

• • Faster and more versatile in delivery of SaaS functionalities.

• • More robust and scalable due to its rules-based automation.

In effect, SD-WAN defends you against “worst case scenarios” in data performance and security.

Let’s take a closer look.

What is SD-WAN and Why Is It Necessary?

Today’s networks are reaching the limits of their capacity. As more people and enterprises have gone online, they have introduced massive volumes and velocity of data. Application performance is falling.

The old-fashioned approach to this problem was to introduce improvements in physical architecture that would expand bandwidth and accelerate data transmission. This paradigm brought vital improvements to networking, not least the shift from copper wiring to fiber optic.

To evolve further, however, a shift in the underlying logic of network optimization is needed.

Traditional WAN implementation connected a campus or office to software applications that “lived” on high-powered servers in a distant location. Applying this worldview to the distributed software delivery model of today has led to unpredictability and data vulnerability.

SD-WAN changes the equation.

It allows you to manage multiple data types and connections from a single interface, optimizing and aggregating links so bandwidth is available on demand to decentralized applications. This eliminates the need to individually define bandwidth allocations to locations or applications.

The biggest benefit: Critical network redundancy. When key resources are managed by SD-WAN, they are protected from major performance degradation resulting from loss of a single hardware or software device.

SD-WAN Enhances Performance at All Levels

SD-WAN is a major part of the trend toward Software-Defined Networking (SDN), where AI facilitates goals set by network leaders. While SDN represents a broad architecture and philosophy, however, SD-WAN is a technology businesses can buy and implement now.

It strengthens network redundancy at all levels

Less Exposure to External Network Risks

Risk reduction is the core goal of any network redundancy plan. SD-WAN facilitates business continuity by doing away with the resource bottlenecks inherent in traditional network design. No matter what’s happening “out there,” your connections can remain safe and stable.

Less Hardware to Upgrade and Maintain

Implementing SD-WAN allows many enterprises to save millions on network equipment. It is no longer necessary to separately buy, maintain, and synthesize services from routers, optimizers, path controllers, firewalls, and more. With this simplicity comes far fewer points of fault.

Fast Adjustment of Network Resources

SD-WAN makes networks more granular and responsive to change. It abstracts away the tedious and error-prone network optimization tasks of the past. Strategic IT leaders can quickly adjust network behaviour on the highest plane and performance benefits flow across the system.

Before crisis strikes your network, implement SD-WAN for critical network redundancy.