Drive Digital Transformation with Application-Aware SD-WAN

With a centralised control pane, SD-WAN enables network administrators to control and manage any configuration or deployment easily. Rules and policies can be set and deployed across an entire network at once, enabling traffic to be steered securely and intelligently across the WAN and directly to trusted SaaS and IaaS providers. This enhances WAN performance, improves WAN availability and agility, simplifies WAN management, and reduces WAN costs.

Both SD-WAN and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) stem from the same central concept of controlling a network using software but have key differentiating factors.

SD-WAN is a cost-effective alternative to traditional networking technology such as MPLS and focuses on supporting geographically distributed locations to deliver a WAN that connects multiple sites with each other. In some ways, SD-WAN can be viewed as Software-Defined Networking (SDN) for the WAN.

SDN serves modern networking needs of managing Local Area Networks (LAN), and is inward focused on forming networks that can be quickly changed according to the organisations’ needs.

SD-WAN is a new approach to WAN that is better than MPLS in many ways. Compared to MPLS, SD-WAN may be more cost-effective and secure, while providing higher performance.

While MPLS handles failure scenarios with backup links, SD-WAN handles them with real-time traffic steering based on centralised policy. In addition, SD-WAN unifies the entire WAN backbone and delivers comprehensive analytics across the network globally. Given the disparate pieces of infrastructure and policies, these features are not possible with MPLS.

While SD-WAN can serve as a MPLS replacement, it is not an either-or choice. Both SD-WAN and MPLS can be adopted as a hybrid architecture to maximise the benefits of both technologies.

MPLS provides a direct, secure connection which remains desirable for organisations seeking a high degree of integrity and privacy for their mission-critical data, applications, and transactions.

SD-WAN, which offers granular traffic control, integrated security, and the ability to leverage multiple connection strategies, can still be run over an MPLS connection to provide greater protection and functionality than an MPLS solution alone.

Both SD-WAN and Virtual Private Network (VPN) are internet-based network solutions which enable enterprises to leverage on cost effective public Internet bandwidth.

In terms of network architecture, SD-WAN act as gateways to a fully connected network of SD-WAN appliances and allows for traffic to be restricted based on based on a user profile or traffic type, while VPN only implements point-to-point connectivity.

Both technologies also differ in transport media. SD-WAN enables optimized, secure traffic routing over a variety of WAN connections such as the internet, LTE, 4G, or MPLS to various clouds for a seamless user experience and greater flexibility. Meanwhile, VPNs are designed to send all traffic over a single, secure network link.