Software-defined wide area networking (SD WAN) is a modern networking technology that is growing and evolving at a rapid pace. It is driven by the growth of the cloud, the need for secure network access to data, applications and services, and the continual change in enterprise network architectures and requirements.
SD WAN uses software and virtualisation to simplify the management and optimisation of Wide Area Networks (WANs). With SD WAN, organisations can leverage any combination of transport services – including MPLS, LTE and broadband internet services – to securely connect users to applications.
According to Future Market Insights, the SD WAN market is predicted to increase at a 31.6% CAGR from 2022 to 2032, growing from $3.4 billion to $53.8 billion during the forecast period.
By implementing SD WAN, you can expect greater application performance, security, and reliability, while overcoming common WAN challenges.
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SD WAN Benefits for Your Business
1. Improved Application Performance
Not all network traffic is created equally. SD WAN can be set to prioritise business-critical traffic and real-time services like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), such as SIP Trunks or Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). This is achieved by allocating guaranteed bandwidth or intelligently assigning traffic to the most efficient paths to various apps and services.
In turn, SD WAN leads to fewer latency issues and packet loss, resulting in optimised application performance and end-user experience.
2. Lower Security Risk
Without the right protection, organisations are often exposed to significant security risks. SD WAN is highly secure and can be paired with a suite of advanced security features such as Secure Service edge (SSE) to form a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution. This provides broad security features, including encrypting and tunnelling traffic to your data, with the ability to layer additional firewalls, and cloud security options to create an integrated solution. With SD WAN, users, clouds, data centres and applications can be protected by one holistic security policy and set of tools.
SASE solution can also provide greatly improved URL filtering capabilities by decrypting SSL traffic. This allows for more comprehensive inspection of network traffic to identify potential threats and enforce organisational policies for an enhanced security posture.
3. Simplified WAN Management
Managed SD WAN simplifies WAN infrastructure and eases IT workloads by offloading non-critical business applications, automating monitoring tasks, and managing traffic through a central controller. This can help administrators easily configure and manage the network, and quickly troubleshoot issues as they arise. Additionally, SD WAN can provide real-time visibility into network performance, which can help identify and address issues before they impact users.
4. Enhanced Cloud Capabilities
Organisations are increasingly adopting cloud services, which provide low latency and high-performance connectivity. With SD WAN, you can have direct cloud access at a remote branch, eliminating backhauling traffic and routing all cloud and branch office traffic through a data centre.
Employees can directly access cloud applications regardless of location, without overloading the core network with additional traffic.
5. Cost Efficiency with SD WAN
Other cost savings can be derived from security hardware costs and engineering or technical support. SD WAN allows security capabilities to be centralised at one location, eliminating the need to deploy physical hardware such as firewalls across enterprise branches. SD WAN also reduces the time taken for engineers to provision traffic commands for a new location, since it can now be completed in minutes without an on-site visit.
6. Optimised User Experience
SD WAN leverages multiple network links to improve user experience and site reliability. The secure layer provided by SD WAN provides a combined, highly personalised, and diverse blend of network links to build a safety net and reduce the likelihood of network outages. It enables businesses to supercharge their networks, keeping them secure and resilient.
As a result, SD WAN also provides greater reliability, agility and flexibility for enterprises when adding new services, or scaling existing services, in their network.
Upgrade Your Business With SD WAN
SD WAN can positively influence business operations and turnover by keeping company services at peak levels. It allows internal teams to prioritise the core business, without being limited by network hardware.
With a seamless and responsive network, your business will benefit from enhanced capabilities that will help you achieve your goals.
Network connectivity, being the foundation of an intelligent and efficient work environment, will enable your branches and users to maintain a better connection for higher efficiency and excellent ROI.
Get in touch today to learn how Epsilon’s global SD WAN solutions can drive your business forward into a new era of digital transformation.
