Today, businesses are adopting SD-WAN to enhance their networking infrastructure. This helps them meet all the upcoming requirements in this competitive edge. SD-WAN has lessened the burden of installing tons of hardware to establish a complex networking infrastructure. It primarily depends on the software applications and tools. However, establishing SD-WAN infrastructure in enterprises is often a challenging task too. In this article, we are going to study the challenges and troubleshooting ideas in an SD-WAN architecture.
Challenges faced by enterprises to establish SD-WAN infrastructure
The primary issue faced by enterprises who have recently established SD-WAN architecture is that your team might not know about it properly. For them, it may be a different technique that is out of their hands. However, to solve this, you can organize some workshops, and seminars to provide the right information about SD-WAN technology. You should also conduct sessions with your IT team to provide your entire organization with knowledge of SD-WAN functioning.
The non-awareness of SD-WAN infrastructure is a problem that you can solve by taking your team into confidence. Let’s now head towards the challenges you will come across after SD-WAN deployment:
Connectivity issues with cloud devices
Cloud connectivity issues can hamper the efficiency and productivity of your enterprise. You might experience an inability to access the cloud applications. In addition, it may happen that the remote workstations are unable to connect with the central server.
Security challenges
Maintaining security is also a burning topic in SD-WAN deployment. However, a lot of innovative measures to prevent cybersecurity threats are made, still, there are loopholes that are yet to be filled.
Complex to manage
Managing and updating SD-WAN infrastructure can be difficult if you choose different SD-WAN tools from multiple vendors.
Local loop issues
SD-WAN is majorly a software-defined WAN. However, if those few physical connections between the user’s premises and the ISPs are poor, SD-WAN architecture may be in trouble. The reasons for poor connection can be damage to the adjoining cables, configuration errors, service outages, or capacity limitations.
Bandwidth management issues
In an SD-WAN architecture, the users may lack an excellent experience due to insufficient bandwidth. And there can be applications that can eat excessive bandwidth.
Vendor specific issues
Most of the time, SD-WAN tools are procured by 3rd party vendors. It might be a possibility that your SD-WAN vendor is unable to manage incorrect configurations with the existing infrastructure.
Troubleshooting methods for SD-WAN challenges
Now, having learned what challenges an SD-WAN architecture might face, we should head for the troubleshooting ideas that may help you when you are stuck:
Troubleshooting ideas for connectivity issues
You can try checking the connectivity status between your cloud workstation and the central server. For this, you can check the SD-WAN dashboard to see which system is connected and which is not. Also, you must check that your cloud devices are properly configured with SD-WAN infrastructure.
In addition, you can check the routing policies to give a proper direction to the traffic. At last, you should check your firewall settings.
Troubleshooting ideas for poor application performance
Quality of Service(QoS) settings must be proper. Improper QoS settings can lead to poor application performance in critical business applications. You must ensure that proper QoS policies must be set for prioritizing data traffic for critical applications. In addition, you can set monitoring tools to prevent performance bottlenecks.
Troubleshooting ideas for security concerns
Firstly, you should check the firewall settings and correct them if required to permit the movement of traffic. You can inspect the IDS logs for false positives that might be stopping the right traffic, considering it as a security threat.
Further, you must go for a VPN check so that the encryption protocols would work as they are meant to. Also, you can conduct security audits on a regular basis to ensure the proper functioning of security protocols.
Troubleshooting ideas for network performance issues
Latency and jitter in a network transmission can lead to an adverse impact on its quality. Therefore, you must set standard network performance metrics to measure latency and jitter in a network signal. You can search for possible congestion points by establishing a path analysis process.
Some other tips to enhance the performance of an SD-WAN infrastructure
Apart from resolving the challenges technically, you can use the following tips for establishing a secure and firm SD-WAN infrastructure:
Choose a reliable vendor
Your SD-WAN vendor must be a reliable, advanced, and innovative IT agency so that you can ask for vendor support whenever you need it. Further, you can thoroughly study the manual provided by your vendor to help out yourself on your own.
Provide required training to your staff
Handling SD-WAN tools is simple, but can be alien for your staff. Therefore, to prevent unnecessary confusion and chaos among your staff, you must conduct necessary training sessions, workshops, or seminars.
Conclusion
SD-WAN solutions are easy to deploy and manage. However, simple unawareness or little technical glitches can create a challenge to understanding the new technology. The first thing you can do right is to hire a suitable SD-WAN vendor like Infinity Labs. Such a digital partner at your back can assist you 24*7 with any technical and professional assistance. Further, if you pay attention, you can troubleshoot minor problems on your own. In this article, we have provided a handful of solutions to sort your problems in a go. We hope you had a good read!
FAQs:
- What can be the simplest way to troubleshoot challenges in SD-WAN architecture?
The simplest way to troubleshoot any challenge or technical trouble is to contact your SD-WAN vendors as soon as possible.
- What is reason behind the popularity of deployment of SD-WAN infrastructure in enterprises?
SD-WAN infrastructure provides an enterprise the benefits of scalability, agility, and the freedom of operations anytime, anywhere.
- Why can SD-WAN be deployed so easily?
The deployment of SD-WAN does not require setting up tons of hardware. It is a software based WAN architecture so mostly you will find it in a plug-and-play form.