Today, SD-WAN is becoming the dominant trend in business networking. Every business is looking to migrate to this WAN technology so that they can connect their remote offices to their data center as well as the cloud.
This technology is suitable for businesses that have different offices or branches in different locations — for instance, banks, hospitals, hotels, among others.
After reading this article, you will be able to determine if SD-WAN best suits your business.
What is SD-WAN?
It stands for Software-Defined Wide Area Network. It is used to simplify the connectivity of an enterprise to its branch offices, reduce the cost associated with traditional WAN, provide flexibility as well as provide centralized monitoring and control.
Types of SD-WAN
There are different kinds of SD-WAN deployment that are available in the market.
- Internet-based SD-WANs
- SD-WAN as a service
- Managed service SD-WANs.
To select the best one for your business will depend on various factors.
- The skillset of your team
- Performance of your business applications and global users
- Your interest in taking up the role in building and managing SD-WAN.
Benefits of SD-WAN Technology
To Streamline Your IT
SD-WAN is interesting because it makes it easier to manage and administer your network. Unlike the traditional WAN, it moves the process of managing the network to the cloud. In simple terms, it means that your business network does not always depend on the physical work but a merge of routing and paths network.
Therefore, your IT team can control and monitor an extensive network from a central interface. SD-WAN can offer communication with all endpoints within your business network without any external technology or protocols addition.
What to Consider Before Adopting SD-WAN Technology?
Although SD-WAN technology has some benefits, some companies are advancing cautiously. That is a good thing since your business will need to be ready to migrate entirely to SD-WAN technology. An expert like will guide you through this process.
The main thing is for you to understand the process of shifting from physical to virtualized technologies
Consider the impact of moving to a virtualized environment on your daily business process.
Today, we have different vendors that are offering this technology. Therefore, choose wisely.
Consider what you are likely to achieve from this technology. Also, consider the benefits that you will get.
You should ensure that you plan right, define a clear objective as well as an identified network architecture on the software layer.
Before you adopt SD-WAN technology, you should check the readiness of your business. This is because all responsibilities will be left on the business side to manage.
Before You Move To SD-WAN Remember This:
Migrating to this technology may seem easy, but it has some challenges
Verification, testing process, as well as validation, is required during the transition process.
Lack of single broadband, many contracts will need to be managed to ensure that there is full coverage.
SD-WAN makes use of different architecture from traditional WAN. Therefore, for it to support multiple user applications, deep integration is needed. To make the most out of SD-WAN technology, and your organization lacks in house resources and expertise that is required, you should consider Managed SD-WAN services.
